Syringe in One Hand, Gun in the Other 18 (Patreon)

Syringe in One Hand, Gun in the Other

Chapter 18

-VB-

Alan Marris

Our attack on Arasaka Corporation was “technically” out of proportion. However, we cared little about “proportionality.” On top of that, we didn’t intend to return to that particular world as we had taken samples of nearly all technology out in the public and wrapped up our extraction operations because we got tired of the Arasaka and Militech interference. Unlike Arasaka, Militech actually communicated before we went apeshit and made a symbolic showing of reconciliation. And unlike Arasaka, they had a legitimate reason to attack us; we looked like a militant mining operation illegally digging up stuff in their land. Not all or even half of our operations took place on Militech land, leased or outright owned, but we did do them some legal wrong.

Arasaka didn’t even have that excuse when they sent mercs after us.

So Militech was spared the lasers of doom while Arasaka got bombed to hell and back.

As for the laser, those came from people who were much bigger and more powerful than Arasaka Corporation.

While the Wiyrkomi Corporation might not be a household name on any Earths, it was a megacorporation in control of entire planets in a sector of space called New Eden. Compared to Arasaka’s inability to dominate one planet, Wiyrkomi Corporation and its security arms were much more powerful, much more technologically advanced, and more than happy to sell military-grade warship weapons to anyone who had the means to pay.

And we certainly did by selling them Arasaka’s own cybernetics by passing it off as our own.

Aboard Annaro IV - Wiyrkomi Corporation Factory space station, we met up with a middle-level agent of the Wirykomi Corporation by the name of Hamunala Ozino*.

“Your cybernetics from before were fascinating but these are extraordinary,” Hamunala gasped as she looked over the videos of the Dynalar Sandevistan cyberware in operation from multiple perspectives, including that of the user.

One technological edge Cyberpunk’s world had on New Eden was the former’s cyber technology. Despite being thousands of years into the future, New Eden’s own cybernetic implants were inferior to the likes of Sandevistan. Sure, New Eden produced other types of cybernetic implants that augmented them for different reasons but slowing down time to the degree that Sandevistans did? There were multiple variations of Sandevistan, the Dynalar variation being considered the “least” of them, so when - because they were going to - reverse-engineer the Dynalar Sandevistan, we could introduce better variations of it and continue to sell them.

Because we could and were making them.

“And I want the Wirykomi Corporation to act as our retailer,” we told her. She looked very interested, and the negotiations went well. Sure, we weren’t getting a lot of ISK (the New Eden currency) but we were getting knowledge, blueprints, and a lot of raw materials from them, and those were worth more to us than ISK.

---

In another dimension, we were putting those materials to good use.

And it would have been our primary focus had Gloria not walked up to one of us and slapped us really fucking hard.

“Where the fuck are we?!”

Yeah, we expected this.

-VB-

Gloria Sanchez

She stared at her lover, and couldn’t help the drop of her jaw as he regaled her the story of who he was and where he was from.

“Wait, wait, you’re…?” she stopped him when he began to say that he was a clone.

“A clone, yes,” he nodded. “But we are all clones.”

“We…?”

The guards, the people who she thought were guards, took off their helmets, and her jaw dropped even more as she saw at least a dozen of them with Alan’s face.

“We’re all Alan and Alan is us.”

She turned back to the … first Alan she had been talking to. “And … And …” She couldn’t find the words to express what she was feeling right now. What was she supposed to feel here? It felt like he should have said something about this. This was simply too big of a deal to just hide!

But … but then she was just his lover, not his wife.

And she realized that this may just be what he was doing. He was showing her things now that he wouldn’t have before. She took a plunge and trusted him, which got her and David here. Now, he was trusting her.

“... Tell me everything.”

“We also have another lover.”

Gloria stared at him. He stared back sheepishly.

With swiftness she didn’t know she could pull off, she lunged over the small table they had been talking across and punched him in the face. He keeled over and tumbled to the floor, and she flinched as she looked around, expecting the guards to draw their guns on her. She wasn’t scared for herself; the bastard deserved it! But she was scared for what would happen to David because of her lashing out at Alan.

But the clones didn’t do anything. In fact, they looked sheepish.

As if …

“You’re all connected.”

“Yup,” one of the clones replied. “And that’s kind of why we have another lover.”

“... Explain,” she gritted out.

“Blue balls.”

“... What?”

“Ever get aroused and ready to fuck but you couldn’t?”

“... What does that have to do with all of this?!” she hissed.

“Well, when one of us clones get aroused…” he trailed off.

She stared at him, expecting him to continue, but then her own brain made the connection when he just trailed off.

“Oh.”

There had been hundreds of clones in the compound alone.

But it didn’t change the fact that she felt betrayed by his admission. That he had a side input. Or that she was the side input.

“I need fresh air,” she grunted as she stood up and left the room to find David.

-VB-

David Sanchez

This place wasn’t the Nighty City or Seattle that mom wanted to go to, but it was also kind of his place. Like somewhere where he fit in instead of trying to fit in but failing like he did at the school.

This place was … nova.

Sure, the place that mom was staying at was weird as fuck. They had walls made out of stone and wood. Wood! They made that expensive shit into a useless wall! It had a lot of furnaces that were constantly on, and then there was that weird room up at the top with a sleeping input because there was no way the guys there wasn’t keeping their input there.

And then there was that other input, the blonde joytoy. She was pretty for sure but also very smug. He didn’t like her.

He also didn’t like that Mom was hanging out with Alan.

But there was a city not too far away that David got Alan to give him a ride to (but who also made two of his goons follow him around and told David that they were his bodyguards), and the city, even though it looked like a dumb fuck countryside hicktown, had more preem stuff than Night City.

Then a sultry voice surprised him. “Boy, what are you doing here?”

He turned around and realized that he was in a street that he didn’t recognize.

There was a sudden violent scuffle as David felt himself get pulled back harshly by his “bodyguards” and they stood between him and the owner of that sweet voice.

His eyes nearly popped out when he saw a girl with a serious huge rack and rear, and they didn’t look like bioware!

‘Are those natural?’ he thought.

“Matron, back off,” the bodyguard to David’s left demanded.

She looked surprised. “Oh, it’s you,” the dark-haired sexy gal sighed as she rested her hands over her big titties. That only made them seem bigger. She looked at them with obvious curiosity. “Why are you, the lonely hermit, acting as a bodyguard for a kid? He can’t be yours.”

“Doesn’t matter, Matron,” the bodyguard growled, and David jerked as he saw the bodyguard’s chrome and tech go hot. What had been seams in the armor opened up, showing blue lines underneath that quickly turned red with heat.

“Oh, come off it~!” she tittered. “I’m just curious, you know? Actually, everyone’s curious about you, you know? The council here in the city is antsy about relying on you for basically … everything.”

Were they talking about boring adult shit?

“Not our problem. Back. Off.”

She threw her hands up quickly but with a smile still on her face. “Fine, fine, fine. At least I get to tell the council that I tried talking to you. The council just wants to meet you, you know?”

“...”

She finally stopped talking and walked away.

“Who was that sexy lady?” David asked the big guy as his armor finally clicked back into place. It was a cool armor. David wondered if he could get Alan to chip him in with some good chrome.

“Matron. A human mind controller,” the bodyguard grunted.

David blinked before scowling. “Man, if you don’t wanna tell me just -”

The bodyguard forcefully turned him around … just in time for David’s eyes to land on a guy leisurely floating by with fire for his head.

David stared at the guy as they passed by and then his jaws dropped.

“Welcome to Earth Nun, David,” the bodyguard chuckled. “This is an alternate dimension of Earth that you know.”

-VB-

A/N: *Caldari NPC agent in EVE Online.

Worlds visited so far:

Worm Earths Bet, Gimel, Nun, and etc; Cyberpunk 2077 Earth; New Eden