It's About Saving Yourself Ch 31

Chapter 31 where we see an update on Alex's level of preparedness.

Good evening y'all. Hope you had a good weekend. If not, hope you at least got a little rest.

If still not...well, we all have those sometimes. You have my sympathy.

But in other news, chapter!

Hope you enjoy. It was fun to write.

Lemme know what you think in a comment, or don't. Whichever is best for ya.

Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy it.

=][=

“Come on then!” I grunted, twisting my hips and pushing. “Stop, being, such a, stubborn, bitch!”

It took several more violent twists, but with a squeal, the metal gave away and the panel I’d been working on came loose. Which was good, if it didn’t the next step would have been to render it into a liquid, because you can’t resist your new owner’s wishes if you were a liquid.

Tossing the panel aside, I spliced all the wires that needed splicing, managed all the cables that needed managing, and heaved the Zetatech Mega-Printer into place, triple checked my placement, then spot-welded it to the floor.

Was the Militech Behemoth meant to be a combination Workshop/Surgery room/Living room/Bedroom/Entertainment center/Armory/Storage room?

No, no it was not.

But that didn’t mean it couldn’t be all of those things with but a modest application of gumption, know-how, and just enough elbow grease to make the whole thing work.

I had also spent the money to install more batteries and fill them using solar energy, because that big ball of plasma in the sky was good for more than skin cancer.

Apex’s drone body’s spidery head crawled out from a nest of wires where she was prepping the stupidly big truck to interface with the clone vat we were going to install. +Dad?+

“Yes honey?” I asked as I measured the corner where the operations chair was going to go.

+How did Miss Rogue get the Behemoth? I thought only governments and corporations could purchase it.+

“Eh, she probably knew someone that wanted to be rid of it.” I said offhandedly. “We’ve had to fix enough things on this stupid thing to make me think that, at least.”

+Okay!+ She said and disappeared back into the nest of wires.

What was I doing?

Hmm…I definitely should install an auto-doc, I should prepare for the possibility that both Vik and I will be too hurt to operate on someone, and Apex will be too indisposed to fix whatever is wrong with us. Which means that these wires would—

+Dad?+ Apex asked, standing upside down on the ceiling.

“Yes Apex?”

+Where will grandma cook?+

“I bought a portable kitchen, we can set it up and cook outside, it only takes a few minutes to get it ready.”

+Okay!+ She skittered away to something else that needed to be worked on.

Now where was I?

Huh, that’s a lot of electrical things I was installing, I’d have to be careful to manage our power consumption, yes the Behemoth had quite the powerful battery, and yes, I’d installed extra batteries, but I could only fit so many solar panels in storage, and setting them up and taking them down was a whole-ass production. And we’d be stuck with electric power for a while, I could only bring so much CHOOH2, I was going to have to see about breaking into Biotechnica to steal the recipe for the wheat, and some samples, and the specific strain of yeast they use t—

+Dad?+ Apex asked, peeking out from one of the large ‘redundant’ batteries I’d installed.

“Yeah?”

+Where will the baby sleep? We don’t have any baby-sized beds.+

“I’ll build a crib for the baby later.”

+Okay!+ She vanished back behind the battery’s pannels.

…

Where was I?

Oh hey, Apex had finished prepping the cables for the clone vat. I spliced the necessary cables and slaved it to the Behemoth’s systems so it could be controlled from the same panel that would control the Mega-Printer and, eventually, the auto-doc. Yes I would keep a smaller version of its terminal as a just-in-case redundancy, but it would be a whole lot more convenient, and a hell of a lot cooler, to be able to control the whole thing from the same terminal that controls the air conditioning an—

+Dad?+ Apex asked, crawling out of the small tunnel that connected the storage area to the driver’s cabin.

“Hmm?”

+Where will we fit Miss Rebecca’s gun collection? We don’t have enough space in the armory for all of your guns and hers.+

“We’ll have to leave some behind, Apex.”

+Okay!+ She vanished back into the driver’s cabin.

I stood there, bundle of wires in hand, and tried to think of what I was doing before the interrup-

+Dad?+ Apex asked, suspended upside down in front of me, hanging from a small steel wire she’d stuck to the ceiling.

Inhale, count to four, exhale. “Yes, Apex?”

+…Nevermind!+ She rose back to the ceiling and skittered away.

Suddenly, I really didn’t feel like working on the Behemoth anymore. “Okay, lunch break!”

I had to reposition my feet to stay balanced as a weight suddenly latched onto my back. +Yaaaaay!+

“You don’t eat, why are you so excited?” I asked, raising my voice to be heard above the humm of Apex’s anti-grav module.

+It’s fun to watch you, mom, and grandma eat!+ Apex answered.

Was that normal? I wanted to say that was weird, but what the hell do I know?

“Okay,” I said, moving slowly so as to not overbalance. Even with the anti-grav module active, Apex’s body was the equivalent to a not-insignificant percentage of my own mass. Thinking on it, this might make for some pretty good training. “Let’s go see if the elf and the magic lady want anything in particular for lunch.”

+Can you ask him to make fire again!?+ Apex asked excitedly.

“You already saw him make fire when I showed you I wasn’t cheating on your mother.” I shot that down.

+Pleeeeease!+

“No, any magic they do might draw in the bad magic-men.”

+But you’re here, so you can just get rid of the bad magic people!+

“The answer is still no, Apex.” I said, closing the Behemoth and activating the safety features.

Just a bit more, just a bit more and I’d have everything I needed. I already had everything to be able to survive in any place, but if everything went well, it would only take a couple of months for me to be able to set up shop anywhere and lead a very nice, comfortable life.

A giant armored truck that had a 20mm rotary autocannon attached to the top would provide all the safety I could ask for. Sure, it didn’t have it right now, but I already had the cannon and enough ammunition for eighteen continuous seconds of fire.

Just a little bit longer, and I could leave this horrible nightmare shithole behind. And drag everyone worth a damn with me.

+Pleeeeeeeeease!+

“No.”

=][=

[In what should have been the night of the century, he approached the most alluring stud and nearly paid for it with his life. Do not miss the next episode of Watson Whore, next Wednesday at ten, only on WNS.]

Jin shuddered as the TV showed a first-person view of what it would look like if fucking Redeye decided to take issue with you in particular, and blinked at the security feed, then looked again to make sure he was actually seeing what his optical receptors were picking up.

But, contrary to what common sense assured him, yes, he was indeed watching some gonk punk sneak through the Tyger Claw’s megabuilding like he was some fuckin’ cartoon character. He even did a few ‘tacticool’ rolls to get behind things at the wrong angle to not be plainly visible to the cameras.

“Oi! Goro!” Jin called out to his friend, who looked up from the game of cho-han the others at the security booth were playing. “Come check this ‘Tino kid out!”

Goro stood up from the game to loud complaints from Aiko, Ken, and Emi, but when he saw the screens he barked a laugh. “What the hell is up with this gonk?”

Jin laughed along with him. “I know right?”

On the screen, they watched the scrawny ‘Tino boy with the punk pompadour and better than average clothes wait just long enough so the camera would have a perfect view of him as he ducked into a closet.

“What an idiot.” Goro laughed and hefted his neon-green katana. “Alright, I’mma go kill the fucker.”

“Wait wait, oi! Rei! Come get a look at this gonk!” Jin called out to his little sister, sitting on a corner doing homework. His little sister was the pride and joy of the gang, she was going to that fancy Arasaka school and once she joined up, they would help her climb the ladder by making certain anyone who got in her way had some ‘unfortunate accidents.’ Best investment ever.

“One moment onii-chan.” She said absently, her eyes glowing.

“Nah nah, you’ve spent way too long staring at that screen, come stare at this one! Breaks are important!” Jin insisted.

Rei sighed, but stood and went to the screens, where she froze the moment she saw the dumb gonk, her face turning white as a sheet. “Holy shit that’s David Martinez.”

“Who?” Jin asked, but Rei wasn’t next to him anymore.

“Goro!” She said, grabbing the man by the back of the shirt and pulling, stopping him leaving. “Goro you can’t go!”

“The fuck?” Goro asked.

“Rei?” Jin asked, confused. “Rei, what’s got you so spooked?”

She shook her head. “That’s David Martinez! You can’t fight him! Just, just pretend you didn’t see him or something!”

“Who the hell is David?” Asked Aiko.

“He’s a boy from my class!” Rei hissed. “He fought off Redeye!”

“Bullshit!”

“What!?”

“No fuckin’ way!”

Reactions were as varied as the people in the room, all looking at the amateur on the screen in disbelief. Jin shook his head. “Rei, you can’t be serious.”

“I am!” Rei shouted. “I ran the rumor down, I saw the recording! David used to be in a gang, Redeye came in, his hacker, Onryō, made the leader shit himself and then killed him! After that, Redeye took him away, but he showed up to school the next day!”

Jin looked at his little sister, then at the gonk on the screen, then back to his sister. “I…I’m not…But nobody has fought Redeye and lived. Nobody! Maybe the job was to take him away? Deliver him somewhere?”

Rei shook her head. “The story goes that he and Redeye fought, and he escaped by hiding in a dumpster.

Ken whistled, impressed. They’d all seen Redeye fight thanks to The Chronicles of Redeye, anybody that could fight off that monster long enough to break away and hide? That was special.

Jin looked once again to the gonk on the screen. “But, but someone who could fight off Redeye wouldn’t be making so many mistakes!”

There was a silence in the room while they all tried to work their way through their current conundrum, before Aiko said. “So that’s his game…diabolical.”

“Aiko?” Rei asked.

Aiko shook her head. “You’re right Jin, someone who could fight off Redeye wouldn’t make amateur mistakes.” She pointed at the screen. “He isn’t making mistakes. He’s pretending to!”

“What!?” Goro demanded.

“Think about it! Whoever set up the cameras was an idiot!” Aiko hissed. “Some of them have really shit views! Half the time shit is hidden from view purely because of the poor angle! But so far he’s appeared on every single camera!”

Jin finally understood. “He’s trying to draw us out.”

“Exactly!” Aiko said. “He’s acting like an amateur, so we’d underestimate him! Goro would have gone alone, expecting some punk that don’t know shit!”

Goro swallowed noisily. “If he fought off Redeye…I wouldn’t stand a fucking chance.”

“We’d be down a fighter before the fight even started.” Jin murmured. “If Redeye were here, we’d either not realize he was here at all, or we’d all die, there is no in-between with that monster. But this guy? He wants us to fight him, he wants a massacre.”

“He must be tired of only being known for surviving Redeye.” Aiko said. “That’s why he’s showing up on every camera and acting like a dumbass. He wants to start a fight.”

“All warfare is based on deception.” Ken said suddenly, crossing his arms as he studied the screen. “A wise warrior appears strong when he is weak…and weak, when he is strong. I must commend him, if it weren’t for Rei, I would have bought it hook, line, and sinker.”

“What do we do?” Jin asked.

Rei shook her head. “Just ignore him, subtly call any who are in his path away. We already looked weak thanks to Redeye killing Shobo. The gang cannot afford another such blow to its reputation.” She swallowed hard. “And…And I don’t want to lose you. Let’s not give him what he wants, just let him finish whatever he is here for.”

It left a bad taste in his mouth, but Jin allowed it. Goro called away any of the guards this David would have run into, they watched him ‘sneak’ into the server room, be seemingly stumped by the closed door, then ‘clumsily’ climb through an air vent into the server room in plain view of the camera. He then downloaded video footage from a few weeks back into a shard, triggering the primary silent alarm as he did so.

Which just reinforced what Rei said. Jin had never heard the notification for the primary silent alarm, nobody had ever tripped it. This had to be on purpose.

They watched, powerless, as the monster in sheep’s clothing ‘tacticoolly’ rolled out of their building, and walked off, making it exceedingly obvious he had something he wasn’t supposed to, and ‘breathing a sigh of relief’ when he ‘got away unnoticed.’

“The sheer bloodthirst of that monster.” Jin muttered.

=][=

David grinned, the shard he’d klepped burning in his pocket.

That had been so fucking easy, he was a natural Edgerunner! He’d bet he didn’t even need all the stuff he’d gotten from Doc.

Sure, the Reflex Tuner, Syn-Lungs, reinforced skeleton and skin-weave were nice to have, but he’d shown he didn’t fuckin’ need them since he was a goddam ghost! The only cyber-ware he’d really needed was the addition to his neuroport that let him spoof his location on the CitiNet-PS!

All those dead gonks at the landfill weren’t nothin’, David was fucking special! He was built different!

Now to turn this in to Muamar and see if he could get any more work. It was only a matter of time before David was sitting at the top of the fucking Afterlife!

This was the start of David Martinez’s rise to the top.

He just wished getting cyber-ware installed didn’t hurt so much.