1:30pm, 20th of July 2079, Little China, Watson.
It's been 2 weeks since I was first brought into the ripperdoc's office, with constant heart rate machines and close monitro I've finally been fully released despite their hesitation. Therefore today, I've finally arrived home again in Little China. I've been sat on the couch for about half an hour, reading my book and taking a large inhale of smoke from my vape but the echos of my last job still linger, both physically and mentally.
For a start, Upon entering the shower this morning, I noticed a large rooting eletrical scar that had appeared against my back's otherwise clear skin, running from the base of my spine down the back of my waist and up the helm of my shoulders, apearing like a scar people usually get from lightning.
Secondly, I lost the job. The car was seemingly stolen or dismantled during my time at the ripperdoc's and I haven't seen the beaten man I recieved the job from since.
Lastly, mild flashbacks consisting of that fateful night play through my mind like a parasite in search of it's next fruitful meal, causing me to have nightmares and poorer sleep as of recent.
Otherwise from these lingering results, I am mostly peaceful in my home; admittedly the break was nice but thankfully short lived as my Eddies seem to be down to only 653.
A few moments of reading later, I recieve an unexpected call from Kendrick.
"Hey Kendrick. Need somethin'?" I ask neutrally with smoke leaving my mouth, addressing him blankly before he speaks.
"So… you were right." He states vaguely after a loud, miserable sigh, sounding defeated and maybe even a little humiliated.
"About?" I ask with a curious raised eyebrow of confusion from his Vague statement; his sudden solemn tone evident as he speaks again.
"Arasaka… they- they fired me. They stripped me of my cyberware and kicked me to the curb. Essentially, I thought about what you told me and began questioning them and they said I was "asking too many questions" and just… got rid of me. Lost my Scholarship AND my job. They seized my bank and told me to never come back." He answers with lingering embarassment in his voice whilst ge demonstrates that my prediction was actually true, that he was gonna get fired.
"Oh so it finally happened eh? Told you those corpo bastards don't care. It was just a matter of time." I respond with an amused chuckle, essentually spitting back in his face with an insensitve "I told you so", sipping my wine glass, exhaling more smoke and closing my book to give him my full attention.
"Yeah, I get it. No need to rub salt in the wound. Listen I- I need help." He replies apprehensively and reluctantly, not wanting to have to ask a merc such as me.
"With what? Getting you into Merc jobs? You can just go to Militech or Biotechnica or wherever'll take you i'm sure. Hell you got a scholarship from Arasaka, that's gotta mean something." I ask with amused confusion, snickering and not seeing what he'd need me for, esecially for a dick sucking, submissive worker such as himself.
"Yeah. A scholarship they took away from me and an internship I got fired from. I know you don't know the Corpo business but I promise you,that doesn't look good on you or your personal record." He argues back with conviction and irritation. It made sense after all; he lost a Scholarship to the most prestigious academy in the world. That can't look good.
"You're really that committed to this huh..? Fine. Just know what your getting into. Swing by my apartment choom, I'll talk to you when you arrive." I answer with a more of a shocked tone before hanging up and a few moments later, hearing a knock with a familiar female voice calling out.
"Chelsea, wanna talk to you!" I hear calling out to me; muffled behind my front door; with no windows looking out on who the woman was.
Upon walking and opening the front door, with a new Lexington pistol in hand from the Cabinet near the front door, I see Kiera in a white hoodie and sweatpants, holding a present.
"Hey Chels. For you." She offers the present with a huge smile, pushing her hands forward in insistence. "C'mon! Open it!" She says in excited encouragement, desperate for me to grasp the small box.
"O-kay..?" I mutter, putting my gun back on the cabinet to my right and opening the box. Inside is a completely new Tier 2 Cyberdeck with more RAM, better performance and more compact frame.
"Huh. Damn, thanks Kiera. How'd you figure I needed a new one?" I question, raising an eyebrow as I take it out the bix and Face her again, my expression looking genuinely pleasantly surprised by her gift.
"I knew your deck was shit, I mean you mentioned it yourself, and I wanted to apologise for causing trouble by offering it to you. Picked it off in a Nightclub I hit the other day, completely new and fresh out the box." She smiles a bit wider with an apologetic, coy smile; with also a small reflection of hope that I'll forgive her.
"Well thanks. I'll be sure to get it implanted tonight." I respond before scanning the piece of Cyberware for viruses or Malware; it's clean of course, but better to be safe than sorry in NC. Just a fresh, clean Cyberdeck.
"How come you gave it to me? I was pretty harsh to you a couple weeks back." I ask curiously, pocketing the new piece of hardware and facing her again, puffing my vape.
"Well we've always been friends and like I said, I wanted to apologise for being shitty with Vincent so I got you a new one. You've helped me out all the time when I needed you so I'd thought it an apropriate time to help you! To show you i'm still your friend, ya know?" She answers, saying the same thing she said again but also adding on a hint of care.
"…I suppose. Well thanks again. Is that all you needed or..?" I ask, patiently awaiting her next words whilst she stands under the low roof in the outside apartment hallway.
"Well now that you mention it, there is a teeny tiny thing I could use your help with... I'll cut to the chase; I need a Netrunner. I didn't wanna ask the other useless assholes around here and you know what the VDBs are like so I came to you. I'll split the pay with you, I just need you to hack into a database for me." I notice a hopeful and pleading tone from her as if she has no other options because reality says she probably doesn't.
"So thaaat's why your here. Well, I'm feeling generous today so sure. I haven't had a job for a while because I nearly fried my brain a couple weeks back." I say, agreeing to the request and accidentally exposing that I almost died a couple weeks ago.
"Holy shit, what? What the hell happened-? How? You're like… hell you're YOU." She widens her eyes in shock that I could even be wounded, let alone nearly killed, concern lingering in her voice.
"Calm down. I had a job and was dealing with Maelstrom and I accidentally overclocked my Cyberdeck too much. Nothing crazy." I downplay my nearly fatal flaw, shrugging it off and not wanting to expose any more appearing layers of vulnerability.
"Bullshit It's nothing crazy; you overclocked a TIER 1 CYBERDECK. You lost your fucking mind or you 'borg all that up TOO?" She knocks on my head to prove a point, causing me to swat away her hand and scowl at her rather insulting mannerism.
"Obviously not. I was just cornered and had no choice, I had it under control." I reply nonchalantly, blowing smoke in her face as she coughs and crosses her arms like a Tsundere anime Character.
"You had it handled? Course you did Choom, that's why you nearly killed yourself being a reckless moron; I CARE about you ya know. Gonna get yourself fuckin' killed someday, you know that?" She asks in annoyance, blushing ever so slightly.
"Don't get all sappy on me now K. If you wanna be a Merc then you gotta have the stones to be one." I sigh, shaking my head and puffing my vape again to which she snatches out of my hand to draw my attention.
"I do have the stones! I killed some corpo prick for undercharging me a couple weeks ago, I put a sandy user down! But I don't think you see the point i'm making Chel-" She continues to argue disapprovingly as she's cut off by a call.
"Ugh… shit. 2 parasecs." She mutters, her eyes turning red, answering the call and leaning against the railing, following her and mimicing her behaviour whilst she speaks to someone over her OS.
"Hey Mark… yeah… Yeah I know… listen, don't worry, okay..? What do you not have faith in me or..? Right, so then why don't you believe me when I say I have it handled..? Yeah, I know; I'm not a fuckin' idiot okay? I just- ugh… Chelsea's helping me… Okay, thank you. Goodbye." She sounds even more agitated by her brother's call.
"What's he want?" I question with judgemental curiosity as she pushes herself off the railing again.
"He's afraid that the job that we're doing is dangerous." She answers in a monotone, neutral voice; sounding more tired of him than anything.
"Is it?" I ask with a straight look, waiting for her elaboration on what it is exactly she wants us to do.
"Well, kinda..? But what Merc job ain't?" She shrugs in dismissal whilst I raise an eyebrow, doubtful now if this job is at all doable.
"Sure he ain't mean more dangerous than usual? I mean he's a decent Merc himself is he not?" I respond, continuing to question her flawed judgement, cracking past her guns ho personality.
"I dunno and I don't really care. Wish he'd just get wasted in Lizzie's bar and go watch the XBDs like he usually does instead of bothering ME all the time." She irritatedly comments, rolling her eyes.
"It's 10:26 in the morning." I snicker quietly, rolling my eyes as she continues to rant about her brother.
"You should be more greatful for him you know. Having someone truly care for 'n all that. Having family is a luxury here. Never know when you can lose 'em." I speak from experience, knowing it's a case of tough love.
"I know- I just…. I know. It's just hard to when he pisses me off all the time." She replies with a sigh, rubbing her temples and sighing in defeat.
"I wish I had someone like that. Someone I could love I mean." I add with my own sigh, looking away as she looks to me with an amused smirk.
"And you tell me I'M bein' sappy." Kiera chuckles beside me in reference to my previous comment.