December 2, 2075
Tzzt!
TZZT!
Click!
VWOM!
"So, Julian Vane, the Architect himself, shows up to a parking lot gang summit, somehow manages to herd a bunch of fuckin Heywood street wolves into a line, and then hands you this," Viktor Vektor muttered, his surgical torch casting harsh shadows against the clinic walls.
He looked down at the masterpiece of gold and carbon fiber on his workbench. "And by 'this,' I mean a piece of technology that makes the standard corporate chrome look like a child's toy."
Teo's right shoulder was a mess of raw muscle and exposed neural endings. Because the Aegis was a full arm replacement, Vik had been forced to cut deeper, removing the damaged remains of the original socket to make room for the Verdant Core interface.
He was currently prepping the heavy-duty port that would bridge the gap between Teo's central nervous system and the "walking mainframe" sitting on the table.
Teo just nodded, his head lolling back against the chair's headrest. He was riding a high bandwidth wave of pain dampeners that made the world feel like it was made of cotton candy and static.
"Got it all, Doc," Teo slurred, his slitted eyes drifting toward the ceiling. "But you're missing the best part. Vane offered me gigs. Real ones. I peeked at the shard... the eddies in this guy's pocket are deeper than Yorinobu Arasaka's butthole. This trial run is just the appetizer, dude."
Suddenly, Teo let out a massive, dry BURP! "Holy shit, hermano. The fuck did you give me? I'm high as fuck."
Vik sighed, leaning in close to a cluster of nerve links. He didn't bother to elaborate. Suddenly, a jagged spark of blue electricity jumped from Teo's shoulder, snapping against Vik's surgical glove.
"Shit!" Vik hissed, jerking his hand back as the smell of ozone filled the air.
"Damn it, that's the third time. My tools are rated for high voltage, but your feedback loops are acting like they're possessed."
He shook out his hand and went back to work, his brow furrowing as he looked at the diagnostic monitors. "You know, Teo, you have the weirdest fucking signatures I've ever seen in a human body. I've worked on Solos with more chrome than a combat AV, and I still can't figure out why your system is fighting me."
Vik reached for the gold plated Aegis.
He lifted the heavy limb, the emerald circuitry pulsing in his hands, and aligned the massive shoulder joint with the new socket in Teo's body. He pushed, twisting the limb into the locking mechanism.
SHCLOCK! VMMMM!
The arm didn't just sit there, it surged like a power rod. The internal magnets engaged with a powerful thrum, and the arm began to calibrate itself, the gold plates shifting and sliding to match Teo's anatomy.
"Neat," Viktor muttered, despite himself.
Teo's eyes snapped open, his optics flaring a brilliant white and gold. "How do you figure that, Vik?" He gasped as a literal flood of raw data began streaming into his OS.
It felt like trying to drink from a firehose of information, positional sensors, temperature gauges, and a massive surge of RAM.
"It's like this, every time I try to bridge your neural base with my bio scanner to monitor your vitals, I get a kickback," Vik explained, watching the arm pulse with a steady, rhythmic emerald light as the upload finished.
"I have to brute force the connection. I shouldn't have to ask your bio code for permission to see if your heart is still beating."
Inside Teo's mind, Fucker let out a guilty, digital titter. 'Yeah... sorry, choom. Every time he tries to probe the OS, it jabs me like a needle. I'm just swatting him away. Tell him it's a security thing or something.'
Teo inwardly sighed, feeling the weight of the new limb solid, powerful, and terrifyingly fast. "It's... a security protocol I baked into my cyberdeck," Teo lied, his voice regaining its edge.
"Runner habits die hard."
Vik nodded, seemingly satisfied. He grabbed a final, high tensile fiber optic wire, lifted a matching plate on the inner lining of the Aegis, and clicked them together. The emerald lights stayed on, glowing with a fierce intensity.
Teo felt the connection snap into place. He lifted the arm, his fingers twitching with a speed that his brain could barely keep up with. He felt the micro pistons in his forearm hiss with potential energy.
Vik stepped back, wiping grease and blood onto a rag. "Alright, kid. It's synced. How does the 'Aegis' feel?"
Teo sat up, raising the gold plated limb. In his vision, a new tab called 'Aegis Arm' popped up under his medical record, stamped with the Verdant Hammer logo.
Neural Link: 100%
Hydraulic Pistons:
ACTIVE - (Label: Smasher Arm)
'Pistons are online. Careful shaking hands with Jackie, unless you want him to have a meat stump too.' Fucker said into his OS.
RAM Upgrade: +8 Units (16 RAM Total)
Monowire Tips: Retracted
"Physical breaching, too! Just point and fuckin' poke," Fucker purred.
Teo's eyes focused, and tiny, glowing green wires snaked out of his fingertips like hungry snakes before hissing back into the plating.
Vik whistled. "Might be one of the finest arms I have ever installed, Teo." He puffed his cigarette.
Teo cracked his neck just as Vik jammed him with a stim. The high vanished instantly, replaced by the dull, throbbing ache of his shoulder being scraped away, lesser than the original agony, but still real.
Teo winced, taking the cigarette Vik offered. "How much I owe you, Vik?"
"1,500 eddies. For the arm and the fix to your subdermal weave. Had to patch some holes in your light weave."
"No family discount, choom?" Teo asked.
Vik laughed. "That is the discount. And we ain't family, you little shit." He jokingly slapped Teo's shoulder. Teo sighed, transferring the eddies. His balance dropped from 15,600 down to 14,100.
"Take it slow," Vik suggested, turning on a boxing match. "Maybe go to a range. Get your shot back along."
Teo said his goodbyes, stopped by Misty's to show off the gold and green chrome, and swung his leg over his bike. He tore through the city, the sun high and the sprawl passing in a blur of gang shootouts and NCPD AVs tearing them apart like wet paper.
He pulled up to a small, gritty gun range near Lizzie's Club. Inside, it smelled of cordite and cheap bourbon. Teo walked up to the attendant at the back, a massive silver haired man with two industrial grade cyber arms and tiny reading glasses.
Teo coughed, a puff of smoke leaving his lip. The man looked up. "What can I do for you, kid? Need some iron?"
"Nah, hermano. Just looking to shoot. Got my own power pistol." Teo slid Bon Bon onto the counter.
The man swiped the gun up, his silver fingers turning it over with an expert touch. He slid the slider back, squinting. A confused, almost worried expression crossed his face.
"What the fuck is this?" he asked. "The barrel is extended, the weight is all wrong... this is a fucking hand cannon."
"I call it Bon Bon," Teo said, a glint in his eye and a creepy smile forming on his face, as he shifted his new arm that held the counter.
"I've... modified it. Custom power pistol internals with a magnetic acceleration rail."
The man's eyes widened. "Kid, you didn't 'modify' a pistol. You built a tiny railgun. I can't let you fire this thing here. You'll blow your own arm off and probably put a hole through the back wall. Not to mention this shit might even be illegal."
Teo leaned in, tapping his gold plated forearm against the counter. The sound was solid, heavy. "I'm not using a meat arm ya old fart. I've got hydraulic pistons in this thing specifically to handle the kick. Give me a slot at the back, away from the tourists. If I break anything, I'll pay for it. And why the fuck would you care if it's legal or not?"
The man grunted, looking from the Aegis to the gun. "True... But if your arm ends up in the rafters, I'm keeping the gun."
"Alright! New you would come around old man!" Teo said as the man got up. His for was even bigger, more top heavy though.
He led Teo to a lane at the far end of the range. "Pay after it's charged per 10 minutes. 50 eddies for the initial fee, then 20$ every 10 minutes you spend extra." he huffed out.
Teo nodded and paid the man the first 50.
Teo took his stance in the booth, gripping Bon Bon with the Aegis. The arm felt like an anchor perfectly still, perfectly steady. The gun whirled, The green LEDs starting to glow, as he charged the thing at full blast.
He squeezed the trigger.
VROOOM! POWWW!
In the past, the recoil of Bon Bon would have sent Teo's shoulder back six inches and left his wrist screaming. Now? The Aegis hissed as the micro pistons absorbed the shock instantly. The arm barely moved.
Teo blinked, seeing a massive, scorched hole right in the center of the target.
He grinned. He didn't just have his shot back, he was better. He fired again and again, faster each time, until he was out. The gold plates on the arm shifted to vent the heat, but his grip never faltered.
Bon Bon was finally home.
A/N: Gigs next chapter.