" Oh ... " Misty paused momentarily at the youthful face that appeared in her esoterica. Her soft features twisting into a small pleasant smile. " You're awake "
" I am ... " He didn't know what to say, to the woman who had no doubt saved his life, acting when no else bothered to. But he knew where to start. " Thank you "
" No problem, no sweat off my back" She gave a pleasant response, smiling brightly as her hair bobbed as she bounced up and down.
" No ... it was no small matter. You chose to save me when nobody else did... you have earned my eternal gratitude... and I will pay it back one way or another" He meant it, debts were meant to be paid, whether through sweat or blood, monetary value or actions of reciprocation, that was how these things worked, and he was going to ensure her act was awarded.
" I don't have anything in the ways of scratch currently, but I will be rectifying that shortly. If you would wait I would seek to pay you back" He inclined his head as the woman simply gazed at his professional demeanour, even draped in a bloodied jacket and shirt, his gratitude literally rolled off of him.
" It's okay honey, you don't have to ... hey how about a tarot reading... it's on the house " In order to distract him, she didn't want him to go out and get himself killed in the desire to pay her back, she distracted him instead.
" .... sure " Blue luminous eyes dart over the deck of cards she now held in hand, moving to the front of the counter she had been standing at as she flashed a pleased smile at her successful diversion.
The pendulum on her neck swayed as she placed the deck on the table.
" So how do we do this " His memory pointed to a fraction of the population several millenia extinct, who according to his own people's history were said to divine the past and the future through these cards.
" Simple ... I take a card from the deck " She picked the deck up again and began to shuffle the cards, her dark lips spreading into her kind smile." I pick a couple more and then I begin to divine your future "
" Fascinating " He nodded as Misty finished shuffling again and placed the cards face down. " I'm ready "
" We'll start with you..." she produced a card " I thought it would be this one ... the fool "
She placed the card down upright. " It meens new beginning, the beginning of a new path... I hope you find purpose here in night city "
She produced another card, this time her lips thinned.
" The world ... " It was placed down upside down. " usually implies fulfilment... but this time, it implies the opposite, incompleteness...a lack of closure "
" I understand ... " He knew why, right on the cusp of greatness he had been denied, sent hurling from heaven back to the midst of humanity ... mortality.
' These cards are strange ' He thought as Misty studied him closely for a moment, nodding after a moment before producing another card.
" The magician ... " Misty calmed as she placed the second to last card down on the table. " Will power l, desire ... creation... perhaps you'll strive to complete what is unfinished "
" I should hope so " Cain curled his fingers, crossing his arms on the table, studying the cards as Misty produced the last of the cards.
" The high priestess... perhaps there's a voice, somewhere inside guiding you to your purpose ... I don't know whether it is good or bad, but it is guiding you forward " Misty finished, Tilting her head at the reading and studying the man staring at the cards.
" How intuitive ... I believe somehow these cards may be ... closer to the point than I initially believed" She beamed at his praise, clapping her hands in delight.
" The reading comes from the stars honey, the universe guides them " She explained, as Cain studied the deck for a moment.
" Interesting ... where would I get one of these decks , they fascinate me " He rose from the table, hands clasped together infront if him as he regarded the woman with the respect she deserved.
" Oh just around town, most joke shops might have some or online ..." She shrugged, slowly packing away the cards.
" I see... I'll be bring my own here soon, perhaps I'll read your own future" He stepped away. " I have kept you too long now, I must depart. Please wait until I return, I shall pay you back as soon as I can "
" It's okay you don't have to " She smiled as Cain turned away, staring at the strange hanging dream catchers and flickering candle light bathing the interior of the shop in soft mysterious light.
" Such a nice shop " With that he stepped outside of the building, leaving Misty to worry about him as he stepped into the harsh world outside.
....
The contract between the homely shop and the street outside was jarring, and if he hadn't been prepared he would have been set on the backfoot.
Neon lights lit the streets, the stench of garbage and squalor making his nose cringe in disgust.
Squelch
His gaze dropped to a used condom simply sitting in the centre of the street.
' Disgusting ' He shifted his foot away from the profolatic, turning a half glaring eye up and down the street of shambling people before finding the strength to put it past him and turning left down the street.
He walked slowly, not a single wasted movement or unnecessary expenditure of energy, through the streets of Watson away from Vic's clinic across urmland Street.
Joytoys lined the streets of the night culture of Night City, neon signs luminating the wet streets as a man draped in garbage cans and glasses rambled on about aliens and conspiracies many wouldn't even spend a moment to listen to.
" You tell em Gary " A woman sitting at this apparent prophets side urged him on, as men in black suits silently kept an eye on the man spewing nonsense but didn't do anything to intervene.
The people, the people who had thrown him to an alley not a day earlier rambled about in their own squalor, many depressed or resigned to their monotonous lives.
Many carrying iron of various types, all chipped in some way in this dystopian nightmare.
' Gomorrah ' He sneered at the neon sign with pink lettering with a green snake winding around the lettering, eyes lowering to see the ' Merch' standing around looking all pretty, winking at strangers, trying to draw people's attention to get them to use their wares.
It was contemptuous, disgusting how depraved this one street alone was in thie cesspool of a city where morals went out the window.
' It was a miracle I even made it to Vic's clinic ' Still processing the data taken from the net he had scoured, he walked slowly past the front of Gomorrah.
He stepped around a puddle, as a doll gave him a sultry wink, which he simply sniffed at and stepped past the establishment as the woman huffed at his blatant and rude dismissal.
' Stay away from me ' He had no desire for physical contact with a woman who threw herself at anything with a reproductive organ, even less desire to allow her to perform acts of service apon his once holy vessel.
He sunk into the crowd, indistinguishable from the next man if one weren't to look too closely. But there was a clear disparity between him, and between everyone else.
Subtle differences that drove the regular person to naturally divert their path from his own, whether it be instinct, whether it be some deeply ingrained ability to feel the strangeness in the air around him. They parted around him subtly, often without their own notice as his slow gait drove him towards the nearest large source of energy, prompted by his natural inclination to feed his once creation that was still in low power mode.
[ Please provide energy ]
The Ouroborus core uttered in a barely percievable voice in the back of his mind, It spoke directly and with singular purpose, like a schizophrenic whisper, a near emotionless voice that made its requests known. It didn't demand, it didn't have the capability to do so, but it would always notify him of its status.
It guided him through residual bursts of electromagnetic energy, through alleys and across side walks, enhancing his senses like some kind of dog or ant eater, using the very vibrations in the air to hunt down a substation of substantial power enough to restore further function to the Ouroborus core.
He stopped slowly made his way through the streets, though he could have stopped at any powerbox, any sparking cable, the amount of energy they would provide would be insignificant compared to the thing that sourced them.
" There ... " He spotted it immed as he rose from a stiarcase placing him directly beside an NCPD station where several offciers were entering and exiting at neisure paces.
A building nearly a hundred metres wide and seven times as tall with a big 10 boldly written on the forefront of its dull green and yellow paint job.
A monorail ran between the buildings, coming beside thus large building, as near hostile architecture reached up and above his head, spreading in all directions, relievers sparked with life as he instinctively took a step towards this towering building, functioning like a light bulbs amidst the res of the city.
' I can feel it connected to the local power grid' A significant power junction, as he could feel, lay directly under this building, feeding power to the rest of the district.
He approached, crossing traffic as he came to the stairs leading up into the base level of the building, where several elevators rose into its impressive size.
He spied an officer loitering about, the people milling about infront of stalls and vendors as fake food was sold to those with little money to their names.
He meant to the side, seeing closed shutter doors with a driveway reaching to the main road, contemplating using it to get to the power grid before discarding the idea.
' Now ... there must be a elevator or stairway down' He leant back onto the staircase, and followed the buildings path into the dead centre of the buildings Bass floor, where several elevators shot up and down. Instead of using these elevators, Cain turned to the right into a small hallway with five doors, passing a market flying red banners where two NCPD officers sat, eating their lunch while partaking in small meaningless conversation.
' This should take us down' The elevator doors were shut, unresponsive to the outside world, but the fifth and final door at the end of the hall ... was open for the world to use.
' The emergency access staircase ' He slid the metallic door open as trashbags fell away, revealing a staircase lit with red lights diving into the sublevel of this hospitable building.
He stepped in, a loud screech echoing as he slid the steel door shut behind him, sealing himself away from the outside world before turning back and descending the stairs with slow, careful steps.
The Ouroborus core continued to guide him through inferred directions throigh the electromagnetic waves shifting in the air, descending down the stairs into the basement below the H10 megabuilding.
' Oh ... ' His steps echoed with a clang, immediately alerting a small group of five loitering in the basement.
They appeared ghastly, organic flesh chromed up with steel and metal, their faces an amalgamation of flesh and steel as synthesisers spoke for them.
" Yo ... " One of these goons split away from the others, stepping over with a wide almost mocking gait, pulling out and waving a gun directly in Cain's face.
" Mate can't you see we're abit busy here " The gangster growled, red optics staring him down. Jot breath assaulted Cain's face as his features twisted into a sneer, the metallic smell, alpng with grease and blood, assaulted his sense of smell like a rancid smell of shit. The goons teeth clicked together, his hydraulic jaw and fake teeth permanently stuck in a lipless growl.
" My mistake ... " However instead of stepping away, his hand, flat like a blade slashed forward into the exposed neck of the maelstrom goon, carving an arc through the air like a whip" Your hostilities are ill advised "
The head of the goon separated from the rest of his metallic body like wet tissue paper, surprise twisting for a moment, yet Cain's hand didn't come away unscathed, a bulging mess of bone and flesh met his gaze, still functional barely but his fingers were no doubt broken.
' And this was suppose to be a body built to be perfect... how detestable it has been rendered to such a sub par state, I'll meed to fix that ' He grabbed the liberty that fell from the decapitated maelstroms hand, raising it and shooting four times in quick succession at the other gangsters who had just taken notice of what had occurred, before the released bullets landed squarely in their craniums with pinpoint accuracy, dropping the entire group in seconds.
As they hit the ground with a cascading of thuds, Cain turned his eyes to the gun in hand, ignoring the pain flaring in his right hand in favour of studying the weapon.
" So these are the rudimentary items your people boast about.... calling these things weapons ... laughable" He didn't see anything special about it, it was basic at best, subpar at worst. " But I suppose it serves its purpose... now "
He slid the Liberty into the seams of his pants, stepping over the corpses for a moment before turning to stare at the goons for a moment, shaking his head for a moment before leaning down and fishing through the pockets of the goons with a sneer on his face.
' Resorting to looting, how far have I fallen ' Holographic paper, damage resist to the world beyond with strange symbols and markings were fished out of the goons pockets, the physical currency of eddies, with several hundreds in notes. Along with these eddies were a couple of magazines for the liberty and a few other items like components and meaningless scrap ... and a pack of cigarettes.
' These wouldn't even do anything for you ' He opened the packet, pulling out a cigarette, sliding it between his lips and lighting it with half a squint.
Cough ... cough cough...
He spat the cigarette out the next moment after his first draw, absolutely disgusted by the heinous flavour that stained his taste buds.
" Disgusting " But the way the chemical cloud interacted with his brain was... strange, an odd pleasant tingling running down his body as he proceeded to rummage through the pockets and belongings of the other maelstrom goons.
Afterwhich, he surveyed the rest of the interior of the megabuildings sublevel with a critical gaze, stepping around corner with the liberty raised incase he ran into any other hostiles.
" Phew ... " He lowered the liberty, cringing as his right hand brushed against against his pamt, shooting a flaring pulse of heat up his arm which caused him to cringe at the feeling.
' I'll have to head back to Vic's after this... ' He approached a central pillar structure where several cables fed into and outward through the rest of the sublevel.
' I do believe this is the main power breaker' A hatch fed into a maintenance station amidst the thickcables thicker than a muscled thigh.
' This is going to be ... unpleasant ' He wasn't as durable as he should have been, but the Ouroborus core would make him atleast able to sustain the flow of what he was about to do.
' Eat well ... ' He reached for the power breaker, mentally hyping himself up to prepare for the sheer amount of power that was about to be forced into his vessel.
' Ready ... ' He grit his teeth, left hand curling into a fist before blasting forward and into the surface of the powerbreaker, breaking throigh its steel casing and into the power lines beneath.
It happened near instantly, the Ouroborus core long since activated and waiting for the incoming current, like getting struck by several lightning bolts a second, flowing electricity doused his body, coursing through him, through his arms and straight into his chest..
[ Status : charging ]
The ouroborus core latched onto the electrical currents like a hungry energy vampire, drawing it all inwards as it syphoned more and more energy every passing second with more and more efficiency.
He wouldn't have done this if he didn't know the hospital and other medical facilities didn't have their own backup generators, he needed to feed the Ouroborus core, not cause wanton death.
The moment the energy began to divert into his body, the lights of the sublevel and beyond began to violently flicker, before simply shutting off, yet Cain didn't stop even there as he stood in darkness.
Streets went dark on the surface of little china. The Ncart passing by the H10 building suddenly shutting off, causing a violent jarring to the customers travelling.
In the NCPD station computers turned off at once as the lights above went dark, locked gates went unresponsive.
Transformers across little china sparked violently as their flowing currents were suddenly reversed, the electricity flowing back in the direction they had spread from.
Net runners were ejected forcefully, the jarring sensation of being forced out of the Net made them stutter in confusion as they woke up in Net running chairs and cold baths.
" What the fuck just happened " More than one net runner cursed in confusion, met with the unlit interiors of their dens.
All across little china and beyond, the city crawled to a stop as traffic lights died, corporations not with their own generators experienced total electrical failure, board meetings suddenly went dead, elevators stopped entirely as people at their desks held their hands to the side in outrage or outright punched their keyboards in anger at the black screens.
The greatest affected was the H10 megabuilding itself, as people in their homes milling about suddenly froze as everything in their apartments went dead.
" Man what the fuck I was about to get a new high score " A teen cried as he slung his controller across the room.
A couple making passionate love to eachother paused as the mood lighting that had bathed their room a sultry hue of pink died down to a pitch black.
" Oh fuck sake " The boyfriend rose from his girlfriend." There's always fucking something "
A man in another apartment raised his eyes above, watching the light bulb go dark with slow blinking eyes.
" Fuck sake ... " He slumped down the remainder of his lunch. " Charging me so much for an apartment that doesn't even have consistent power "
In the buildings basement, the air was ionised with pure flowing electricity, what was a dark basement was lit by white burning light running up the air of the individual responsible.
Cain stood with his hand puncturing the breaker, bolts of electricity leapt from parts of his body, singeing the air and leaving blackened scorch marks in the steel ceiling.
" Hrrr " His teeth ground together, as the flowing electricity illuminates his skeleton for the world outside to see. Yet he experienced no real danger, as like an omnipotent blackhole, the energy was absorbed and devoured by the Ouroborus core with perfect efficiency.
[ Charging : 4% ]
Before it could rise another percent, the emergency cut off for the local power grid activated, stopping the flow of electricity entirely as the breaker went dead, the cables around holding absolutely zero current.
' I need to get out of here ' As his fingers fell away from the breaker, Cain vacated with haste, knowing that in any moment enforcement could arrive to accost the location the incident occurred.
' And the world ... paused ' The moment he stepped out of the emergency staircase, he was met with chaos, from panicking civilians to the honking of cars as traffic crawled to a complete and utter stop.
He quickly became scarce as the corporations and energy companies mobilised with record time, by the time he crossed the street and looked back at the megabuilding, Black SUV's screeched to a halt infront of the building, machines and black garbed corporate soldiers rushing into the megabuilding to secure the scene.
' Time to vacate ' Rushed down the stairs next to the NCPD station, running throigh panicked civilians, through alleys and confused gangsters all the way back to Vic's clinic.
....
' Phew ... ' Cain walked through the side gate into Vic's clinic, silently slinking down the staircase into the basement where Vic was talking with Misty in the dark, Whilst Misty was using a candle to give them both light.
" Hey we're... oh it's you " They turned to Cain who stepped troigh the mesh gate, where he responded with a wave of the hand. " How are ya holding up "
" Ah well its anarchy up there " Cain strode over, looking sheepish as he approached and showed his hand. " And I need your help again "
"Kid did you lose a fight with a vending machine or something" Vic turned Cain's hand over with studying eyes. " Alright we'll patch you up when the powers back on... "
" Thank you ... oh... by the way I got some scratch to pay you guys back " He reached into his pockets, producing over three thousand eddies worth of notes he offered to the two.
" Nah kid save it, get yourself some cyberware, if you're gonna keep turning up like this you're going need it... I'll fix your hand... then we'll see about getting you some chrome ... " Vic refused, with Misty doing the same immediately after when he tried to hand her the bundle of eddies instead.
" No Hun you need it more than us " Cain's lips thinned at the kindness of these two, eyes softening at their attitudes.
" You two are good people... " He whispered, earning a roll of Vic's eye.
" Don't sweat it kid... just don't get yourself killed out there... you're welcome to wait around her until the power comes back on" He waved around, motioning to the expansive clinic and car storage behind clear plastic curtains.
" Thanks Vic " Cain turned to Misty , once more offering the eddies for her to take which she refused again.
" Hun I'm not gonna take it " She chortled and turned back to Vic.
For the next couple of hours they spoke at length about the state of little china, how the store was struggling with customers and raking in any form of profit.
" I know, the corps have been sniffing around, trying to get me to sell ... fucking soulless pricks " Vic hissed, leaning back into his chair while the candle light reflected from his face, all the while Cain sat in the car port portion of Vic's clinic behind the curtains, listening to their struggles that they finally had time to talk about now that the power was out.
' Hm ... even they have to suffer in this place' His eyes glazing over as he pondered for several long moments. He may not have had much experience in the way of expressive understanding, back in the old world, nobody ever really interacted with eachother. As the final generation of humanity decided to upload themselves, they completely isolated themselves in their own simulated worlds.
This was ... new to him... being around real people, so hearing their please stirred an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach. The people that had saved him were silently suffering against an oppressive system ruled by corporation that ruled the entire world.
' Ouroborus... status ' He stared into the mid distance as a whisper rose in the back of his head, electrical pulses running up and down his spine.
[ System activated : Status : active.
Current functionality: 4%
Primary neural matrix : Core uploaded personality: 100% functionality.
Secondary datastorage personality matrixes: ERROR : inactive. Stored data : frozen.
Secondly functions : active: 2% .
Functions available :
Secondary data storage [ history, blueprints, philosophy,geological data, sciences, mathematics, etc etc ]
( locked )
(Locked)
(Locked)
(Locked)
(Locked)
(Locked)
(Locked)
[Energy assimilation ;
( locked )
( locked )
(Locked)
(Locked)
(Locked)
Electrical currents ]
(Locked)
(Locked)
Energy needed to restore functionality]
The whisper faded, just as the dim lights of the clinic began to flicker to life once more, the dim neon lights giving out a low groan before it came to life with a low light.
" Finally " Vic groaned, swinging around in a full circle of his chair, huffing as he slid to a stop, now facing Cain with a smile. " Get up here kid let's see that hand of yours "
Vic incessantly waved him over, keen to get back to work.
" Alright alright " He chuckled, rising from the crate he was sitting on, sitting himself down in the surgery chair.
" Oh Vic before you put me under, can I make a request" Vic paused at Cain's words.
" sure thing kiddo ... wacha need " Vic stood over Cain in the flurescent light.
" Could you get me a pair of optics and and a deck to take a peek at, just want to take a crack of making my own " Vic chuckled, petting Cain on the shoulder.
" Sure thing kiddo ... sure thing ... tell ya what, I'll let you use my workshop out the back, got a printer in the back of the van and everything should be enough to take a crack at it ... " Vic laughed, placing a mask with several hoses over Cain's face. " Oh ... and it's free, no trying to force that cash on me kiddo "
" Fine fine ... whatever you say Vic " A warmth stroked his mind as everything slowly bled to black, the doctor standing over him as he was slowly rendered unconscious.
..... 24 hours later....
" Watcha doin" Misty sashayed into the workshop attached to Vic's clinic, a white Van parked inside with several high tech printers and hanging pieces of fibres, alloys and compounds feeding into the printer.
" Coding my friend " He had borrowed Vic's laptop, swiftly coding a program into existence that would allow him to make and program cyberware, which he was now using to design a cyberdeck.
" Neat " She didn't understand, the blueprints on the screen, a strange contraptions in the vague shape of a cyberdeck." Want something to eat"
She enthusiastically held onto two bowls of what passed for soup in this dystopian city, her kindness literally rippling off of her.
His fingers stopped on the final line of coding, turning to look at her with a slight neutral stare.
" Shre thing Misty " She smiled, black lips spreading as she planted herself next to him, placing one bowl into his waiting hands whilst she already began to eat from another.
" So ... what's it do " It wasn't translated into english, nor any translatable laguage her own systems could comprehend.
" Oh it's abit different from other operating systems " Cain began, slurping up the fake noodles with a loud squelch. " It's... alittle big more powerful. Ive had to do alittle bit of cheating during the designing. It doesn't use Ram like any other cyberdeck, rather Qubits... ah let me explain "
He turned the computer where a series of lines showed a series of zeroed and ones.
" These basic ones and zeroes are lies, in that zero you see there there is about a terabyte of shifting self adapting unstable code collapsed into a zero or one for classical display, that zero will turn into a one and back given due time as it processes its ' states ' each one and zero is a state, a state of code that shifts ever one hundred milliseconds. When this is displayed into readable data, these states break into readable code ... making them unusable until it is restored to its previous state "
The explanation went completely over Misty's head as she slurped up the fake noodles, blinking slowly as her eyes blinked slowly.
" Ah... " Cain understood she wouldn't be able to understand his rhetoric." It's a quantum computing based cyberdeck... please don't tell anyone that ... "
The cloudy look in her eyes cleared, her smile returning as she made a zipping gesture with her lips.
For the next half an hour, Misty sat looking over his shoulder, watching his hands fly across the keyboard, as the laptop struggled to cycle through and process the blueprints, heating up like a furnace on his lap.
" AAAAND ... DONE " He clicked the engage button, the computer linking to the printer in the van, only for the screen to go black the moment it sent over the blueprints.
" Um ... did it break" Misty touched the back of the laptop of the back of her hand, pulling away at the heat permeating the processor.
" Yea... probably ... I'm gonna have to start again" His hands rose to his face, pulling at the skin as he groaned, making a rather amusing sight which Misty laughed at.
" It'll be alright ... you'll see " She stood with her hands holding her hips.
" Yea .. I kn..." The printer suddenly whirled to life, the tubes connected to the materials it would he using suddenly sinking into the printer with a gargle.
The laptop suddenly turned back on, the files having sent over successfully, including the program he had used to make the blueprint which would be instilled in the cyberdeck.
" See ... told ya " Misty slapped his shoulder as he slowly blinked.
" Yea ... you did "
And not for the first time this day, he wandered if the girl behind him may be clairvoyant.
....36 hours of printing later ....
Vic stared down at the silver cyberdeck like it might bite him If he so much as touched it.it was the shape of a flat double helix, with a red glow illuminating from a lense next to the insertion port. Next to the red glowing lenses was a display of shifting numbers blurring so fast they couldn't be read. Several nodes connected to the base frame, nodes working to process the impossible amounts of data coursing through the cyberdeck.
It sat in a clear case, inserted to a reading port, on a scanner Vic was using to analyse the chip with squinting eyes.
Data streamed on his displays, all the screens lit up with ever shifting collapsed code.
Misty and Cain stood behind Vic, watching his reaction as his lips slowly fell apart.
" It's... " The code shifted from numbers to letters as he stared at it. " It's thinking "
[ Greetings ] The code on the screen shifted into a condensed single line, a word that threw Vic into a panic as he jumped up from his chair.
[ Where is creator] The datastreams returned after the second question.
Without preamble, Vic scrunched his hand into a fist and attempted to smash the cyberdeck with his knuckles.
" Hey " Misty proved barely faster, hands intercepting the cyberdeck, pulling it from the scanner and cradling one would a baby. " What are you doing "
" that's not a cyberdeck ... t...that thing is alive " Now he stared at the red glow of the lense, feeling as if it was an eye looking at him. " We have to kill it "
" Vic Vic Vic calm down man it's okay " Cain gently took the cyberdeck from Misty's hands, the code displayed on the deck shifting now that it was in its makers grasp." What's wrong ... I literally just finished coding and printing it "
" You ... you coded that thing " Vic looked at him like he had grown a second head.
" Wh...yea... Misty watched me do it, I.. literally made the program I used to design it, it's on your laptop " Cain gestured to the blank program icon on the display, labelled CMD programe.
" Show me ... " Vic hissed, ready to absolutely crush that thing in his hand if it was what he suspected it to be.
" Okay ... " He opened the icon, opening the app and the last project it had made.
Vic all but pushed them out of the way, eyes darting over the code, eyes scanning the thing like it was holy scripture.
" You .... didn't connect it to the net in any way ... did you " Vic whispered, turning a dangerous calculating eye, pinning Cain with a strange look.
" Not at all .... nothing but my own code in this baby right here " He raised the deck, it's watching lense making Vic shiver.
" Alright ... sorry ... I just, I thought it was something else ... you promise it didn't connect to the net in any way " Vic looked, vulnerable, seeking open honesty.
" I promise Vic, not from the net in anyway" Vic slumped at the assurance, hand reaching for his face as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
" So I take it you want me to put this thing in your head " As much as he wanted to deny the surgery, deny the existence of the piece of alien technology in Cain's hand.
" Yep " His lips made a popping sound, smiling innocently like he was holding the most intelligent and dangerous cyberdeck in the world.
" Oh I'm so fucked " Vic whispered before hanging his head,arms swinging back and forward, clapping in agitation.
" Alright ... but if anything goes wrong... " Vic didn't say anything else, turning to the laptop before deleting the project saved, hoping to never see anything like it again.
" I understand Vic ... just trust me on this " Vic looked slowly from Cain's left eye to his right eye, chewing his lip in silent stewing.
" Alright ... I trust you " And so they jumped into the surgery, as Cain sat unconscious if the operating table, his head open before Vic to operate on, the port the cyberdeck would be going into pulsing with active brain matter.
" Please don't kill me ... I'm sorry about earlier " He whispered to the deck, raising it to his eye, staring down into the lense with an almost vulnerable gaze.
It didn't respond, but the way the light pulsed showed him it understood what he said.
And with a gulp, he lowered the deck, connecting it to the port, shaky hands piecing the cranium back together.
All the while one thought went through his mind, one from secret terror that wouldn't go away no matter how much he tried to smother it. But he would trust the young man, but if anything went wrong. He'd put a bullet in the kids head ... and his own for agreeing to this.
' Please don't be wrong kid '
...CHAPTER COMPLETE....
hey guys, leave a comment on what you think about this chapter, I want to hear anyone's feedback, you support is always appreciated