Never Fade Away: Black Dog (ch. 37) (Patreon)

"Well call me moon-eyed, but I think I have me a new favorite brand of free range lunatic!

Y'all might have noticed, but there's been a ton of preemo cybermods flooding the streets lately. Focus of today though, is what folks are doing with a certain kind - Sandevistans. You know - the mod that lets you make greased lightning look slow.

Some brilliant gonk got it in his head to gather up all his buddies with a Sandy chipped in and host a little foot race - at speeds approaching the sound barrier!

Not just on the roads either - these speed freaks are throwing in parkour and getting into all sorts of mischief. BD's and vids are circulating, and I can attest that they are preem and that this cowgirls hoping this particular rodeo is here to stay!

Here's Cop Car by Keith Urban.

~

"You're one of those biotic kids," River Ward greeted him, seated at the counter of Sloppy Macs. They served food here, allegedly. He was sitting with his back against the wall while his position gave him a good view of everyone coming and going from the restaurant chain on the fringes of Downtown. He was a man that looked to be in his mid thirties -- a shaved head that brought back memories, a naturally tanned skin tone, but most notably was his left eye. An optic that made no attempt at appearing natural.

"I am. That a problem?" Kaiden asked, taking a seat down from him. Forcing Kaiden to keep his back to the entrance. There were a dozen odd patrons in the restaurant and, according to his intel, River learned the hard way the dangers of working alone. Kaiden's gaze flickered to the bullet holes in the man's bomber coat, recognizing the caliber that was used by his partner.

River watched him for a moment, his expression sharp. "Might be. If you aren't making trouble, trouble finds you," he pointed out, and that was probably true.

"It's Night City. Trouble finds everyone," Kaiden deflected, wonder who exactly was River's back up. He wasn't L, who could scan the building and know everyone's history in a blink. His Amp was the only tech that he had in him beyond an OS for the sake of convenience. Getting all of that crap out of him was the first thing he did after L broke him out of the Wayward Home.

"Suppose that's true. Now more than ever," River admitted. "Your message said you wanted to talk. So, talk," he instructed, leaning forward as his optic dilated. If he had to guess, it was something to do with reading his body language and vitals. A tip off if he tried to lie. A useful tool for a cop.

"Yorinobu Arasakais going to run for the mayor's office, and his biggest concern is the police. Your name came up as the last good cop in the force," Kaiden replied, his tone blunt. He might not have the optics, but Kaiden knew he was good at reading people. It had been part of a long term project that his work days revolved around in the early days, and the skill hadn't atrophied. Which is how he could tell that River was immediately pissed off but trying to swallow it down.

"Did it now?" He replied testily, grabbing the bottle of beer in front of him, buying him time to think as he took a sip. "Figures that the only time politicians and corpos talk about the NCPD is when they want to use us," he added, unable to swallow down the bitter remark.

As far as Kaiden knew, that was probably true. "I don't really care about the politics behind it. I just want the cops to be stable and not turn into a bunch of degenerates." Kaiden replied bluntly, and he saw the words struck a nerve. As he saw Night City, it could be broken up into a handful of blocks of power. Those blocks of power ground against each other to increase their share of the pie chart, and while the word stable would be an exaggeration, it was sustainable. Mostly.

The Corpos. The Cops. The Fixers. The Gangs. And, lastly, the Edgerunners.

All of it created a system of checks and balances. The scales might swing one way for a bit, but for every action there would be a reaction.

And, right now, the balance of power was completely out of whack. The Corpos had lost the lion's share of their power. The Tyger Claws lost a lot of territory and numbers, and they were fighting to take back what they lost. Then you had L.

If Night City was going to avoid becoming a Combat Zone then the first order of business was reestablishing the checks and balances of the city.

"Do you have any idea how impossible it is to be a cop in this city?" River asked, his face twisting into a scowl. "No funding, every asshole perp has connections to someone, and half the time you're fighting your own guys to catch your perp. You can tell Yorinobu he can fuck off with that savior complex of his. If he wanted to do something then he should have done it years ago. What's happening to the force now is the culmination of decades of neglect and megacorporations valuing money over people's lives."

"If you say so," Kaiden replied with a shrug. He didn't know enough to have that debate. "Point is that the cops are turning into another gang, and that needs to stop. You'd have to talk to Yorinobu about the details -- I'm just the messenger boy." River's scowl deepened. He wanted an argument. He had some things he wanted to get off of his chest and he was annoyed that he couldn't unload them onto Kaiden.

"And what? What are you wanting exactly? For me to miraculously clean up the force?" There was a bitter note in his voice, and Kaiden understood.

"You're already trying to do that," he pointed out. "If you weren't, then we wouldn't be having this conversation at all." River seemed attached to the police force. Ideally, they would build a new organization around him and the diamonds he picks out of the pile of shit. But, they could start from scratch if they needed to. The balance to the city had to be restored. It was just a question of how.

River grunted in acknowledgment, taking another sip of his beer. He worked his jaw for a moment, seemingly considering something before he came to a decision. "I want you to prove it," River said, making Kaiden frown.

"Prove what?"

"That Yorinobu gives a shit about the force and we're not just a feather in his hat. I'm working a case, and I want you to tell him exactly what you see. I want him to hear it from the horses mouth how fucking impossible people like him and L have made this job." River said, flicking some credits to the waiter before getting up. That… wasn't exactly what Kaiden had in mind, but if that's what it took.

"Alright," Kaiden decided. If it would bring River around to their side then he didn't mind sacrificing his afternoon. He had the time. Unlike some. River seemed pleased with the lack of an argument and led Kaiden out of the restaurant. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a large Latino man following them out after a small delay. River's back up? Or his tail?

They got into a truck that looked like it had seen better days even before the bullet holes and cracked windows. Without a word, River started the truck up and joined the flow of traffic. It didn't take long for River to speak up, "This city had gone right to hell. It's always been bad, but lately…" he trailed off, before they found a prime example. "Kids with superpowers. Then having guns and chrome were bad enough," he added.

Two of Kaiden's kids had grabbed a car with Lift and were stacking them up like a tower, all ten of them giggling at the people that were shouting and cursing within the vehicles. That giggling abruptly stopped when River pulled up. "Fuck you five-oooohhhh shit, it's Big Bro M! Run! Run away!" The kids scattered like a bunch of cockroaches the moment that Kaiden stuck his head out of the window. L was the favorite. The one that they all looked up to, admired, and wanted to be like. Jack too, to a lesser degree.

Which left him as the disciplinarian.

"You can run but you can't hide!" Kaiden called out to them as they ran away, disappearing down allies or lifting themselves up to fly away with their biotics and jump boots. "I know where you all live!" He reminded with a shake of his head before reaching out and channeling his biotics, unstacking the pile of cars, though the people in them seemed less than pleased with his help. Kaiden helped them along with a gentle push to tell them to get lost.

River watched him in silence the entire time. "So, you're one of them, huh?"

"I'm one of them," Kaiden agreed.

"Those kids are out of control," River pointed out, and he wasn't wrong there.

"Just take us where we're going," he replied, his tone just as blunt. River inclined his head and drove off, continuing the journey, though Kaiden did have one more thing to say. "We all came from the same place. To them, this is their first taste of freedom."

"Their freedoms end where another's begin," River replied, earning a grunt from Kaiden.

"That hasn't been the case for us. Not them, not me, and not L. The only freedoms we have are the ones that we took from the megacorporation's hands," he said and to that, River was silent, not entirely sure what to make of that response. The wider world knew about the Orphanages now -- word got out.

It just didn't spread. It wasn't headliner news. No one was surprised that the megacorporations were experimenting on children after kidnapping them from their homes. No one cared about the dead children that served as the foundation for their latest products. So, those that wanted to know would know.

The rest of the trip passed in relative tense silence before they arrived at a hotel. Getting out, Kaiden saw that it was a fancy one, but also empty. The lobby was devoid of anyone except for a single woman behind the counter, who simply waved them up when she saw a badge, knowing they weren't here to rent a room. A short elevator ride later, they were in a lavishly expensive looking hallway with one of the doors marked with a yellow caution hologram.

River opened the door and Kaiden saw…

Blood. Blood was everywhere. The room held a metallic scent to it because blood covered the walls, the ceiling, it soaked into the carpet and drenched the bed. There were markers and projectors set up, but they seemed to be a recent addition. "How many people died here?" Kaiden questioned, looking around. The sprays of blood had a pattern to them, he noticed. Like a knife slash, almost.

"Six. Five joytoys, and one Mayor Royce," River explained, sounding tired just looking at the room. "It's been a week since this blood bath, and I'm just now getting projectors. It'll be months before I get a DNA sample tested for the women. For the mayor's, I'm looking at another week." River began to complain, and Kaiden supposed that was the point of showing him this butchery. Blood pooling on the bed… at least two people died there. One in the corner of the room. One had tried to go to the bathroom, while the last tried to flee towards the door.

"I have a girl that had a BD implant. Meaning I have a braindance of the mayor's murder! And I can't get the footage salvaged from our tech department," River continued, his temper rising. "And this was the mayor of the city involved in this goddamn horror show. I'm screwed on this one, do you get that? If I can't get resources for this, then how in the fuck do you think Jane and John Doe's murders get solved? I don't think anyone in the department has managed to close a case in a month -- either because they aren't trying or they are and we're told that it's not in the budget."

Kaiden looked around the room. Before his gaze turned to the projector. From what he understood, it analyzed a wide variety of factors in the area, then projected the most likely series events based on blood splatter, times of death, how dry or wet certain fluids were… Stuff like that. With a flick, Kaiden turned it on and saw five people on the bed with one getting up to head to the bathroom. The projected holograms moved soundlessly.

The one going to the bathroom was killed first. A slashing attack that nearly cut her in half with four long blades. Not a Mantis Blade. A claw? Whatever the blades were, they were sharp. The girl's arm was cut clean off. The figure then exited the bathroom. Stood at about eight feet tall, but he was completely featureless. Nothing to indicate his appearance. The figure pounced on the bed, skewering the mayor and another. One of the girls scrambled back to the corner near the bed, another tried to flee, only to be hacked in half.

The one in the corner crouched down while the figure tore into the mayor. And by tear into him, Kaiden meant it in the most literal way. Hands in his guts and ripping them out, pulling at his arms and legs, crushing them with monstrous strength. The girl, however, bled out next to him. The girl in the corner trembled the entire time, staring on in horror, and it was only when the mayor was scattered about the room did the figure kill her.

"We don't have anything," River said, and there was frustration in his voice. "Video feeds don't show anyone coming into the room or leaving it." Kaiden nodded, feeling his own frustration starting to build. He heard what River was saying. How infuriating must it be for River? To want to do your job but be completely unable to? "I did manage to call in a few favors when it came to analyzing the corpses."

As he continued, Kaiden stepped into the bathroom. Instantly, his stomach clenched at the sight of the white walls. He hated them. Every time he saw a sterile setting, his mind went back to the Orphanage. It was almost a relief to see the blood splatter from a backswing doting the floor and walls. Swallowing his discomfort, he looked around, seeing a shower, a bathtub, a toilet, and a mirror.

"The slashes were made with four serrated knives. Likely on the fingers of Gorilla Arm implants based on the raw strength needed to cut through the chrome some of the girls had chipped in," River continued, watching Kaiden. Kaiden examined the walls, trying to find a secret entrance, but if it was here, then it was well hidden. Either someone scrubbed the footage or the assailant came from the toilet. "The implant is likely custom made, which doesn't help because of the military grade implants that have been flooding the streets since L showed up."

Kaiden worked his jaw for a moment, choosing not to pick that fight. "You said that you had BDs of the attacks?"

River grunted. "It's scrambled. Getting your head crushed would do that, but it's the only solid lead that we have. If we could actually see what's on it." Based on his tone, River was fishing. He wanted to close the case.

And helping him would help bring him on their side. Kaiden couldn't say that he trusted Yorinobu. He reminded him too much of the doctors in the Orphanage -- it always felt like he was saying what you wanted to hear rather than what he actually thought. It was too early to tell with River, but his impression was someone who just wanted to do his job. This was his part of the job.

L eliminated the threats and Kaiden would fill the gaps of power with allies. L would destroy and Kaiden would build.

"I might know someone that could help," Kaiden offered. L could, but he had more than enough on his plate. Judy was another possibility, but she also had plenty on her plate.

River narrows his eyes- well, one of them. "Do you now?" He asked, frowning. "It doesn't matter. If the BD is restored outside of proper channels, it's considered tainted and inadmissible to the courts." Wow. It really sucked being a cop, huh? Talk about having your hands tied behind your back. "With the right tuner, you can turn a BD of a murder into a rescue mission."

"Do you have any faith in Night City's courts?" Kaiden asked and that got a scowl from River. It was an idle question to see what they could do, but it seemed that he poked a nerve. "I mean… is the BD more useful as evidence or as a lead?" He didn't really know anything about the law or how evidence worked. In his evidence, cops didn't really do anything and when they did do something, it was arresting people for blatantly obvious crimes. But investigationing and getting charges to stick… honestly, he hadn't known Night City even had a court system.

A sigh escaped River, "Who can restore it?" He questioned and got a small grin from Kaiden.

"G-14. Gizmo," Kaiden answered.

…

Gizmo was one of the kids that chose to stay with the Aldecaldos. He hadn't officially chosen a name for himself, but everyone else started calling him Gizmo on account that he loved taking things apart and putting them together again. Kaiden approached his trailer near the heart of the Aldecaldo's camp, catching the scent of burnt rubber and solder coming from an opened window.

River was not so subtly looking around, seeing the other, even younger kids that ran around the camp. He hadn't mentioned it, but he couldn't have failed to notice that they all had the same Amp jutting out from the backs of their heads. The kids greeted him as they continued to play, their once deathly pale skin slowly turning into a bronzed complexion or the reddened hue of sunburns.

Reaching the trailer, Kaiden thumped his fist on the door. "Giz! It's Kaiden," he informed, looking straight into the security camera above the door. Following that, he heard a comical number of locks being undone to allow them inside.

"Kaiden! What's going on?" Gizmo greeted them, swiveling around to reveal that he was wearing a set of goggles that made his eyes seem huge while his red hair stuck up in every direction except for down. "Whose that?" He asked, looking at River, who seemed put out by who would be restoring the BD implant. The trailer was a workshop and every single inch had been covered in controlled chaos.

"This is River, a cop. We need to to take a look at a BD implant and see if you can work your magic to get it running again," Kaiden said, holding out a hand to to River, who hesitated to hand over the implant. His gaze lingered on Gizmo for a long moment, who just tilted his head, before coming to another decision.

"I better not regret this," River warned, passing the implant to Kaiden. The implant was in an evidence bag and it was half crushed. Kaiden just passed the bag to Gizmo, who used his biotics to open the bag and leave the implant hovering in midair so he could inspect it.

"Can you do anything?" Kaiden questioned, and Gizmo was silent for a long minute as he turned the implant over.

"Probably?" He offered, sounding hesitant. "Whoever smashed it knew what they were doing. The storage chip was damaged pretty thoroughly, but I can probably port over whatever data wasn't scrambled or lost. Just give me a minute," Gizmo said before he took a breath. When he let it go, his hands at the wrist began to split apart. His hands decided until he had two dozen fingers on each hand, some smaller and thinner than others for detail work while others were thicker and tipped with tools.

River sucked in a sharp breath at the sight. "That's-"

"We all have a lot higher tolerance for implants than most," Kaiden told him. He had done his research. Rich people didn't experience Cyberpsychosis. Kaiden wasn't entirely sure why exactly, but it probably had something to do with the cybertherapy they received after chipping something in. But him and the kids… they were just so used to having stuff taken out of them and put in that they never knew what they were supposed to feel. Their brains learned to rapidly adapt to new implants.

It probably didn't mean that they couldn't become Cyberpsychos, but it did seem like it would be harder.

River didn't know how to take that answer, but he still seemed disturbed as Gizmo rapidly took apart the implant and began reassembling it midair with a few other parts that floated over to him. His fingers worked meticulously all over the implant for a long few minutes, but his hands condensing into normal fingers was the sign that he was done. With that, he hooked the implant up to a computer before a shard was spat out that he hooked into a BD wreath. "There wasn't a lot on it, and I could fine tune it if needed, but this should work."

"Thanks Giz," Kaiden said, putting the wreath on before taking a seat. River was frowning at him, but he simply nodded when Kaiden met his gaze.

He turned the BD on, and his vision rippled while his body felt like it was fading away. Then, in full force, he slammed into another, his vision becoming their point of view. His vision was filled with static and he could taste blood on his tongue. Disorientation was the first thing that he felt and it took him a moment to realize that it wasn’t just coming from himself.

He was back in the hotel room, hearing the static-tinged screaming coming from one of the girls, but he struggled to see anything because his hands were covering his face. He was screaming as well, Kaiden sensed, horrified. Through his fingers, he caught a flash of movement and his heart leaped to his throat, thinking that it was the assailant, only to see it-

Static. His vision became completely washed in it. “River… did she have optics?” Kaiden asked, tilting his head, trying to get a better view of what was happening, but there was nothing. The only thing he could see was black and white static, but he heard the wet sounds of meat being torn, blood squelching, and labored breathing. It sent a shiver down his spine. It sounded more animalistic than human.

“She had organic eyes. Why? You see anything?” River asked just in time for his vision to click back into place. Kaiden found himself looking at the floor. It was splattered with blood as he sat in the corner, his knees tucked to his chest, and trying to appear as small as possible. Terror made itself known to Kaiden, but he swallowed it down. Like everyone else in the Orphanage, he was used to being afraid.

Kaiden’s breathing hitched when the bed shifted, and he looked over to- static again. His vision went white, but he felt something grab him by the head and- “I can’t look at him,” Kaiden informed. That wasn’t an accident. The moment he looked at the assailant, the BD implant couldn’t record. Or it was corrupted? “He has some kind of tech or something that blocks recordings. I don’t think it’s an encryption, either. Roll the footage back- there!” Kaiden said, seeing the last images the woman saw replay themselves in reverse. He paused when his vision blinked back in.

He forced himself to calm down and think. “Play it forward. Half speed,” he added, and the BD slowly played itself. If he couldn’t look at the murderer, then he would have to try something else. Reflections? No such luck -- the only one available was from a TV on the far wall, and it didn’t get anything. Which left… shadows. The neon light from the bedside cast a long shadow when the murderer got off of the bed to approach the woman.

It wasn’t a great find, Kaiden thought to himself. He caught some movement, but it was next to impossible to make out any details beyond the general shape of the head? Maybe a hunchback? At least until he saw it.

The arm that reached out to grab the woman by the head. He almost missed it due to the static starting to gather. However, it was unmistakable -- the arm was thin. Far thinner than Kaiden had anticipated, with the clawed hand almost comically large in comparison. It was barely a snapshot before his vision was reduced to static once again. Frowning to himself, Kaiden pulled himself out of the BD and felt himself flow back into his own body once again. Taking the wreath off, he saw that River was gone.

At least until he stepped back into the trailer. His expression was tense, “Please tell me that you found something.” Kaiden was caught flatfooted by the urgency in his tone and a pit started to form in his stomach.

“Maybe. Why?” Kaiden asked, and even before River spoke, he suspected the answer.

“Because this guy struck again. A club in Arroyo. Twenty people are dead.”