Previous chap got some neatening up as usual.
Michael 'Magos' Sobronov
Absently blurring through some of the more basic katas Takeda sent over with enough force to make the air ring in the privacy of my workshop, I observed my newest recruits who were currently excitedly talking to each other over at Lily's shooting range.
It had been about ten minutes since I finished working on Nick and he left to rejoin his men and get used to feeling like he could move like an actual person again, and the lot of them had started realizing it wasn't just chrome that they gained.
The sad truth of my recruitment drive was that experienced as they were, these men were all well past their primes. Some considerably more than the others, and to the point of severely affecting their combat abilities as well.
And having the core of my forces all afflicted with that same issue was simply unacceptable.
There were no outward changes to be seen. Not counting the chrome they all looked exactly the same as when they'd first arrived. Except under the surface each and every one was effectively brought back to just slightly below their prime.
Nanites were useful like that. Even if they were not the infinite de-ageing money glitch I sometimes daydreamed about.
That would require meddling directly with the DNA, and I was perfectly content with 'only' giving them a decade or two extra for taking the plunge and joining me by way of 'simple' tissue repairs.
None of us was about to go outright mentioning this however. Myself because I didn't feel like shitting on Biotechnica's porch, and the soldiers because they'd convinced themselves I'd given them some sort of high end booster shot that would wear off and need re-injecting after a while.
A reasonable thing to presume in their line of work.
Mildly insulting, but reasonable.
They seemed to be content with their loadouts as well. Not impressed mind, but solid quality Copperheads and Crushers with a small but specialized selection of munitions combined with solid helmets and ballistic armor that covered most of the body weren't exactly a bad thing to have in a scrap.
Especially once one of the quicker minded ones caught up to the fact their new subdermals combined with the armor would allow them to shrug off almost all small arms fire with ease.
Though I did almost laugh when one of them joked about them being invincible.
I could appreciate the enthusiasm at least.
Shaking my head, I strolled out of my workshop and made my way over to the shooting range, making sure to slow my movements down to something vaguely human looking.
Transhumanist dread was useful, but not when going through a crowd of innocent people.
Each light step I took felt like a coiled kick to my still adapting brain, and each pause in movement whenever I was about to bump into someone felt like halting a mountain.
None of it showed on the outside, and I was quickly getting used to the new parameters, but I simply could not get my mind away from the sensation.
The sheer feeling of power was indescribable.
And my pride at managing to fit that much power into a frame this relatively small wasn't helping the situation either.
Thankfully I reached the shooting range quickly enough, and the moment I stepped in I was greeted with a cacophony of gunfire, every single lane of the range was being used, and I could even see a couple of the vets squaring off and doing some light, careful wrestling under their NCO's oversight.
Speaking of said NCO (I had no reason to remove him from the post, and already informed him of this fact), he noticed me almost immediately and instead of speaking he sent a pulse signal from his new Agent, and only the fact I had root access let me immediately decipher the heavy encoding.
[Attention!]
Immediately, the veterans stopped their shooting and quickly gathered around.
"Enjoying your improvements, gentlemen?" I asked lightly.
Many smiled and a few grinned here and there, but Nick remained apprehensive "You sure went all out here, bossman."
"I take the security of my future business and employees very seriously." I shrug, my simple response seeming to take him off guard for whatever reason "Especially since I will be officially announcing the formation of the company tomorrow evening. Your numbers are not ideal, but they will work for now, if you are ready to get to work immediately that is."
They shared some quick looks but none seemed to hesitate as their leader saluted "Ready and able, sir."
"Excellent." I smile inwardly "The work sites need to be secured and watched over starting tomorrow morning, especially after the most recent debacle, courtesy of Maelstrom." 'And Militech' "We are somewhat shorthanded at the moment, so I will have to rely on you fine gentlemen until we have enough men to set up a proper rotation."
None complain about the mandatory overtime.
"Good." I hum "The construction teams will certainly appreciate it."
"That's all good and dandy, boss." Nick says after a moment "But what about you?"
"What about me?" I tilt my head.
He exhales lightly "You sure you don't want any of us following you around? We aren't completely new to bodyguard duty."
"While it might be necessary when I find myself in need of proving a point." I say in a somewhat dark tone "I am more than capable of personally butchering anyone stupid enough to try me."
"Stupid is quite right." Nick chuckles lowly "Anything else?"
"Aside from spreading the word to anyone interested in civilian work if you feel like it?" I shake my head "No, not really."
Again, I see the mercs sharing looks between each other and quickly conclude they are probably going to try and secure the best spots for their families whenever possible.
Just as planned.
---
I stayed among my troops (and wasn't that weird to think, much less say) for a good two hours after that, and we quickly went from work talk to shooting the shit (literally) as we got into something of a marksmanship competition.
Not wanting to be a complete asshole about it, I didn't abuse my Kerenzikov and ended up placing fifth. Being able to handle recoil with ease and barely even feeling it was quite the different experience, and it showed as I was getting used to my own movements mid burst in some cases.
My childish whining about not getting the win against experienced professionals aside, the veterans seemed to appreciate me joining them instead of just immediately dismissing them.
They weren't quite sure what to make of me yet, that much was obvious, but I hoped I was at least on the way of securing their loyalties in the future.
Unfortunately I wouldn't be sure of just who I could actually trust for many months yet, and so I went on about my day, finishing up the implants for the next batch of recruits and making pre-launch agreements with some smaller scale businesses spread out across NC.
Once again, Padre proved to be incredibly helpful in this area. The man was almost completely community focused in his goals (aside from getting money and power of course), and saw my deals as an easy way to give his people a slightly better life.
Some favors were exchanged and promisses made to keep appearances of course, but there was no hiding the old priest's eagerness from my Optics.
Life didn't pause for anyone's plans however, and I still had work to do, so my next free moment came only in the afternoon of the following day, having just seen off my final patient and retreated back to my workshop.
There were still a few hours before I had to go and face the music, which is why I decided to distract myself by going through some of the information I'd taken from the Voodoo Boys data center.
They had some interesting schematics for Cyberdeck cooling systems I would definitely be stealing even if they weren't all that useful to me personally, and the downright obscene collection of overly elaborate Voodoo spirit based Daemons was impressive.
In the amount of effort invested at least. Their optimization was well below what I'd expect from the group that made a good showing on the net, even if the game had been rigged from the start.
Then again these were cultist weirdos. These could very well be religious tributes, seeing as they think the net is spiritual for some asinine reason.
But that wasn't what truly drew my curiosity.
It was the many mentions of a pair of blue eyes, and of a certain Alt Cunningham.
The way they spoke about the blue eyes felt almost like some kind of eerie horror story, always watching, always being just around the corner, that sort of thing.
"But they never point to anything concrete." I mutter to myself.
[No recorded Voodoo spirit fits both description and modus operandi either.] Logos pipes in.
"A dead end then?" I most assuredly do not grumble.
[It would seem so.] He agrees [The descriptor is simply far too broad to match accurately.]
"True." I sigh "What about our other subject of interest? Find anything about the 'one who will open the way'?" I couldn't help but drip some heavy sarcasm into that last bit.
[Affirmative.]
I blink "That is... surprising."
[The name Alt is not very common.] He informs me [And we were fortunate. The individual in question lived in Night City in the 2020s.]
"So..." I trail off "What do you have on her?"
[Redacted.]
My Optic twitches "Logos."
[All data has been redacted. Thoroughly.] He reassures [This is what drew my attention in the first place. The rumors did the rest.]
"What rumors?"
[That she was once acquainted with a certain Rogue Amendiares and her close circle. If we wish for further clues that is where we must go next.]
"Right..." I mutter "Just walk up to Rogue and ask about her most probably long dead friend... who has a cult obsessed with her."
[*Had.]
"Right." I snort "What could possibly go wrong?"
[Do we really need to know?] Logos asks after a moment.
"Not really?" I shrug "I'm just annoyed to end it there." Shaking my head, I hop onto my feet "Never mind Alt, we have a talk show to prepare for. And I need to start dealing with the anxiety now if I want to get a word out by the time we get there."
-----
The Solo
"Here we are." Jackie placed the pack of beer bottles onto his coffee table with a grin "Nothing like a cerveza to go with watching your choom get famous."
"Wasn't he already kinda famous?" V raises an eyebrow.
"Don't sweat the details." Jackie waves her off and plops down on the couch next to Misty, feeling her lean in against him and giving her a sideways hug "When is it starting?"
"In a minute or two." His girl told him with a smile.
The quiet that followed was comfortable, but Jackie didn't call his choom over for that "So, V. How's Arasaka been treating you recently?"
The corpo's eyes briefly flick to Misty before she lets out a deep exhale "Promotion's been great."
"Doesn't sound that great when you say it like that." Jackie points out with a teasing smirk.
V shoots him an annoyed look "I don't mind more responsibility. Doesn't make dealing with it any less exhausting though."
"And there's a bunch of rats looking to bring you down." Jackie shoots her a finger gun.
"And there's a bunch of rats looking to bring me down." V bobs her head tiredly "Should be about time now."
"Gotcha." Jackie snaps his fingers and connects to the TV "Nope... nope... ah there it is! Nova TV."
The TV flickers and the screen display switches from Jackie's favorite playlist to a a colorful stage room with a large window overlooking Downtown in the background.
A classically pretty blonde woman with a few visible cyberware ridges under her eyes smiles at the camera "-remember to visit Mahir Motors today for a special discount. I'm Christie, and this has been Nova News."
"Aren't they reporting on that massive crash that happened this morning? Didn't a bunch of Mahirs end up totaled?" Misty mutters.
Jackie snickers.
"Gotta take all the publicity they can get I guess." V chuckles to herself "Mahir probably needs it."
A minute or so passes as a bunch of ads are run by the program before the image pops back to the same room, now with a few reporters and and guests visible in the viewing area.
"Welcome to Nova TV's weekly Friday Night Show, I'm your host Christie and it's my pleasure to have you back for another weekend of nova news and nova guests."
Christie smiles at the camera again, giving a dramatic pause before starting again "The City of Dreams is well known for its mercenary scene, many of our beloved Edgerunners have made their names Legend, fighting and dying for what they believed in."
Another pause.
"But there are times, very rarely, when some of them are so good, so skilled at what they do that they become famous without going out in a glorious bang, even partially retiring with all they have gambled their lives for."
She directs an open hand at the entrance not covered by the camera, making the cameraman slowly pan in that direction "Tonight's guest is one such individual, someone whose meteoric rise has been the talk of the town more than once already, and someone who is now looking to move up in the world after having proven his mettle. Please welcome tonight's special guest, Michael Sobronov, or as we better know him, Magos!"
The window behind her flickers into a video screen and starts showing the few videos they had on Mike 'on the job', focusing especially hard on the scene of him glaring into Adam Smasher's eyes, and the scene of him cutting down a battle mech with a katana.
Needless to say, the small crowd allowed into the studio was enthusiastic in their applause as the cyborg entered the room without his usual stomp, but in an almost flowing stride that seemed a bit weird to look at.
It was like an odd itch behind Jackie's eye he couldn't quite scratch.
"He looks a bit different." Misty points out, he was still wearing his usual coat and didn't bother putting on his skin, so the changes were obvious.
"Probably got an upgrade or five." Jackie shrugs before slowly rubbing his chin "Wouldn't surprise me if that's why he called us over on the weekend."
Misty hums in agreement.
But as Michael proceeds to near the podium and starts going through the pleasantries with his host, Jackie finds himself looking over at V, who was now leaning forward with a deep frown on her face, eyes scanning the cyborg's new chassis with the intensity of someone who wanted to physically dig into the metal and find out what was going on beneath.
"You alright there, V?" Jackie asks.
She blinks and looks away from the screen "Just peachy, Jackster."
He nods and goes back to watching.
But still barely catches his choom muttering a "Scary metal motherfucker." Beneath her breath.
Damn right.
I really wanted to do the whole interview in this chap but dear lawd, I am beyond crisped.