I walked in on an interesting conversation.

"I only have a limited time to get back. So this is goodbye Misty, and tell that old dog, Vik to lay off the boxing. He's getting too long in the tooth to keep trying to fix everyone's technique." A silver haired lady dressed in almost medieval style leather pants and a tunic was waving goodbye to another woman who reminded me of a character, in a movie I saw, a long time ago. Poofed out blonde hair, and rocking a nearly Goth look. Nice.

"Bye Ciri, we'll miss you around here. Be safe." They shared a brief hug. I could somehow tell they had been through a lot together. It must be a wonderful thing to have friends.

That's when the silver haired lady, Ciri turned around and saw me. The world changed. Let's just say both our eyes went wide. There was a spark of recognition. The twisting of fate. She was radiating a potent form of mana, different from anything I had felt before. It seemed darker somehow, almost broken. I knew she could feel my mana flow through me. It seemed to fill her with sorrow.

She stalked over to me. I barely breathed not wanted the moment to end. She patted my shoulder and said, "Good Luck." Before sashaying out the door. She avoided the Probe, I noticed. I started turned to follow her and find out more. But managed to stop myself, one problem at a time.

"She has that effect on people. Hi, I'm Misty." I turned back toward the blonde lady. She herself was emanating a little bit of mana. What were the odds? This city didn't seem hospitable to anyone who could connect with magic.

"Hello Misty, I'm Ryan. I came to see about getting a consult with Dr. Vektor. But now that I'm here, I'm a little more interested in your shop." My eyes traveled to a brass multi armed statue behind her, for a start. It gave off something similar to the Psi energy of Khalai Pylons. As I continued to scan the shop I noticed a dozen other things, easily mistaken for simple knickknacks. I wondered how any of these things managed to make in to this shop. Maybe Ciri how something to do with it?

"That's nova! I offer Chakra cleansings and Tarot readings." It was nice to see her smile. She seemed like a truly decent person. Wholesome, almost too good for this world.

A moment of whimsy overtook me. "I've never had my Chakras cleansed, so let's do that." What the hell was a Chakra?

She had me sit in a reclining chair, it felt like I was sinking into a cloud. I listened to her voice, and then my mind went silent for a while. A deep stillness enfolded my thoughts. It was a very welcomed state after all I'd been through to get to this moment. To be honest, I don't know she had done anything to my Chakras. However, I did feel a lot more relaxed, especially after resting in that cushy chair. So it was all good.

I found the use of crystals a little odd though, and the incense was a bit pungent. But hey, nothing's perfect. I paid her with $100 and let her keep the change. She told me I could see the Doc. She guided me to the door and said, "Out the back and down the stairs."

The alley held another surprise. It was a cat, an Egyptian Hairless. Was it called a Sphinx or was that a different breed? What did it matter it was a cat. We stared at each other for a good minute, it seemed just as shocked to see me, as I was to see it. It meowed at me and almost as if in a trance, I sat down and it crawled in my lap. I proceeded to give it scritches. Its gentle purring was a comfort in this dark land. Then my mind kicked back in, and I realized what I was holding.

"Hey Misty! I thought there weren't anymore cats?" I called out gently. She stuck her head out, and saw me with the kitty. Her resulting grin was an odd thing, equal parts joy and pain.

"There aren't, that's not a cat." That just didn't compute. I was holding it. I felt its warmth, and the rumble of its purr. I could feel it's life with my mana sense.

"What is it?" It meowed like a cat. It purred like a cat. What else could it possibly be?

"If you figure it out let me know. I just know it's not a cat." She ducked back into her shop. Her tone suggested she didn't want to deal with the cat, or whatever it really was.

"You seem like a good kitty to me." As I petted the cat more, it gave me a happy cat stare. Not to be confused with an indifferent cat stare, though I wouldn't blame you, if you did. I only stayed like that for another minute, before I got up and continued down the stairs. Things might really be staring to look up.

The way into the Doc's place was blocked by a sliding metal wired gate. Through it I could see a man watching a monitor, on the screen was what seemed to be a boxing match.

"Hello?"

"Hey, come on in." He kind of reminded me of my Gramps, though in a much different way than Meadran had. Meadran was like the gentler parts of Gramps, he brought out memories of the quiet times. This man reminded me of Gramps when he was telling war stories, or about his travels after the war. He very much had the same kind of been there done that attitude. It wasn't condescending, it was was more a sense of tiredness. The fact that the Doc was build like a boxer, rugged looking, and the lines on his face gave the impression he'd been through quite a few fight in his time, just nailed the point home.

Yeah, I liked him on sight. I could tell he was a genuinely good person. It made me more inclined to show some courtesy, I closed the gate behind me, after I went in.

He chuckled. "Manners. That's a sight." His voice was gruff and worn, telling a tale of its own without any extra words.

"Dr Vektor, I needed to get a consult on getting Chipped with at least the basics." I still wasn't convinced this was the best idea, but I knew that if I didn't fit in, I'd stick out. If I stuck out, I'd get hammered one way or another.

He started to say something, but then shook his head. His eyes flashed as he scanned me. "100% Ganic. That'll be tough. You'll want a Net connection with a neural port, and a chip socket. At least one eye to fully interact with Net architecture, but I'd recommend doing both or it'll really throw of your balance."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

My eyes? My eyes. That seemed insane. My eyes were perfectly good. I had twenty/twenty vision. Was I really going to give up my eyes? My gut boiled with both resentment and sheer fucking rage.

They didn't think anything of doing this? It was just normal? It was normal. Heavens help these poor fucked up people. Heavens help me for what I was going to do.

"If you'll hop up on the chair, we'll take a full scan. Then I'll be able to make suggestions as to what would work best with your meat." On autopilot, I sat in the surgeon's chair. It was a massive affair with all manner of odd looking equipment around it. Several monitors hung down from the ceiling, even with it's own readout of information that made no sense to me.

As the scan started, I wondered again if I was really going to go through with this.

While I was being scanned, my BTC was squeezing my arm. I thought it might be hiding itself. Honestly, I kept forgetting it was there until it did something. Was that on purpose? Why was it reacting this time? It didn't put up any kind of screen. Was it just responding to my nervousness?

An amusing side note, I kept getting glimpses of Scuff puttering about doing its own scan of equipment in Vik's clinic. Would those scans be useful? Should I have have been getting my Robo-Buddies to do that more?

"Hmm, do you have biomods, or any type of gene editing?" He sounded puzzled, and I got the feeling he didn't find too many puzzles these days. He scratched his head and I noticed he had some kind of exoframe on his arm, it seemed to be outfitted with an array of gadgets I didn't recognize.

"Not that I know of?" Who knows what the Company had done to me? That could have implanted me with all kinds of messed up things and I'd have had no clue.

"Now that's a conundrum." He seemed pensive. " Your genes are showing no degradation from radiation. Your blood contains no trace nanites from from any of the usual sources, even the hostile microbial content count is almost nonexistent." All that seemed like a good thing to me. Though now, I felt that I had even more things to worry about.

"Huh? Those are normal? Sounds terrible, how do folk live with all that?" Why weren't people less healthy? Maybe some of that cyberware I disdained made the difference.

"How do you not?" The Doc shook his head. Then he flicked something over to one of the screens in front of me. I understood none of it. "You can counter most of the problems with meds and other nanites. Most folks get a puff of a Max Doc or Vita Stim to keep going for a while. Knocks the majority of diseases right out, for a time anyway. Truth be told, I've never seen anyone with such an undamaged genomic structure. Do you mind if I take sample, just for me to study?"

"Not at all, Doc." The exoframe on his left arm did something just out of my peripheral vision, but I didn't feel anything. I just heard it moving.

Then the scanner beeped, and he spent a few moments reading the results.

"Good news though kid, with your unspoiled genetics, almost anything can be chipped in. That gives you a broad spectrum of options." He gave me options alright, way too many. It took roughly an hour for me to sort through the seemingly endless lists. The cheapest fully functional set was $3000, really "bare bones" as he put it. Really basic connectivity, comparatively slow and vulnerable to external exploitation. I didn't like the sound of that. The eyes wouldn't be functionally better than my current ones, I'd just be able to visualize some Net architecture and call screens. On the other end of the spectrum, the most expensive package he had available, was $20,000. It had a lot of bells and whistles. Embedded security features, seamless integration of neural controls. Intuitive adaption to my thoughts. Eyes with high resolution vision, zoom functions, low light options, and flare protection. Best of all blazing fast local NET connectivity.

"Not the best out there right now, but not far from it. Outside of Corpo labs anyway." I could appreciate that he didn't try to push me to the more expensive package. He let me decide what I could afford.

Do I get the basic tech now and upgrade later, or do I go out and find a way to scrape together $20k? I really didn't want to get into the endless cycle of buy now and fix it later. No, I wanted the best I could get. My gut felt that the less time I spent being... tinkered with, the better.

Without this "Chrome" I wouldn't be ready to meet the Faceman. I'd always have to be looking over my shoulder for the cops. Judging by the little bit and pieces Sinnamin had dropped, I didn't want to get on those guys bad side.

"I'll have to come back. It'll take me a bit to get some Eddies together for the 'preem chrome'." His demeanor seemed to shift to something less professional, but more concerned.

"Ya know kid, if you weren't so friendly and relaxed, I'd think you were a Corpo spy. We have to get ya use to the streets and quick. Or you might not make it." He knew all too well, how I'd likely end up gather the funds. This was his attempt at warning me the gangs would spot me coming. I just didn't fit in on the streets, I'd be an easy mark.

"Sure Doc, I'm working on it. Unless you know someone who can move some lumber, I'm going to have to do this the hard way." I'd hop on a deal for wood right now if the Doc could set something up, it would be better than what I was planning to do.

"Lumber? From actual trees? Where in the world would ya get that?" That was genuine shock right there. Wow, wood products must be really rare. Rarer than I'd first suspected. Which means Greg got me good. Damn.

"Dr. Vektor, you know how it is. I know a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a place." I chuckled and he snorted.

"Sure, I know people who'd do it, but they wouldn't trust ya without a rep." He seemed frustrated. Like he'd run into this problem before, and more than once. He really was one of the good guys.

"No Worries Doc, I'll figure it out. We all have to do what we can." I wasn't ready to show Vik what I could do yet. Not ready to show anyone really. Though when I was, he and Misty would be some of the first folks in this city that would get to see some real magic.

I left, said goodbye to the kitty and Misty. I wanted to linger and play with the cat, or maybe spend some more time with Misty, but I knew the more I played around the harder it would be to get the ball rolling.

Scuff got back on the car, and then we headed north in the Galena. That was where I'd find the first element in my plan.

It was somewhere around 1 AM at that point. I was getting tired. It'd been a long time since I had last slept, but I had work to do.

Sinnamin had mentioned you could sell loot in certain places. Kabuki for one. Most shopkeeps there would buy goods under the table. No questions asked. If it wasn't too rare or too big, this was a great option. You'd never get a good deal, but you would get something.

That lead me to my next idea. Sinnamin had told me about the Maelstrom. They were a Booster Gang, centered around chippin' in chrome and getting more of it, leaving their humanity behind. Real scumbags. Trading drugs, kidnapping, torture and snuff XBDs (I still didn't know what those were), and so much more.

Best part, they were really easy to find, and no one would miss them. The problem with my plan being they were often "Borged Out" or basically mostly chrome. So stronger, faster, meaner. Also, very probably insane by any standard metric.

Did I have a viable strategy? Other than having my Probes sneak up behind them and zap the fuck out of them? No. We'd try to find a small group or two, then see what we'd get from "flatlining" them. Repeat if needed.

If and or when I had enough money to afford Vik's top shelf chrome, I'd head south to another gang's territory. Find a cheap hotel and sleep. Let whatever heat we'd built up die down a bit, before checking in with the Doc again.

I'd be the first to admit it wasn't much of a plan. Stupid. Monumentally stupid.

Part of me wanted to go back to the Valley and grab an army of Probes and lay waste to everything. My instincts told me it wasn't the time for such drastic measures.

So much to do, and there was never enough time.