When our taxi arrives at our destination I’m — embarrassingly — surprised to see that I recognize this place.
Looming over us is Megabuilding 7E.
Constructed entirely out of concrete and some pure black super-metal, the veritable goliath looks like some alien cube — being nearly as wide as it is tall.
And it is by no means short.
Standing at a staggering 1000 floors, this Megabuilding has enough space to house entire countries worth of people.
And yet it’s only one of 100 dispersed throughout the city.
However, unlike the first time I was here I’m not in shock over the scale of everything — just slightly stunned — and when our taxi drops us off in a garage on the 680th floor I don’t even gawk at the view out of the entry port.
Luckily, the dispersal of several drop off points every 20 floors, means it’s not too far of a walk.
Arriving at apartment 6967385K, Ethan gives the door three harsh knocks and immediately a variety of thuds and clangs erupt into the previously quiet hallway.
A few seconds later the door slides open — all the way open mind you, because cyberpunk does not allow for nice things — and reveals an almost stereotypical kindly, old woman.
Her entirely gray hair is tied into a tight bun high on her head, her bright, silver eyes are currently looking us over, and her face is covered in wrinkles — some of which don’t make anatomical sense, and no, forehead wrinkles are not supposed to go vertical. Additionally, in her hand is a gnarled branch she uses as a walking stick and her back is bent at an almost 90 degree angle.
However, when she sees who it is at her door she immediately scowls as she stands up straight, lifts her walking stick onto her shoulder and asks “what? Here to apologize for ruining my fun?”
In response Ethan sighed and pushed past the woman as he responded. “I’m not gonna just let you tease my little sister Agatha. And we’re here to get repairs done on Ella’s armor.”
“Repairs? What do you need repairs for? You haven’t even had the stuff for 2 hours.”
“We went straight into a job and she doesn’t have much experience.”
In response Agatha just grunted as she turned to me and inspected the state of my gear. Without her prompting I immediately turned around, and — upon seeing my back — she let out a harsh cough of surprise and turned to Ethan, yelling “what in the hells did you two do!”
At this point Ethan had already made his way into her pantry and so when he called back you could hear the food in his mouth. “Raided a Mars caravan.”
“You Took A Newbie To Raid A Corporate Caravan!?”
“She said she enjoyed it.”
In response Agatha just muttered a variety of creative insults before turning back around and ushering me inside.
Agatha’s apartment was exactly what you would expect from someone who pretends to be an elderly woman for kicks.
Covering the walls was a pale, floral wallpaper and frosted-glass lamps illuminated everything in a yellow light. To add to the effect, nearly every piece of furniture was made of wood. The dining table and chairs, the cabinets in the kitchen, the coffee table, chairs — although those were covered by a heavily patterned cloth that kept the padding in — and side tables, and every door you could see were constructed out of a polished, chocolate-brown grain that made entering the space feel like stepping into a separate dimension.
Additionally, the wood flooring complimented all of the furniture because of its light shade and any spots with too much brown were broken up by ornate rugs. This stopped in the kitchen, however, where the floors were instead a pale ceramic tile that matched the backsplash.
But — without giving me the chance to take all of that in — Agatha ushers me into a small bedroom in the back before commanding me to remove my gear.
This room is entirely different from what can be seen from the entrance.
Stainless steel walls can be seen in between titanium lockers that contain anything from grenades to decontaminators and everything in between. Spread throughout the center of the room, a dozen different mannequins covered in a number of armor sets in various states of completeness take up almost all of the floor space, and any other ground is covered in a variety of materials and tools.
Once I’ve removed my own armor — revealing the same sailor uniform I’ve been wearing since the changing room — Agatha took from me and searched for an empty mannequin to place it on. Once she realised there was none, she just removed a seemingly — but likely not actually — random set and threw it onto the floor.
After prepping my gear for whatever repairs she’ll be doing, Agatha turned back to me and pushed me back into the main living space.
Looking at Ethan and scowling — yes he was still digging through her food for snacks — she said “Alright your repairs will be finished tomorrow, not get out.”
Finally noticing us, Ethan looked up, swallowed quickly, and responded. “We’re gonna need them done within the next 8 hours.”
“What the hell are you gonna do with armor in the next 8 hours?!”
“Raiding the caravan was just so we could get our hands on high quality weapons. Now we’ve gotta do the actual raid.”
Looking at me suspiciously Agatha took a few seconds to respond as she silently judged Ethan. “And you’re doing this… with a newbie?”
“Hey, it was her idea. She just wants to do something big before she’s forced to log off.”
With a heavy sigh she finally conceded, saying “fine, whatever. It’s not like she has much to lose even if she dies anyways.” Before looking up and continuing the earlier discussion. “Alright, I’ll get your stuff ready within the next 8 hours. Anything else you need?”
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Seeing the opportunity I intercede. “Three grenades, a nanoinjector, and a suction cup if you could. I may have… dropped mine,” I admit while scratching my neck in embarrassment.
At that, Agatha turns to send an accusatory glare at Ethan. “This is why you don’t bring along newbies to big jobs. She dropped three grenades.”
“Hey! I only dropped two of them.”
“That is hardly any better!”
Sighing, Ethan interrupts the two of us before we can continue. “Agatha, can you please just get replacements.”
“Fine, but if you die I won’t be crying about it, that’s for sure. Now get out. I have work to do.”
Seeing her heading back to her workshop Ethan and I decide to see ourselves out and start heading to the nearest drop off point.
On the way I asked, “what now?” and he started looking through his PI while thinking.
“Everyone else won’t be on for another couple hours so it’s probably best if we familiarize ourselves with our new guns. Hell we don’t even know what they do, so that should probably be our number 1 priority.”
“And how are we gonna do that?”
“Well,” he says while giving me a wry grin, “we could go to a back alley appraiser or technician and get them to figure out what these things do. Or we could just go shoot them and find out ourselves.”
After hearing his idea I couldn't help but match his grin. “I like the sounds of fuck around and find out.”
----------------------------------------
A half-hour later and we were staring slack jawed at the sight of a tiny, still-bubbling hole going all the way through a plate of steel.
“What The Hell!? That Thing’s A Laser Rifle!?”
Chuckling Ethan turns to me with a smirk glued to his face. “You better fuckin believe it is!”
“Can you fire it for longer? Or is it just in a super short burst like that?”
“Hmm, I don’t think it can. May as well try holding down the trigger I suppose.”
Aiming back at the plate Ethan’s rifle — a gun that looks like the stereotypical musket — emitted a low whine as he pulled the trigger and a bright flash erupted from the steel, as a huge chunk of it instantly evaporated. Within a mere moment, however, the light stopped, and all that was left was yet another bubbling hole.
Turning back to Ethan, I found him slowly moving the rifle side to side — finger still on the trigger — but nothing was happening.
“Yeah. Seems like it’s just the one burst. Still, that’s all I really need. Cutting vault doors in two isn’t exactly an everyday occurrence for me.”
“Hey now, we are about to do a heist.”
Looking at me incredulously Ethan slowly stated, “sis… we’re raiding a research facility, not a bank.”
“I mean, maybe they’re researching bank vaults.”
Snorting Ethan nodded, saying, “Oh yes, I’m sure the secret, underwater, research facility is dedicating themselves wholeheartedly to researching the absolute best in bank security technologies.”
“I’m glad you understand.”
Looking at each other with the most serious faces we can, a silent competition over who will break first starts. Only for me to instantly lose as Ethan closes his eyes and nods twice like he has come to understand the meaning of the universe.
Grinning at my newfound giggling fit, he turns back to our impromptu target dummy — a piece of scrap metal we found on the outskirts of the slums — and says “now let’s see what yours can do.”
Nodding — while still grinning like a madwoman — I take my revolver from my holster, walk to where Ethan was with a little bit of swagger, get into my shooting stance — both hands gripping the gun, feet shoulder width apart, and left foot forwards — and pull the trigger.
My aim was a little off, but I still hit the target, so that’s a win in my book.
Unfortunately — unlike Ethan’s rifle — the only effect I can see are a couple sparks flaring up from the impact point.
A couple seconds of nothing happening later and I’m left utterly exasperated.
“Wait… That’s It!?”
“Huh.”
“Gaah, I should have grabbed the bow instead!” Oh my god, this stupid thing just made me regret not grabbing the bow! The Bow!
“That looked like custom ammo too. Can I see it?”
Tossing the stupid gun over to him, I go back to sulking. “Stupid bullshit, stupid, gun, fucking…”
Luckily for me, Ethan was far calmer and carefully unloaded and inspected a single bullet.
“Well it’s definitely custom. No idea what it does, but considering where we found it, it’s gotta be pretty powerful.” Despite his well thought out analysis, however, when he finally looked over at me, I was modlily kicking at the concrete beneath my feet.
“Come on, it’s not that bad. You were gonna have to hand it over to poison anyways, and you also got that sword from all of this too.”
“But I… fine.” Wow, telling someone you idolize them and want to be like them is harder than I thought.
“Plus, we’ll probably get tons of shit out of this heist regardless. So you can live out all of your gunslinger fantasies afterwards.”
“I guess.”
“But before you can do that, you need to improve your aim.” Hearing a click I look over to find him extracting all 5 of my remaining bullets from the gun. “I’m sure this gun can fire regular bullets just fine, and you’ll probably be using your sword the entire time anyways.” Looking up, he hands me the ammo to store away in my pockets — yes my skirt has pockets, it’s absolutely wonderful — and then loads the gun from a crate we bought on the way here. “Now it’s time to practice.”
And so, for the next 5 goddamn hours that’s what I did. I shot and I shot and I shot. Over and over again.
But despite that I still couldn’t hit a moving target.
And pinpoint precision like the kind Ethan used back at the caravan? Forget it. That won’t be me anytime soon.
But still, at least now I won’t be forced to use a shotgun just because I can’t hit the broad side of a barn.
Despite my progress, however, I was getting sick and tired of the constant shooting.
Which was why when the first of Ethan’s friends showed up it was a massive relief.
Stepping out of a taxi was 6’6” man built like a stickbug. This is Oliver. He’s the only one out of Ethan’s friend group I’ve met IRL and, honestly, the dude’s a bit of an idiot. In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s why he’s followed Ethan around since they were younger.
He has dark, navy blue hair and gray eyes, he’s wearing the same set of gear Ethan and I used to raid the caravan — although he has his hood down — and strapped to his back is an absolutely massive minigun.
While smiling and waving, he made his way over to us and stopped right in front of me.
“Well, well, look at you.” After pausing for a moment and looking me up and down he continued. “You look good. Happy.”
Which completely caught me off guard. I expected comments on my new avatar and the fact I found out that I’m trans, but for the first thing he said to be that I look ‘happy’?
That was entirely outside of my expectations.
And yet hearing that felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I hadn’t felt nervous before this — at least I don’t think I did — but for someone to so easily accept my identity felt amazing.
So — blushing, with a grin splitting my face — I respond with a simple “thank you,” one more laden with emotion than words can express.
Oliver simply returns my smile before heading over to Ethan to start talking about recent events on other Islands.
Then only a few minutes later another taxi flys in and three more people step out.
The first one is a small woman — probably around 5 feet tall — with large fox ears and a bushy tail. She’s wearing what looks to be a cream colored toga under a large, black cloak — with the hood pulled down.
Exiting the opposite side of the taxi is someone seemingly designed to be average looking. Average height, average musculature, average attractiveness, brown hair, brown eyes, and wearing a white, dress shirt, black pants held up by a leather belt, and black dress shoes.
Following behind him is a boy that’s the same size as the woman. He’s wearing stereotypical wizard robes — with the hood up — and glasses, but the skin I can see is oddly transparent, and his hair and eye are both pure, glowing white.
Immediately upon exiting the taxi the woman squealed, ran over to me, and pulled me into a crouch so she could hug me to her chest. As she said “Hellooo Ella! I’m so glad to hear about how much fun you’ve having!” Then pulling away she gives me a serious look. “And if you need any help at all IRL you can always ask us. Ok?”
“Thanks Chloe, I will.” I say while smiling shyly at her.
“Naaw! It’s okay, cutie. Anything for our group’s little sister!”
From behind her the overwhelmingly average man started chuckling, “So you’ve already adopted her, huh?”
“Oh please John, it’s important to look after the newly hatched chicks like her,” she said while turning and giving him a smug glare.
Taking advantage of John’s inability to respond because of his laughter, the last member of the group called out to Ethan, “so what exactly are we doing? All your message said was we’re going to raid a secret lab.”
Looking slightly awkward Ethan rubbed his neck while responding, “Uhh, honestly that’s all the info we really have. Ella heard about it from some random guy in Golden Gai so for all we know it could be completely empty.”
“And we’re just gonna charge in recklessly?” the boy asked while glaring at Ethan.
John quickly jumped in with his support while putting his arm around the boy’s shoulders, “come on Chris, it’ll be fun.”
“It’ll be suicide.”
John grinned. “That’s what makes it fun.”