Chapter Text
"David, over here!" Maine called. The spiky haired boy looked over to the table they were at. The whole crew was here; Maine and Dorio sat side by side, with Pilar hanging behind them. Lucy stood to the side, Kiwi had a chair pulled over as Rebecca had taken any remaining space. The blue girl blew David a kiss as he walked over.
"Yo, Maine. What's up? Didn't expect a call. Something urgent?" David asked, dragging over a chair. Maine just grinned.
"Got some good news. Faraday came through and dropped the sweetest gig in a while. It'll be high risk, but higher reward."
"How high?"
"One million eddies."
"Seriously?" David asked, skeptical, before Maine knocked him upside the head.
"Let me finish before running your mouth, choom. One million eddies, each." Maine said. There was a shift in the air, and even Lucy, who David usually observed listening to briefings stoically, had eyes the size of dinner plates.
"A milly a piece?!" Pilar exclaimed excitedly. "Man, oh man, I could finally afford those gold hands I've always wanted! Haha!"
Lucy could go to the moon with that money. David thought to himself.
"Actually a million per person? What the fuck are we doing for that much?" Kiwi asked. "This goes beyond corpo pay. What the fuck is Faraday pulling out of his ass?"
"Gig's legit. Faraday has a contract with Militech, and tomorrow they're having some important political figure strike up a deal to support his campaign or some shit. Faraday didn't give too many details about the specifics, but it's essentially guard duty." Maine said. "We don't gotta do too much, they already got their own personal guards, we're just extra muscle to flatline any gonk tryna pull shit."
Rebecca laughed. "Guard duty, huh? Bet I don't even get to shoot anyone."
"If it's that easy," Dorio muttered, "then someone's setting us up."
"Nova!" David said. "Sounds damn easy if you ask me."
"Yeah, well no one fucking asked, rookie. This is still a damn job. Act like a gonk and you get zeroed, same as any other gig." Maine warned. David gulped.
"R-Right, sorry."
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"There's the car, tail 'em, Falco." Maine told their driver. He gave a thumbs up and followed the motorcade. David sat in the back, staring absentmindedly at the gun in his hands. His last mission, he had been hit in the head by some runner with a bat. He was still wet behind the ears when it came to edgerunning, but he had nothing else. Not after the accident that took his mom's life.
He suddenly felt a weight slam into his side as he looked to see Rebecca grinning up at him. "So, choom~! Whatcha planning on spending your split on?"
"Huh? Oh, um, I guess maybe more chrome, or upgrading the stuff I got now. Honestly, it seems so unrealistic that I just can't picture it."
"I feel ya." She smirked. "Whaddya say you take me on a fancy date when we're done? You're paying, gotcha?"
"H-Huh?!" David felt a hand grab his shoulder, and turned to see Pilar right in his face.
"Hey, choom, do me a solid and fuck off from my sister, or I'll rip of your cock and stuff it down yer throat!" The long armed freak threatened. David sputtered before hearing a click, glancing over at Rebecca flipping Pilar off and holding her gun to his head.
"Hey, douche, quit cockblocking! Fucking gonk!" She yelled, sparking a rowdy argument between them, allowing David to slip away and sit across from Kiwi, and next to Lucy.
"You seem like you're having fun," Kiwi said in her usual bored tone.
David laughed awkwardly. "You think so?"
"Yeah. Though I pity you. Of all people, you caught her eye." She gestured lazily toward Rebecca. "Unfortunate. I figured you and Lucy—" Kiwi paused, rubbing her neck as if she had just been shocked. "Damn, sorry, Luce. Didn't mean to hit a nerve. Kinda surprised someone so cold could get so flustered."
"I'm not flustered." Lucy said sharply.
"Right. And I'm a corpo dog licking their custom baby-seal-leather boots." Kiwi deadpanned.
"Hey, cut the shit!" Dorio yelled. "We're in the middle of a fucking mission, save your gonk shit for later!"
There was a collective "sorry" muttered throughout the back.
"Look alive." Falco drawled. "The cars have stopped."
"Why?" Maine asked.
"Dunno. Seems like some choom is in the road."
"Could it be insurance fraud?" David asked.
"Highway's guarded and been blocked off for the day." Lucy shook her head. "Not likely."
"Falco, circle the car around. It's our job to take care of the fucker." Maine ordered. The driver nodded, and began to wheel the car around the motorcade. Standing in the road was a single man in what seemed like full body cybernetics. He faced the opposite direction, and turned around when the car got close. Pilar stuck his top half out of the sunroof.
"Hey, fuckface! Get yer ass outta the goddamn road or we'll pump you so full of lead, you won't be able to tell your ass from your face! Not that you can already! Hahahaha!" Pilar cackled and continued to taunt the man, but the stranger simply walked forwards, brandishing a red katana that crackled with energy.
"Hey! The fuck you doing?! You listening, gonk?! You think your toothpick can match our fire power?!" Pilar yelled. "You wanna go, chromedick?! You really think—" He never finished. In a blink, the man vanished, then reappeared above him. A crimson arc cleaved the air. Pilar's body split with surgical precision, spraying metal and blood. David froze, horror sinking into his gut as half of Pilar tumbled into the car, expression still stuck in mid-taunt.
"You fucker!" Rebecca screeched, aiming her gun up and unloading an entire mag at her brothers killer, however he deflected each bullet like it was nothing. Lucy whipped out her string and wrapped it around the blade, trying to wrench it free. Maine took the liberty of aiming his arm cannon at their target and blasting, but to everyone's horror, he broke free of Lucy's string and smacked the side of the blade against the missile, directing it just barely away from his head.
Rebecca continued her enraged screeching and gunfire, only to have one of her bullets ricochet back and sent through her neck. She gasped, gargling blood.
"Becca!" Maine yelled. "Kiwi, Lucy, hack this son of a bitch!"
"I can't! Bastard has no interface!"
"What?! Falco, we gotta get him off of us, we're sitting ducks!" Maine yelled. Falco slammed the throttle, jerking the wheel. The car fishtailed hard, tires screaming, the whole cabin lurching sideways as they spun. However, the man stuck his sword through the roof, barely missing Lucy's head, drawing blood on her cheek. David grit his teeth and fired up his Sandevistan, and everything seemed to halt. He moved to the roof of the car and aimed his gun at the man, intending to open up his skull.
"This is for what you did to Rebecca and Pilar!" David shouted, but right as he was about to pull the trigger, he saw the man tilt his head slightly and smirk at him. David had never seen someone move while using his Sandevistan. "That's impossible..." He said, his stomach dropping, as well as his concentration on his Sandy being broken, and everything began moving normally, and he was flung off the car.
"David!" Lucy yelled. The man jumped up into the air and brought the sword down again, cutting clean through the car, bisecting their vehicle. As the halves spun out of control with the passengers, David watched groggily as the man sauntered over to him.
"S-Stay back..." David said, holding his gun in a shaking hand. Somehow, one man wiped the whole team, something David wouldn't have believed unless he had seen it in person. The man stood in front of him, sword pointed at Davids chest. David could do nothing but shake in fear, and awaited his death. The man prepared to strike, but stopped. He chuckled, before sheathing his blade.
"You're a lucky kid, I'm on a schedule today." He began walking off, and David saw his chance. Firing up his Sandevistan again, he sped towards the samurai, once again trying to get the best angle to blow his brains all over the pavement. The moment he got close, the swordsman turned, held out his hand, and proceeded to shoot his sword from the hilt, grabbing it and swinging it in an arc so quickly, David couldn't even react while using the Sandy, and cutting off his left arm at the bicep. David screamed as blood sprayed from his injury, falling to the ground.
"It's impressive what you can do with that implant, but you'll never be enough to take on someone like me." The man taunted, before turning away, leaving David to bleed out and black out.