Previous chap got the usual neatening up. Removed the bits about making gear for the new recruits and the specifics of his chainsword upgrades, as it felt unnecessary at that moment.
Michael 'Magos' Sobronov
"Hey Misty." I waved as I ducked into Misty's Esoterica, earning an immediate beaming smile from the woman while her young customer looked up from the stack of artificial incense she'd just finished paying for with a mix of awe and terror in her eyes.
"Mi-" Misty goes to greet me but pauses, shooting a look at her customer she corrects to "Magos, here to see the doctor?"
"I'll... uh." The customer gulps "Get out of your hair. If you need me to?"
"Relax, Tatiana." Misty pats her shoulder gently "He's just passing through." She ignores my apologetic look and waves me through "Vik said they are all here, you arrived just on time."
"Thanks, Misty." I bob my head "I'll leave you to... whatever it is you two were doing."
Her customer shrinks on herself as I pass them by but as I leave, my Audioreceptors catch the duo resuming their conversation... about cursing an unfaithful boyfriend.
The fact I'd seen Misty be pretty spot on with her kung fu bullshit previously made that far scarier than it had any right being, and I walked away just a tiny bit faster.
Vik's clinic looked as humble as ever, but there were no patients downstairs this time, and instead the scene I walked in on was the ripperdoc practice-boxing with a thoroughly sun-withered man sporting some of the cheapest replacement limbs on the market.
And the older man was still holding his own despite it.
To their side I spotted only one more, he was younger than both Vik and the old man but still much older than I was, and his eyes were on me from the moment I walked in, and his sole arm was set over an old revolver in his lap.
The fact he was sat on a wheelchair, and that the arm was the only limb he had made the image far less threatening than it was pitiable.
"Oof." The old man grunted as Vik snaked a jab through his guard "Damn these old bones. You still hit like a truck, Vik."
"Sure thing old timer." The ripper chuckles "Best take a seat before you pop your hip though."
"Oh fuck off." He rolls his eyes and shoves Vik's shoulder.
Their jovial talk is cut off as the wheelchair bound man clears his throat, drawing their attention to me.
Vik smiles in greeting but the old man's reaction is much more telling, as he immediately takes a stance without even thinking about it, minimizing the surface area I could aim for while getting as low to the ground as possible.
I pause and refrain from raising my arms. Knife hands wouldn't be as much of a peaceful sign as I'd hope at the moment.
He blinks and catches himself doing it, eyeing me suspiciously for a moment before addressing Vik, still not even letting himself blink as he did "You call us over to get turned into chow, Vik? Is this about the fucking bet again?"
Viktor just chuckles at that "Who'd want to eat you, Mason?"
"Right, fuck you." The old man grunts and then addresses me "So, you just going to keep standing there or what?"
"I don't know." I hum "Do you plan to keep pissing yourself for too much longer? I can turn my nose off but its sort of the principle of the thing."
His eyes narrow for a moment before he barks out a short rasped laugh "You're alright."
The other man doesn't react save for a slight loosening of the tension around his eyes.
"So this is the one you've been talking up, eh Vik?" Mason asks as I walk up to them "When you said he was borged out I thought you were talking about some corpo Gemini reject, not... whatever this is."
"He may look intimidating but trust me, you will want to hear him out." Vik says simply.
"Well, if he's got your vote of confidence." Mason grunts and offers his hand to me with only a split second of hesitation "Mason Smith." He twitches his head in the direction of the wheelchair bound man "That's my brat, Wesson."
I go to introduce myself but then catch something, suddenly pausing and directing the man with the driest look I could manage.
"The old man thought he was being funny back then." Wesson speaks up, his rough voice a mix of annoyance and resignation "I say he was just drunk out of his mind."
"Kekeke." Mason cackles "I've had a fun life."
"Too fun." His son grunts.
Deciding to just move on from this idiocy I return the handshake "Michael Sobronov." Being forthright with people like this seemed the best policy "There is only two of you?"
"There is plenty more of us out there." Mason retracts his hand, eyeing my fingers warily before looking me back in the eyes without any actual fear "They just trust the two of us to speak for them."
'So the entire negotiation hinges on just them.'
"That should make things simple." I nod as the man takes his seat while Vik goes to grab some drinks for us, shooting me an encouraging wink as he leaves "We might as well skip to the core of things. Care to share your resume?"
He grunts and begins listing "Ran with Lazarus during the Corpo Wars, worked for the Military Police during the Red, tried getting into security for a while but then the NUSA tried conquering our shit so we went and joined the NC volunteer force sent for Texas, they even kitted us out with military grade cyberware for it."
As soon as he started talking about the Reuinification War, his breathing grew a bit heavier. Not to the point of hyperventilation but he was obviously having difficulty simply talking about it despite his attempts to not show it, which is when Wesson bumped his shoulder and spoke up instead "Our mission was a failure, not that we had much of a chance to begin with. We returned home just as Arasaka was landing, and the Govt. decided there was no longer any need for us to keep their 'military assets'."
"They stripped you of your chrome?" I ask, unsurprised but somehow still disappointed.
Mason grunts while Wesson simply nods "They had deactivation codes for the implants, we couldn't even fight back."
"Bastard fuckers had the guts to offer us 'pensions' for our service." Mason grinds out before spitting to the side "Gave us pennies and sent us on our way... many of us couldn't even walk back then."
'Well while that is tragic, I could probably find something similar whenever I went in this damned city.' I thought cynically "What do you bring to the table?"
Wesson's eyes narrow but Mason just grins and lets out a quiet cackle "You're not here for our sob story, fair enough. I'll give it to you simple, we were mercs before this whole edgerunning nonsense took over, we fought in wars, took on suicide missions, and we are still alive." He shoots me a challenging look "That good enough for you, tin man?"
"No." I deadpan and immediately begin hacking through all of the data available on them, Logos doing much the same at far greater speeds.
A few objective seconds passed before we were done, and I could already see Mason was halfway through standing up in anger while his son tried pulling him back but failed due to a lack of leverage.
"But the net does have quite a bit on your outfit's previous work." I say, just as calmly as ever "And I have to say, what I found is impressive."
The old man stops in his tracks, his face shifting through a few expressions before settling on begrudging respect "Where'd you meet this scary fucker, Vik?"
The ripper, who had rejoined us in the meantime, smirks and says nothing.
Mason grunts and focuses back on me "So, what kind of job did you need a bunch of down on their luck mercs for?"
"How much did Vik share exactly?" I ask instead.
"Said we should meet. Claimed you were our chance for a better life." The old man shrugs.
I give Vik a questioning glance to which he shrugs "Mason likes judging things on his own."
'Trust but verify.' I nod to myself in agreement "Very well, as I've said I'm Michael Sobronov, though Night City is far more familiar with my other name, Magos."
Mason shows no reaction but Wesson's eyes narrow.
"You heard about this one, kid?" Mason asks, catching the look instantly.
"Yes." The wheelchair bound veteran says as he leans forward "Big time merc. They say he fought Smasher and lived."
Mason's eyes widen as he turns back to me.
"As I keep telling people." I mutter "Fought is putting things very generously. But discussing my merc career is not the point of this meeting and can wait."
"True enough." Mason grunts after a moment.
"I'll make this as simple as possible." I said after a moment "I'm starting a cybernetics corp, and I need guards and troopers for when someone tries to destroy what I'm planning to build. A group of veterans more than fits the bill."
"How'd a merc start a 'ware company?" Mason asks.
"I'm a ripper first, butcher second." Seeing him slowly start to eye my frame I add "I'm also not some corpo reject trying to start a new life. Everything I have I have built with my own hands, up to and including myself. That should tell you more than enough."
The old man whistles, eyebrows rising so far they disappeared in his hairline "Guess I can see where you got the balls to try taking a bite out of NC. A bit suicidal but I can respect it." He pauses "Got something a bit more tangible to show my folks?"
Nodding, I reach for a small plastic case in my coat pocket and toss it over to him.
He catches the chip case easily, and inserts it into his port without too much suspicion. My earlier display made it clear I could do whatever I wanted to either of them, and they did seem to trust Vik enough to come in the first place.
Once more I see his eyebrows disappear as he lets out a low whistle "That's definitely an offer and a half right there." He takes the chip out and offers it to his son "Trying to buy our loyalty all proper like, heh?"
"You are selling me your experience." I shrug "And I'm selling you your dignity."
His face sours but he grunts in agreement a moment later.
My offer was more than fair, just as I preferred. Good pay, a place to stay for both guards and their families in the tower (The security risks made it necessary), in house healthcare (for issues both on and off the job), and a series of military implants of the Legionary series I've been developing in the background (or Centurion, which just let them have a lot more personalization in what they could use, in the case of the officers), and assurance to replace it all with perfectly serviceable civilian limbs if they ever decided to leave my employ.
There was a clause in there letting them buy the military cyberware at a discount depending on the duration of their service, but most people tended to find combat cyberware too heavy on the nervous system for casual use, and the fear of going cyberpsycho only reinforced that so I suspected only a few would take that offer.
"This deal is solid." Wesson says after reading through the contract and his eyes narrow "Almost too solid."
"I'm not some soulless husk." I inform him "Unlike my future... peers I like to still consider the people working under me to be actual people. And that demands I ensure they can live their lives with dignity, so long as they are under my umbrella."
"Big words." He says but notably doesn't speak against it.
"Looking at the chrome fiend, he might just be able to back them up." Mason grins "I'll bring your offer to the boys, and I'll tell Vik what they decide." He shares a quick look with his son and then a tiny barely perceptible nod "But I'll say it right now the two of us will be taking you up on it."
"Oh?" I blink. The man may have given me the impression of being a bit lackadaisical but he didn't strike me as someone who didn't think things over.
"I'm tired of hearing my limbs creaking even when I sleep." Mason shrugs and point a thumb at Vik "The Doc does great work, but he isn't running a charity, and my boy deserves to run again."
Wesson keeps his face completely blank.
"So yeah, we'll be taking your offer." Mason repeats "And if I'm not too senile yet, another two hundred or so boys too."
Two hundred was perfect for what I wanted, even if any sort of large scale conflict would demand future expansion.
For a moment I found myself considering klepping some Maelstrommers to use as shock troops but no.
Just... no.
"Excellent." I grin a bit too widely as I made myself move on from that line of thinking, making the man pale just a bit "Happy to have you on board."
We share a few more words before the old vet wheels his son out, leaving me alone with Vik.
"Think I did good back there?" I ask him.
"You did great, kid." Vik smiles "Mason may have let the mind fog get him a bit too much but he is still one of the best in the city. You impressed him."
"A bit simple to impress someone when you tower over them." I huff.
Vik shakes his head wryly "The fact you didn't lord it over him for even a moment is what did it for him. He came here expecting someone to buy him a few more years of scraping by, you offered him a new life. He won't forget that."
"Let us hope so." I said, feeling equally satisfied and troubled. The more people I brought in the more inevitable betrayal became, as betrayal could only come from one's allies.
How would I react then?
The thought left me uneasy.
"What's got you thinking?" Vik asks, tossing me a canned beer.
Catching the can and chewing it down without even popping it open I shake my head "Just overworrying about the future, the usual really."
"Anything I can help with?" He asks.
"It will work itself out." I wave the offer off "You just keep yourself ready for when its time to move."
"Yes, no need to keep reminding me." He chuckles good naturedly before looking his clinic over "I'll mis this dusty place."
"It definitely has history." I mutter in agreement "Honestly I might just pay Misty to keep it open so we have somewhere to run off to if the need strikes."
Vik gives me an odd look "I can't ask you to do that."
"You don't have to." I say, absently laying my hand on the old ripper chair, my voice lowering into a near inaudible whisper "This place is where I got my hope back after all..."
Vik didn't catch it though because he was already moving over to the empty space he'd been sparing in when I came in "Whenever I think too much I find swinging it out clears the head perfectly well." He waves for me to join him.
"Got bored of beating the elderly and moving on to the youth, Vik?" I quip as I move to join him.
He takes a boxing stance and realizes his mistake as he sees my hand clench into a fist, his expression scrunches up and he exhales "Just... watch the face."
Love it when I plan out multiple scenes to go over but then my eyes glaze over and I wake up with one conversation taking up most of the chapter. Not that I'm dissatisfied wtih how it came out, of course.