Never Fade Away: Problem Kids (ch. 32) (Patreon)

"Well, well, it's been a day and that lunk-headed Arasaka is still above snakes? Color me surprised. But good news foodies: Biotechnica is scrapping plans to bioengineer food from hazardous waste. Diners reportedly started airin' their paunches, saying everything tasted like cow pies... then exploded. Back to the lab, you crazy gonks. In the spirit of making such bad decisions as trying to make food outta rocket fuel and sticking around town with a guy like L catawamptiously fitting you and yours with California collars, here's a little somethin' I dug up called Ten Rounds with Jose Cuervo.”

…

Konpeki Plaza was the Afterlife for corpos, as far as I could tell. It was located in the Waterfront, a part of the city that had previously been an undisputedly Arasaka property until very recently. The Plaza itself was owned by Arasaka through a subsidiary, which in turn made it the beating heart for the corpos. Just as every Merc desired to enter the Afterlife, every corpo hoped that they would work their way up the ladder to find themselves invited here. Because it was in this building that backroom deals were made behind every closed door.

It was just a fancier No-Tell Motel, really. Instead of bloodstains, it possessed gilded gold and the clientele was just richer. It was every bit as dishonest and scummy, if not more so. The only thing that changed was the number of zeroes patrons got for a betrayal or dirty deed.

That was my impression as I got out of a vehicle, looking up at the wide and imposing lobby. Even a handful of months ago, I would have been astounded by it -- it was so grand and unlike anything I had ever seen before. Now I didn't so much as bat an eye as the door closed behind me. As I did, I heard the rumbling of thunder as the sky was heavy with gray clouds that were tinged with yellow. Entering the building itself, I heard a pleasant tune while a man held up a hand, gesturing for me to step into the scanners.

It should have triggered, but I forced it to give the greenlight. Subnets were getting harder to gain remote access, but not impossible. People were always going to be the weakest link in the chain, and through them, I gained remote access to the datafortress. All it took was a few hours of the Skeleton Key slowly chipping away to avoid detection to grant me admin level access. So, a false positive was simple to arrange. Stepping through, I approached the front desk, and a golden plated woman offered a polite bow, "Welcome to the Konpeki Plaza. How may I be of service?"

"A reservation for Jacob Wralins," I answered, noticing how the woman scanned me and my attire. I wasn't wearing a suit like everyone else. What I was wearing was a pair of closed-toe shoes, and I couldn't say I was a fan of them. More importantly, I wore a face mask to cover my identity, and upon scanning me, a false identity was delivered. The punk son of some random corpo.

"I have your reservation here. I hope you have a great stay at the Konpeki Plaza, and if you have any request, please let us know, it would be our honor to see them fulfilled," the woman informed with another bow, leaving me free to go. I simply nodded, heading to the room that I had booked through the elevator.

The effects of my war with Arasaka were felt even here, I noticed. The bar in the lobby was next to empty with only a handful of people there, and those that were seemed to be drinking rather heavily. The Plaza itself was getting creative with its guest list -- at any given moment, the Konpeki Plaza had three thousand rooms to fill and it only kept three hundred rooms open for reservation for VIPs. Currently, less than a thousand people had rooms rented, less than a dozen rooms reserved. The No-Tell Motel probably had a higher guest count. A very hard fall from two months ago.

They cooked the hotel's books to keep the appearance that its rooms were still filled. They radically upped security too. All to sell the image that it was safe to stay.

It wasn't.

"I'm not seeing any evidence of a trap," Becca noted, sounding frustrated, her voice ringing out in my ear. "Not officially, at least. The security is pretty beefy, but nothing they know you couldn't chew through solo. So, unless they got something off the record -- which they probably do -- they're at least doin' a good job of covering their tracks."

I leaned against the wall as the elevator took me up, looking through various cameras, searching for anything that stood out. I wasn't really surprised when I didn't see anything obvious. If this was a trap -- and it definitely was -- then they would know that I would be able to slip my fingers into the system. No, when they revealed what it was, it was going to be sudden and fast. It was probably a half mile out or something, waiting for me to be in position before moving an inch. "Everyone in position?"

"Yup," I heard Jack answer.

"We are," Kaiden agreed. They would be the heavy hitters, so to speak, when the trap was sprung. I would be the focus, and they would hit from behind to overwhelm whatever was thrown at us. Becca and Falco had our escape covered with the Javelin -- they could shrink down small enough to avoid notice, appearing where we needed evac, and act as reinforcements.

"Stay ready. They probably know I'm here," I said, stepping out of the elevator when it arrived on my floor. I ripped off the face cover, dropping it to the ground as I left, spotting the VIP elevator to the penthouse. I gave myself access to it by copying the apparently real Yorinobu's cyberkey, letting the doors slide open and taking me up another floor. Reaching underneath my jacket, I drew the GBM, ready for the welcoming party.

That wasn't there, it would seem.

I blinked in surprise, looking around the expensive looking penthouse. "No one is here," I remarked, my optics shifting to various detection methods -- infrared, blacklight, UV, and X-ray. No trace of anyone. Not even Yorinobu.

"That's a good thing, right?" Jack questioned and I frowned.

"Someone's looped the video feed in the room," I remarked idly, knowing it to be true because I couldn't see myself on the video feed. It was a good stitching. Great, even. Near untraceable and I had missed it in my initial viewing. More than that, I doubt that I ever would have noticed if I didn't see evidence of it.

"Could be a third party," Becca remarked, sounding doubtful.

I didn't see anyone, though, even if the scan revealed what I was here to steal. A coolant setup in a desk. Walking over and hacking in, I had it raised…

Only to see that the case that was supposed to be there was missing.

"Looks like it," I conceded, looking around again. "Relic is gone. If it was here at all," I remarked, idly curious if this really wasn't a trap after all. However, the thought was interrupted when an alert hit me. Yorinobu was on his way up. I looked through the security feed, seeing Yorinobu walking through the lobby alone, his expression serious. "Yorinobu is on his way up. It could be a decoy," I remarked -- it was a simple thing to change someone's face. Even still, I started to entertain a possibility that I hadn't until now.

What if this was a real offer?

"You should get out of there, L. If the loot is gone, then there's no point in staying." Becca quickly told me, but I disagreed, leaning against a server masked by a tinted black mosaic. I stood at the heart of the apartment, lazily spinning the GBM, watching as Yorinobu got in the elevator and the camera feed hit the loop.

"I'll stick around," I decided, hearing Becca sputter. Knowing that I was in for a chewing out, I decided to mute the call. A dangerous thing, but if this really was Yorinobu, then I needed to give the meeting my full attention. And, if it wasn't… I'm sure that the others would know if I got into any trouble. I'm betting there would be explosions. So, I waited for Yorinobu to arrive and a handful of seconds later, the elevators slid open.

Yorinobu looked good for someone that was eighty something years old. His skin was smooth, his hair dark, and he maintained a youthful visage. He was dressed in a sharp suit embroidered with dragons, trying to project power, but he seemed to have none of it when his eyes landed on me. I reached out to his systems, trying to authenticate his identity -- it was a good fake, if it was one. The elevator doors closed behind him before he spoke, watching me warily. "L-san. I didn't expect to see you," he admitted.

"Some seriously good timing, then," I remarked, my voice even, giving the GBM a final spin. "You arriving just after I do."

To that, his lips thinned, "Unfortunately, my arrival is not due to you. My father discovered my theft far sooner than I had anticipated. I have received word that he is on his way here. Now," Yorinobu stated, earning a cocked eyebrow from me.

Too good to be true. I hadn't understood that phrase when I first left the Orphanage, but now I understood it in its entirety. When something appeared too good to be true, that meant someone was trying to trick you and take everything that you had. "Is he now?" I echoed, not even trying to keep the skepticism out of my voice.

"My father does not fear you, L-san. Even after all you have done," Yorinobu told me, his tone grim. "Please, take the Relic and leave. My father wouldn't come unless he was certain that he would survive his stay in Night City."

I tilted my head. Why would the bait of a trap tell me there was a trap? "You're actually Yorinobu, huh?" I asked him, faintly surprised.

He didn't seem surprised at the question, "I am. I know that I'm asking for trust and you have precious little reason to want to trust anyone in my family, but I did not lie to you. We have a common cause -- I want to destroy my father's company. I fought in the trenches for forty years, L-san. Just as you are now, though you are having a greater effect than I ever did. I learned that the Arasaka corporation cannot be destroyed from the outside. It can only be destroyed from within."

He meant it. There was an intensity in his dark eyes that couldn't be faked.

However… "The trap isn't just for me," I realized, pushing off of the pillar. It was a trap. It just wasn't set up by Yorinobu, and it was larger than I had anticipated. As if to confirm my suspicions, the hotel got an alert – a flying car just touched down on the roof. The video feed was scrambled above, not looped, telling me that it was someone else's doing. "Your dad gave you enough rope to hang yourself with."

"... I see. Even after twenty years, he still doesn't trust me," Yorinobu mused, sounding… sorrowful. But not surprised.

There was a crashing sound from above, and I reacted instantly, crossing the distance between myself and Yorinobu, jabbing the GBM underneath his chin as I looked at who fell through the roof. It was a hulking mass of metal, I saw, and inhuman in nature. Four legs jutted out of the torso, each equipped with heavy firepower, the torso was long with three sets of arms -- two thick and heavy duty, with a smaller pair between them. At the top of the machine was a humanoid head… I didn't recognize it, but I knew who it was.

"Adam Smasher," I growled, my finger curling around the trigger.

"L," Smasher returned, his voice carrying an inhuman edge to it. "You chromed the fuck up." It was nearly impossible to tell, but that almost sounded like approval. Rain started to drizzle down from the hole in the ceiling, falling off of his black and chrome body.

"You're one to talk," I retorted. "You give up on being human entirely?"

I received a sinister sounding chuckle from Smasher. He was closer to nine feet tall than eight, his body thick to the point of being unwieldy. Based on how much he should weigh, I didn't know how he wasn't falling through the floor, but if I had to guess, it was element zero. As much as I wanted to give him my full undivided attention, I couldn't, because I heard the sounds of footsteps.

Saburo Arasaka walked down the steps into the penthouse, a faint smile tugging at his lips. I knew what he looked like -- I did my research. He appeared to be an old man, and he was, at over a hundred and twenty years old, but he only looked the part because he chose to. He wore a traditional yukata that was colored dark gray with a brown undershirt. A round pair of glasses rested on the bridge of his nose. He was followed by another man dressed in a white suit.

Goro Takemura. His hair had a touch of gray, as did his closely cut beard. His eyes were light optics, his neck red and black chrome marked with the Arasaka logo. He was a Legend, according to some. Smasher was the Legend-killer, the one that everyonet talked about, but Goro wasn't far behind him when it came to deadliness. After all, there was no other way he could become Saburo's personal bodyguard and hold the position for the better part of sixty years. His right hand and favorite tool. If Smasher was a hammer, then Goro was a scalpel.

"Shepard-san. It is good to speak to you in the flesh," Saburo greeted me, looking right at home and unconcerned, even with my GBM at his son's head. Goro and Smasher flanked him protectively. Was he confident that the two of them could take me down? I had sincere doubts about that. Goro's system was closed, but Smasher's wasn't. My stomach clenched when I saw that the AIs were still lurking in his body -- I don't think I managed to destroy the Typhon cyberdeck when we last fought. That was regrettable.

"Saburo. I've been looking forward to standing in the same room as you," I said, unmuting the call as I spoke. They could still hear me, and if things got crazy, they could give me a fair warning.

Goro took a step forward, "You will speak to Saburo-sama with respect," he growled, the implants under his white suit glowing faintly from underneath.

"No. I don't think I will. Actually, I think I'm going to go through the two of you and cut him in half," I responded, my voice cold. That seemed to set him off -- Goro's lips thinned as his eyes flashed, an expression of barely contained fury. "But you knew that already. That man treated me like a fucking lab rat and he's still trying to put me on the table to see what makes me tick. So, thanks for delivering him to me. I appreciate it."

Saburo laughed lightly, "I am unaccustomed to being spoken to like that. Too many fear my presence. Such as my traitorous son, whom you have hostage. A poor one, Shepard-san. I have known of his plans to steal the Relic and give it to Netwatch for some time now. Who do you believe gave him the opportunity in the first place?"

Yorinobu stiffened at that. It seemed that he had been played for the fool. "I don't fear you. I hate you," Yorinobu snapped, taking a step forward and I chose to remove my GBM from his head. I don't think Saburo cared if I did kill him. I took him hostage on the off chance that he might, to check his reaction, but if I did pull the trigger… I'd expect a thank you rather than regret. "Damn you for everything you've done! The world is dying because of your fucking pride! Goro, you lapdog -- you honor him because he took you in from the slums? Why do you think there are slums in the first place?! Him! It's because of him!" Yorinobu snarled the words, taking another step forward, jabbing a finger at his impassive father.

"I can lay down every tragedy in Japan at his feet -- every dead child, every massacre, every rape, and abuse of power. Because that is the world that you created. All because the Emperor surrendered and the empire faded. You hide what you are underneath patriotism," Yorinobu spat on the floor, "You're a rabid dog that can only care about being at the top of the pile. You are everything that is wrong with the world. I should have killed you the moment you told me what your plans were." I popped my vibroblade out of my arm, resting a hand on the hilt, which made Goro pause, his eyes flickering to me.

You couldn't fake the hate in Yorinobu's voice. The rage. I had held doubts about him until this very moment. Now? Now, I saw it. Yorinobu would do anything to destroy Arasaka and his father.

"As I should have killed you the moment you ran off to play rebel," Saburo returned, his voice cold as ice. "Your sister is the only reason I stayed my hand. She begged for mercy on your behalf. For forty years, she begged and pardoned your behavior, claiming that you would one day see sense. She wept with joy when you wanted to enter the fold once again, taking your place at my side. I knew the truth from the very beginning -- you, my son, are too much like me. You are no more capable of surrendering than I am."

"Don't speak as if you care about her. We both know you aren't capable of it. Everyone in this world exists only so you can use them. You'll damn the world and reduce it to ashes merely so you can be king of them," Yorinobu said, his hands curling into fists. "You've burnt enough of the world because of your vanity."

I was surprised to see Saburo's eyes narrowing a fraction, telling me that the words had struck a nerve. "I have heard enough from you, boy." Saburo stated, his voice like iron. "You shall be dealt with in time. For now, it is the one behind you that I seek."

"I'm right here," I said, flipping Saburo the bird. "Come get me." I had a chance to cut the head off the snake. I was going to take it. Saburo Arasaka would die today. I would see to it.

"So I shall. Smasher. Goro-kun. Retrieve my property," Saburo stated. A low warbled chuckle escaped Smasher.

"At once, Saburo-sama," Goro stated, his implants flashing…

Then time stood still -- a single moment stretching off for a full minute -- before the three of us exploded into action. Goro shot forward, bearing the blade that he unsheathed with a lightning fast draw, closing the distance between us. I saw his eyes widen a fraction when the razor sharp edge of his blade raced towards my neck, only to find the blade blocked by my vibroblade which cut right through it while I fired a shot of the GBM. The weapon bucked in my prosthetic hand, sending a sluggishly moving red beam at his torso.

It wasn't surprising to see that he was a biotic too -- his body becoming translucent, letting the blood red beam pass through him harmlessly while he darted to my side, thrusting his broken blade at my throat. He had a solid Sandy, I noticed. He had to have, simply because he was able to keep up with me. However, mine was still better. Goro seemed to slow down when he reformed, my own body speeding up as time was further dilated, letting me easily sidestep his thrust to drive my vibroblade deep into his chest.

His eyes started to widen when Smasher arrived, moving quickly even to my gaze. As the red beam tore a hole through the far wall, I saw that a circular disk in Smasher's chest was glowing red. A knock-off of my GBM? I pivoted, because the large arms revealed heavy machine guns that promptly began to fire. Ripping the blade free, I started to block, my blade cutting through the bullets as I rushed Smasher, my GBM already ready for another shot. With a quick twist of my wrist I could send the bullets clear of me, and with each arm revealing two heavy machine guns, there were a lot of bullets coming my way.

I closed the distance, lashing out with my blade and struck at the black armor. My blade cut through steel like it wasn't even there, so it was surprising when the edge of my blade could only carve a long slash into his chest rather than cutting through it. How dense was that armor?

It was a trap, I realized, the red glow shining brighter before I felt heat on my face. Backing up, I fired the GBM on reflex, forcing Smasher to dodge the attack- no. Not dodge. His body glowed with biotic energy, swelling like I had never seen it before. The GBM was a concentrated beam of gravity, and while Smasher couldn't make it relent, what he could do was redirect it with the same force that it was made of. With pure, raw biotic power, Smasher curved the shot, makingh the beam cut through the wall behind him and the floor. Probably tearing through the entire building.

The gravity affected his own attack as well, the laser bending until it carved a long line across the ceiling. As I settled near the glass wall, time resumed to see what damage both attacks did.

The building shuddered underfoot in a telling way. Goro wasn't dead, despite the fact that I had nearly cut him in half, positioning himself between Saburo and myself. Smasher stood across from me while I was between him and Yorinobu. For a long moment, there was a terse silence between us, Smasher only having eyes for me.

Then the sound of broken glass caught my attention. Glancing out of the corner of my eye- Jackie? I was surprised to see him, hiding in the server pillar that had been shattered during the brief fight, with a container clutched to his chest, his eyes wide with fear. The Relic. How had he managed to slip my scans? I had checked the pillar.

Goro was the one to move first, yanking out a gun as time slowed once again, going for Jackie. Smasher closed in on me as well, his new body shockingly useful for CQC, I learned, dodging or blocking a half dozen strikes from glowing blades that protruded from his arms or legs. I had no idea what his armor was made out of, but if the GBM wouldn't work, and neither would the vibroblade… I closed my chrome fist and struck him in the chest with it, five hundred million volts of electricity erupting from my fist square into his chest. That definitely had an effect, I saw as Smasher was flung through the wall, leaving me with just enough time to block the blade that would have killed Jackie even after cutting through the box he carried.

The Relic fell free of the box as I drove Goro away, lashing out with my hand again as he backed off. Electricity sparked from my grasp, a hand of white lightning emerging that closed around Goro like a fist, making his implants spark. With him out of the fight, however temporarily, I caught the Relic in the palm of my hand. It was smaller than I had expected it to be, I thought, looking down at it -- it was the size of a datashard.

I didn't have a safe place to put it. I believed now that Yorinobu was working against his father. And I believed that he risked a lot to steal this Relic and whoever was on it.

So, I put it in the safest place that I could.

I chipped it in.

A system check revealed that there was no malware on the chip, and I paid it no mind beyond that as time resumed once again. Jackie fell to the ground, his face bloodless, as he touched his neck to find a thin river of blood. "Jackie," I started, looking at Goro, who was climbing back to his feet, though he looked far worse for wear. "Get Yorinobu out of here," I told him, the hoverboard on the base of my spine enlarging and dropping so that he could catch it.

Yorinobu was glaring at his father while I shouldered my vibroblade, seeing Smasher emerging from the wall, mostly unharmed. I heard Jackie gulp, "Alright, mano. But, uh… what are you going to do?" He asked me, and I smiled right at Saburo as the building shuddered again underfoot.

"Win round two."