As much as I'd have preferred reassuring my family as quickly as possible, I was still on the clock even as we drove up to Eurodyne's North Oaks mansion. Which meant a report for Rogue came first.
[I see.]
The old woman's expression showed nothing as she processed my rapid fire report, but I could guess at just how ridiculous she found the series of events anyways.
Hell, I'm pretty sure I was still processing the entire clusterfuck myself.
A few silent seconds passed before she spoke up again.
[I'll start dealing with the Militech situation. And I'll want an in person sitrep tomorrow, around 6 PM sound good?]
[We will be there.] I assured 'If I survive that long.'
[Good. Rogue out.]
"The old bitch done chewing you out yet?" Eurodyne spoke up with a wry expression as the car slowed.
"No actually." I said and mentally flicked Delamain my thanks before getting out and waiting for the others.
"But that's none of your biz." I went on, flashing him with an annoyed look "We got you back home in one piece, and that means I no longer have to spend a second in your presence."
He tried to hide a wince but failed "Yeah... I guess I should have expected that."
"Should expect worse you prick." Kimigawa mutters so lowly only I catch it.
"Still though, thanks." Eurodyne shifts on his feet, looking all kinds of awkward about it "You probably saved my ass ten times over back there, maybe even before that." He says, looking away and huffing cynically "For what its worth, I owe you one."
'Not fucking much.' Is my immediate impulse, but all I say instead is "Correct."
He huffs a slightly more relaxed laugh and nods before hobbling over through his gate and then out of our sight.
Satisfied, I looked down at my remaining teammate "You good?"
She blinks and then instantly deflates "No, but I'll cope." Her face twitches as she looks back at the mansion entrance "Shame I couldn't sock him in the face."
I let out a short chuckle at that "As much as I'd like to blame him for everything, we both know his only real fuckup is talking shit to Smasher."
"Almost makes me think the gonk is suicidal." She mutters.
And the look I give her at that makes her face twist into anger, and then into a complicated mix of 'I get it' and good old frustration.
We stand around in relative silence for a few minutes before my war machine finally reaches us.
"Need a ride?" I ask the pensive merc.
She blinks, drawn from her distant stare "Nah. I think I'll go for a walk. Clear my head."
"If you're sure." I hum, subtly scanning her to make sure I didn't miss any injury and finding nothing "See you tomorrow then."
She waves weakly and I get in my car.
---
I barely so much as managed to step into my home's waiting room before a vibrating missile smashed into my center mass, managing to push me back a step despite the massive weight difference.
"Eeeee!" The overexcited creature lacked even the basics of communication as it latched onto me with starts in its eyes.
Feeling just a mite exasperated, I sighed and looked over beyond to find my mother standing near the staircase, arms folded and one foot tapping the floor.
[Lethal danger detected.] Logos buzzes in a suspiciously flat tone.
'Yes, Logos. I thank you for that riveting assessment.' I drawl back mentally and focus on my current assailant, returning the hug with one hand and poking her face with the other "You alright there?"
"-eeee!" Rebecca finally stops vibrating as I flick her nose and blinks before smiling widely "Hey there Mikey."
"Hey there yourself." I return warmly "You plan on letting go anytime soon?"
"Nope!~" She doesn't miss a beat.
"Fair enough." I chuckle and look away and back to my mother.
I go to speak but she just shakes her head and turns around "Come upstairs."
Knowing that to do anything else was death all I could do was follow, Rebecca still clinging to me with a knowing, and rather teasing, glint in her eyes.
"Sit." Mom said as we entered the living/dining room, and I sat my ass down on the couch while she took her favorite armchair.
Rebecca looked momentarily tempted to remain in my lap, but one glance at mom had her neatly sat to my side instead.
"One entire night." Mom speaks up after half a minute of silence "And not a single message, or a call..." She takes a sip of her near empty wine glass "And when you did send one, all I got was a 'Safe-ish, will talk later.'? Do you have any idea how worried I was?"
Now that's just being dramatic "I was working-"
"Working is it?" Her eyes narrow, shutting me up instantly "How is facing off against the most notorious murderer in the world for no good reason 'working'?"
'Of fucking course all of that was televised' I feel a sudden fatigue down to my metal bones "The VIP was a fucking gonk-"
"And I'm still thinking about just killing the bastard when I get the chance." She cuts me off again "But that doesn't explain why you thought it was acceptable to stand between him and that monster."
"I gave my word." I practically grind out as my irritation spikes "And that is that."
She frowns.
"Also." My voice rises as I see her wanting to criticize me again "Even if the situation wasn't tense enough that I couldn't afford any distractions. I was flying with a fucking Arasaka exec, and I'm nowhere near stupid enough to send out calls in an emergency like that."
Jammed the non-critical communications myself, as a matter of fact.
Her frown deepens and for a moment I expect her to start lecturing, but then she lets out a deep sigh and reaches over the coffee table between us, taking my still somewhat bloodied hand in her own "I just wanted to be sure you were safe."
Man, I felt like a gonk now.
"Yeah..." I exhale "I get it. I'm sorry. This entire shitshow was beyond exhausting."
"Then you should get some rest." She says "You can tell us all about it tomorrow."
"A sixteen hour nap sounds amazing right about now." I chuckle in agreement.
-
I step out of the shower, now fully cleaned and half as metal looking as usual "Sorry I couldn't bring you 'all of the things' like I promised." I said a bit wryly "The building we were staying in kinda blew up at the end there."
"You actually worried over that?" Rebecca looks at me like I'm the most adorable thing in the room.
"Well I did promise-" I begin.
Before I could get even that much out, she was in my face.
"You fought Smasher and survived." She says with a familiar glint in her eyes, though I did not miss the slight tightening around them either.
"'Fought' is being really generous here." I snort and then give her a teasing look "Why? You looking for a play by play?"
She smirks back, and gets real handsy "I think I've got a better idea."
The nap could wait.
-----
My 'prognosis' turned almost prophetic as I woke up just before noon, still feeling fatigued in ways I really shouldn't be able to feel, but otherwise mostly refreshed.
I was naturally immediately dragged off to a downright decadent lunch mom had prepared over the morning, and we managed an actual discussion instead of the high strung mess that happened yesterday.
Admittedly, I almost got snappy again after watching the news report saying the whole thing was a fucking maintenance malfunction but it was almost to be expected at this point. The levels of corporate incompetence were beyond mortal minds' comprehension.
At least my grumbling served to fully diffuse any of the previous awkwardness, even if the process of it cost me a bit of teasing.
And would you look at that, after getting a proper explanation for everything mom agreed that most of my choices were reasonable, even if she refused to budge on the 'facing death himself' thing, which... fair.
Rebecca was almost exclusively positive about the whole thing though, and kept going on and on about how I was going to get a Legend's welcome when I went to the Afterlife.
Like that was an actual positive.
She lit up when I invited her along, leaving me frankly confused as to why the invitation would ever surprise her.
But I supposed some things were better left unanswered, and so as the appointed hour approached I made my excuses and locked myself into my workshop so I could be alone with my thoughts for a while.
It was confusing in a way, the manner in which people talked about their experiences after the kind of excitement I had just gone through you'd think I would feel more than just 'a bit tired' but no, I felt alive, energized... inspired even.
Logos noting his studies indicated my behavior was nonstandard but productive (because ofcourse he decided studying psychology was one of the things he wanted to do in his free time) most assuredly did not send me into a self diagnosing thought spiral that ended up with me quite literally smacking my head into the wall to stop the overthink.
Anyone who said otherwise was a liar, obviously.
But I digress.
The fear and terror were temporary things, easily discarded after the danger was past like so many times it had happened before, but the experience remained. I'd been challenged, and had my failings irrefutably shoved into my face by arguably the greatest living expert in the field.
At least as far as the use of cyberware went anyway.
I sincerely doubted Arasaka's favorite 'Oni' dabbled much in the actual specs of his 'ware aside from knowing what they did.
My frame had considerable strength and durability for its size, and exceptional fine dexterity, but lacked snappy agility and speed to match it, and most importantly I lacked the sheer skill needed to face a creature like Smasher on anything approaching even ground.
The image of a blurred Dragoon arm smacking my own limb away and somehow managing to almost break it apart from the inside refused to leave my mind.
Countering whatever the fuck that was through either skill or tech will be a challenge of a lifetime, that much was for sure.
Thankfully as disappointing as my physical specs proved in the true big leagues, my digital specs remained impeccable.
The only reason I couldn't outright counter the terrorists' mass droid hack was the fact the attack was in essence a hyperfocused daemon spam, drawing on a large chunk of a massive city's net infrastructure to perform one specific series of tasks.
And even with that limitation, Logos still managed to make the little clankers decommission themselves at the end, and the orchestrator (or who I presumed to be the orchestrator) proved themselves capable but not inhuman at the end of the day.
All of this overthink was to say I understood exactly what I needed to work on next, and that was optimizing my musculature, and getting my hands on some specialized training.
But that would have to wait. I had a professional chewing out to get to.
-----
"Impressive work, you two." Rogue said, leaving both Kimigawa and myself speechless.
We'd been let in through a back entrance only minutes earlier, and while Kimigawa looked as refreshed as I felt, the both of us were prepared to get yelled out my 'misshandling' of the VIP.
Instead, Rogue was looking at us with nothing but satisfaction in her eyes.
"Thank you, Ms. Rogue." I answered instead of letting the silence rest "But I feel we can't avoid mentioning some rather obvious unpleasantness that happened."
She just shakes her head and smiles wryly at my serious tone "Kerry was always a dick. I'd be surprised if you didn't need to smack him around a couple of times while keeping his ass safe."
"That tracks." Kimigawa mutters, much to Rogue's apparent amusement.
"What's important." The Queen of Fixers goes on after a moment "Is that you got him out of an incredibly shit situation safe and sound." She looks at me "Even if you had to entangle yourself with Arasaka to do it."
"Can I expect any kind of support when it comes to that particular clusterfuck?" I ask a bit dryly.
"I'll help in any way I can." She nods immediately "But don't expect miracles. You got the worst kind of attention save for maybe that of the Emperor himself. I have a lot of pull and I can apply some pressure even on them but you are going to have to get out of their grip mostly on your own. Sorry, kid."
"How encouraging."
Rogue frowns and if she was any less controlled I don't doubt for a second she'd be slumping her shoulders by now "You stuck your neck out because of a favor you were doing for me, and I'm not going to forget that. The 'Saka sitch is shit but I know you're smart enough to get out."
I resist the urge to quip a 'Why thank you.'
She pauses briefly before going on "It was my job to organize the gig, but even I couldn't have predicted the kind of heat you would be getting in Zurich, so I'll do everything I can to make your issues with the government as smooth and simple as possible."
I mull it over in my head before deciding that was probably the best she could do in the situation "Very well."
Rogue nods, satisfied, and turns to Kimigawa "Yumiko. I'm rising your payout by an additional 500k. That fair?"
She blinks and her eyes widen before she gulps and rapidly nods, saying nothing.
Seeing the reaction, Rogue exhales "Sharpe dying was my own fuckup, girl. Don't let it get to you."
"Who said it was getting to me?" She near snaps though it comes out as more of a whine "I'm fine."
The Fixer just nods at that "Regardless. There is a small memorial that's going to be held at the Columbarium in two days at 3 PM. Just in case you wanted to pay your respects."
Kimigawa's lips thin and she nods.
While I immediately note the time down.
We remain there for a few minutes longer, talking some of the minor details about what we discovered and the like, before Rogue sips down the last of her drink and says "I've got calls to make, and you've got fans to say hello to. Again, good work you two."
Feeling a sudden hesitation I force myself to stand up, passing by a seemingly distracted Nix who doesn't look at me but still sends me an info request about the whole situation specific to the net, and we set up a meeting before I've reached the exit.
The moment I step out into the Afterlife proper it is as if all sound disappeared, familiar and unfamiliar faces turning to look at me with a mix of expressions ranging from suspicion to straight up hero worship.
For a moment I almost hoped they'd go back to their business and I could enjoy a quick peaceful drink but Rebecca, the little gremlin that she was, hopped on top of her bar stool the moment I walked in and broke the silence with an overenthusiastic cheer.
And like a dam breaking, I was slammed with a wall of noise potent enough to scramble my Audioreceptors.
But seeing Rebecca's expectant look, I found I couldn't quite grumble everything away like usual.
And so I decided 'fuck it' and raised a triumphant hand, earning another wave of deafening noise for my trouble.
---
The very next evening I found myself seated in front of my computer, going over potential muscle fiber designs using the scrap I bought off the Haitian shaman as a base, when I felt my Agent buzz.
It was a message from Rogue, holding the contact information of the Vice Mayor.
Damn did she work fast.
-------
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