In the Afterlife, Allen's crew finished planning the Biotechnica job, stood up, and walked outside. Unlike yesterday, each of them carried a much stronger sense of power.
The gig was to steal information from Biotechnica. It sounded simple, risky, but not impossible for Maine and his crew. While they weren't high-caliber mercs, the fact that they could be in the Afterlife, where you needed a certain reputation just to be allowed to drink, was already an achievement. Now, with the addition of Allen, it seemed even easier, but he didn't let his guard down. This was the real world, and anything could change from what he thought he knew, so he brought everyone along for the gig.
At the front walked Allen, who had chosen a gray trench coat. Beside him was Rebecca, with her green-and-pink shotgun and pistols ready for a fight, while a small drone flew at her side.
Behind them was Pilar. He now had his arms extended and the cyclops-style visor he was supposed to have, freshly installed, of course.
Dorio followed behind Pilar with an assault rifle hanging from her shoulder, and she looked more robust. She had replaced her subdermal armor implants with higher-quality ones.
Sasha had no visible changes, but with the money, she had upgraded her cyberdeck to Tier 4. With that, she should now be at the level of a high-level Netrunner.
Maine, the man, was smiling. His arms had undergone some slight changes; he had replaced his Projectile Launch Systems with Tier 3 Gorilla Arms, making him much more powerful.
This was the current crew, the Edgerunners with Allen as their new leader.
Unlike last time, this team didn't go unnoticed by anyone. Even in the most dangerous part of the Afterlife, known as Hades, the woman who owned the place, Rogue Amendiares, watched them in silence.
While she wouldn't pay much attention to rookies, the young albino among them had caught her attention. This was because of his words, that speech in the parking lot that had reached her ears, and more than that, the silver arm that, although it seemed more sophisticated than Johnny Silverhand's, vaguely reminded her of him.
What did that have to do with anything? Well, she had once been Johnny Silverhand's partner and lover during his years of rebellion against the corporations.
"Well, I chose a promising team for this job, but it seems I found a gold mine. Don't you agree, Ms. Rogue?" said a masked man beside Rogue with a smile.
"..." Rogue silently watched Allen leave.
She was one of the most famous and respected fixers in Night City.
She was known in the underworld as the Queen of the Afterlife, and by 2077, she had come to be known as the Queen of the Fixers. Unfortunately for Maine, even at their prime, his crew had only reached a mid-to-high level, nowhere near becoming legends or powerful enough to receive missions directly from Rogue. Thus, even though Maine frequented the Afterlife, he never interacted with her.
....
The crew left the Afterlife and got into two vehicles. Maine's van took everyone except Rebecca, Sasha, and Allen. The three of them got into Delamain's luxury taxi.
"Good day, Mr. Walker. It is a pleasure to see you once again."
"Hello, Delamain. I'm glad to know your priority is still good service and not conquering the world."
Delamain observed Allen before replying, "The human world is a spiral of self-destruction. It is not worth ruling."
Allen laughed. "I see. Take us to Biotechnica."
Delamain didn't understand the joke and simply drove, which made Rebecca, sitting on Allen's lap, and Sasha beside him laugh.
PercyJ – Haha, the reason Skynet wouldn't take over the world is that it considers it a piece of shit!
Cap – Language...
What is Central City?
There was a disturbing difference between Watson and Central City.
On one hand, Watson was filled with streets somewhere between modern Tokyo and a failed attempt at Back to the Future, filled with garbage and miserable people in the streets and alleys sharing space with Tiger Claws gang members, mercs coming and going without knowing whether today would be their last day, Scavs pretending not to be Scavs, corrupt NCPD officers, prostitutes out in broad daylight, thieves, and among all of them, ordinary people struggling to survive.
All of that was left behind...
Delamain's vehicle, followed by Maine's van, crossed a bridge, and immediately the streets became cleaner.
There were massive buildings, people with vehicles worth so much that an ordinary person could never earn that much in their entire lifetime, corpos, Arasaka and Militech military vehicles, robots, and flying vehicles.
Central City wasn't ruled by gangs. It was the heart of Night City, where the power of the government and the corporations came together.
It was a true futuristic city.
Allen looked out the window and felt irritated. The contrast with Watson was so great that it felt like an insult.
"Boss, was it really necessary... you know, bringing everyone?" Sasha asked timidly. She wasn't a shy girl, but there wasn't much she could do about having a handsome and powerful boss. She wasn't made of stone.
"Everyone?" Allen smiled.
The gig was only to steal information from Biotechnica. Unlike Arasaka and Militech, the corporation didn't have conventional security. They relied on robots instead, which made it possible to get inside by hacking and leave without being detected.
For that, Maine was going to place a Jammer, a device that interfered with communications. During that time, Sasha could get inside and steal the information. That's how it happened in canon, but everything went wrong, and Sasha died.
"Two or three people would indeed've been more than enough, but we're talking about Biotechnica. We can't underestimate them. Even if they don't do anything, it wouldn't hurt to have Dorio and Pilar as extra support, right?"
Sasha blushed when she was looked at by Allen and lowered her head before nodding. Rebecca teased her and winked.
Sasha was perplexed. Did he really not mind if she got closer to Allen?
...
When they arrived at the location, Allen got out with the girls after saying goodbye to Delamain.
"Biotechnica."
The building, straight out of a futuristic movie, towered arrogantly before them, as if mocking ordinary people.
"Maine, you know what to do," Allen said.
"Tsk, how boring," Pilar said while lounging in the passenger seat of the van. He didn't even get out of the vehicle. "Hey, Lil Bro, this is humiliating. If we brought this many people, we should've stormed the place head-on!"
"Rebecca..."
Rebecca punched her fists together in Pilar's direction, and he quickly got out of the vehicle.
"That's cruel!" Pilar said, grabbing his head.
Allen ignored Pilar and looked at Dorio. She nodded and took a box down from the van. It contained explosive charges designed to blow open the doors in case of a security lockdown.
Sasha felt uncomfortable. Since Allen was a combat-focused Netrunner, she would be handling the hacking. In that case, bringing explosive charges seemed to suggest that Allen didn't trust her abilities.
"Don't think about it too much," Rebecca said with a smile to Sasha. "This guy is just paranoid!~"
"Hey..." Allen placed his hand on Rebecca's head.
"It was just a joke, honey."
Sasha laughed.
Once everyone was ready, they moved out. Maine went to place the interference device, and the assault began.
Rebecca, Allen, and Sasha reached the door.
There was a camera along the way, but Allen disabled it. Sasha connected to the terminal and opened the door. Once inside, Allen took care of the cameras while Rebecca dealt with the drones.
"Isn't this too easy?" Rebecca asked.
"You know the device is doing the magic, and Biotechnica, by not trusting regular employees, practically handed us the keys to their building," Allen said with a smile.
"Idiots," Rebecca mocked.
Floor by floor, they passed cameras, surveillance drones, and doors until they reached the location.
"Done!" Sasha said.
The last door opened, revealing the interior.
An office, a desk, and a terminal.
Bingo. Everyone knew that the fact that it was Biotechnica and not Arasaka or Militech had made the job easy.
Sasha quickly connected with a scanner headset while Allen and Rebecca exchanged glances.
It was time!
A few minutes passed, and Sasha began downloading the information. However, once inside the system, Sasha found confidential documents, including information about a medicine.
Securicine Painkiller... Side effects... Gradual Neurodegeneration...
Sasha froze. She recognized the medicine. It was the one her mother had used in the past. No one knew why; her health had simply deteriorated until she died.
"Hey, Allen, time's running out," Maine said over the call.
"Don't worry."
Allen looked at Sasha, who was in a state of shock, and understood that she had already discovered the truth about her mother.
At that exact moment, the data finished downloading. "Mission accomplished." However, she didn't move.
"Boss, get out!" Sasha said as she hurried to upload all the Securicine information to Channel N54.
"Sasha..." Allen didn't stop her. In the original story, this was where the first member of the gang died, and he wasn't going to let that happen. "Hurry!"
Sasha froze and looked at Allen.
"Rebecca."
Rebecca smiled, and as soon as the first Biotechnica security robot appeared, she blew it to pieces. Allen pulled out Chacal and blew the head off another.
"Dorio, Pilar, break through door after door!"
Sasha watched this, and her eyes filled with tears. She wasn't afraid of dying. If she could die and deal Biotechnica a blow in the balls with her death, she'd be happy, but risking everyone's lives...
"Just do it, Sasha. We're in this together," Allen said with a smile.
Sasha continued uploading the information while more robots appeared in the hallway. They were seemingly endless, but there was no way they could withstand the gunfire from Chacal and Guts.
Boom
The explosion opened the main door, but it was only a distraction. Allen would take Sasha and Rebecca and jump through the window.
Allen's optics allowed him to aim with such precision that his perception seemed to slow down time. It was different from David's Sandevistan, but the effect was similar.
Allen watched the shots, the destruction, the gunfire, the mechanical massacre, and not a single human casualty. These mediocre robots were no opponents.
Rebecca laughed, approached, and fired point-blank at a robot, causing it to explode.
Allen advanced, grabbed a robot, and violently slammed it against the wall. Then he kicked another, splitting it in half.
They were stronger, but the flow of machines was endless. Biotechnica's building was enormous, with many floors both above and below ground. The longer they stayed, the more robots would arrive, but the battle had a good outcome.
"I did it!" Sasha shouted.
Allen grabbed Rebecca and Sasha before jumping through the window.
Allen landed, absorbing the impact, and ran toward the van, where everyone was already waiting.
"We're leaving!"
....
Inside the vehicle, everyone was silent until Maine spoke.
"Sasha, what the hell was that?!"
It was lucky the entire team had come, or someone could have died.
"I..." Sasha didn't know what to say. It had been a stupid decision that had turned a routine mission into a suicide mission.
"Calm down, Maine. Remember that I authorized it. Although she should explain her reason, shouldn't you, Sasha?" Allen said, looking at Sasha through the rearview mirror.
"Yes... my mother."
Sasha revealed the truth, and when she did, everyone fell silent. They understood her actions and understood that she had been willing to die.
"I'm sorry, but this can't bring down Biotechnica," Dorio said.
Sasha's heart tightened. She knew a scandal wouldn't bring down Biotechnica. In fact, in canon, it didn't. Despite her actions and the fact that she had been willing to sacrifice her life, Biotechnica continued operating as if nothing had happened in 2075 and 2077.
In the end, corporations wouldn't fall because of something so insignificant.
"No... it did matter," Allen said with a smile. "Sasha, thanks to you, thousands of people will stop taking Securicine... so yes, you did accomplish something."
Sasha clenched her jaw and cried. Everyone in the crew felt it. Today, the first tragedy of Edgerunners had been prevented.
....
Allen returned to his apartment after saying goodbye to everyone, with Rebecca accompanying him. The two of them took a shower and went to bed.
"Mission accomplished, I guess..." Allen said with a half-smile as Rebecca lay down beside him.
"For now... now should I find that bitch Kiwi and blow her head off?" Rebecca growled, making Allen laugh.
Allen looked at the calendar. Nov 2072.
Between 2073 and 2074, Kiwi should appear. While it was a fact that the things she did hadn't happened yet, Rebecca wanted revenge.
The next one after Kiwi would be Lucyna Kushinada.
Around 2075, she met Kiwi, who saw her enormous potential with technology. Kiwi decided to become her mentor, helped her hone her skills, and formally introduced her to Maine so she could join his group of mercenaries (Edgerunners).
Without Kiwi, it was most likely that Allen would become Lucy's mentor.
'I'm sorry, David.'
[Mentor! You don't feel sorry at all!]
Allen coughed.
Now that everything was fine in this era, all that remained was to wait...
....
2073
Allen remained in this world. Time no longer mattered, or rather, he no longer perceived time the way others did.
This year, Allen's crew climbed in reputation and went from being average to elite mercs. Most of everyone's implants reached Tier 4, and they had become a well-established team.
Allen continued making deals with Brick until they became official allies, causing the Valentinos and 6th Street to back down from their bounties on them.
2074
This year was more of the same, with the novelty that Rebecca had opened a clinic and become a Ripperdoc. It was obvious that this would happen.
As for Allen, even though he was still the crew's leader, he would leave for a few days from time to time to return to his world, but he always came back.
Allen's reputation climbed close to the very top over those two years.
At the beginning of this year, they found Kiwi, and Rebecca killed her. There was no drama, just another death in Night City.
At the end of December...
...
Allen was sitting on a bench near Megabuilding 10, resting, when he felt someone trying to hack him.
He smiled and scanned with his two Kiroshi optics. At that moment, he located a girl, a beauty with white hair infused with a rainbow hue.
"Lucy..." Allen smiled.
The girl opened her eyes when she realized she'd been discovered. Normally, she would've escaped, but something about those eyes left her paralyzed.