The next morning Vito and David went their separate ways. Vito headed to Viktor's for a few new implants.
David went to Arasaka Academy to settle a score.
Katsuo's combat chip was, at the end of the day, all flash and no substance. It couldn't hold up against soone running decent hardware, let alone a real fighter. Honestly it wouldn't even stack up against the braindance chips Judy rigs up. Katsuo spent a while telegraphing his moves at David, David activated the Sandevistan, and Katsuo went into a display screen face-first. He was begging before long, and when that didn't work he hid behind his father's na on the board of directors.
David laughed, turned his back on Arasaka Academy, and walked out. The sunlight felt warr than usual.
"Life isn't a movie. It doesn't end at the best part."
Vito's voice surfaced in his head out of nowhere. David shook it off, got on the rail transit toward Watson.
At Viktor's, Vito had just finished getting new lungs and a stomach installed. He'd wanted to do his hands and get subdermal armor too, but money had moved faster than expected. He ended up settling for a circulatory system upgrade and left the rest for later.
He took a couple hits from the nerve suppressor and started adjusting to the new hardware. His cyberware capacity was still nowhere near full. As for rejection symptoms. Co on. Since when did any V worth a damn get taken out by cyberware incompatibility.
He picked up his new crafted pistol and decided it needed a na. He called it Eddie.
If anyone ever pointed at him and said hand over your eddies, he'd put Eddie's barrel in their face.
What's that? Night City wants my eddies? Fine. Shoot your shot.
Gloria was looking better that morning. When she found out Vito was staying at her place, she imdiately asked whether David had gone to school.
Vito was watching Viktor work on an implant installation machine and answered without missing a beat.
"David? He went. Uniform? Co to think of it he wasn't wearing it. But you know how kids that age are, they hate the uniform, it's just a phase, I never wore mine in high school either, got told off about it every day, turned out fine. Don't worry."
Gloria relaxed a little, though sothing in her gut was telling her it wasn't quite what she was picturing. She pressed a little further.
"Vito, has the Academy called David at all?"
Vito thought for a mont. "Not that I know of. But don't worry, I gave David my number, he'll call if anything cos up."
Night City's standard ringtone sounded in his head.
"See, that's him now. He probably just got in, I'll take it."
A few seconds later.
"What? Say that again?"
...
Earlier that afternoon.
After leaving Arasaka Tower, David got on the city rail with nothing particular to do. Then he noticed a flash of silver hair, and looked up to find a beautiful girl sitting across the car.
He watched her for a while before realizing she was quietly hacking the other passengers and lifting their chips. She worked her way through the whole carriage, and when she got to David he activated the Sandevistan and caught her wrist.
She was surprised, but recovered fast and pulled David to the side of the car.
She was interested in what he could do. She pitched him a partnership: lift chips together, Arasaka passengers only, 80-20 split. David had been trying to figure out how to make money. They agreed on the spot.
The girl handled the hacking, popping chips loose from the Arasaka passengers. David used the Sandevistan to lift them without anyone noticing.
It went smoothly. No Arasaka corpo with hardware good enough to spot a military-grade Sandevistan was ever going to be on a city rail, and the two of them walked away with a stack of chips. They introduced themselves, the girl's na was Lucy.
But just as they were about to split the take, David's nose started bleeding and he went down.
Lucy got him onto an ambulance she knew, but the ripperdoc inside took one look at a seventeen-year-old kid with a military-grade Sandevistan and made a different calculation. He told Lucy to mind her business or he'd take her chro too.
Lucy smiled politely, gave David a heads-up, then ramd the mobile gurney hard into the ripperdoc. She kicked open the ambulance door, grabbed the gurney, and surfed it out of the vehicle. David, oxygen mask still on his face, got the ride of his life before they scraped to a stop at the side of the road.
"Now that was exciting."
Lucy said it lightly, smiling, which was more than David could manage at the mont. He was struggling to breathe.
"Hey. Is there soone I can call for you?"
David managed to answer.
"Vito. Call Vito."
He used what he had left to give Lucy the number. Lucy called.
"Hi, is this Vito? David Martinez is about to pass out."
"What? Say that again?"
Lucy paused. "Is this Vito?"
"It is. What happened to David?"
"Nosebleed, he collapsed. We got on an ambulance but the ripperdoc tried to take David's implants, so we had to get out."
"Where are you?"
"Kabuki, near the highway entrance."
"Stay there."
Vito said his goodbyes and moved. Gloria started to ask what had happened but only got a glimpse of him already out the door, her hand still reaching toward nothing.
"Don't worry, Mrs. Martinez. That kid handles himself. I haven't known him long, but he's reliable."
Viktor reassured her.
Vito called a Delamain with ergency dical supplies and headed for the Watson highway. From a distance he could already see a girl and a mobile gurney.
"Del, pull up next to that gurney."
The car stopped. Vito checked David first, then moved him inside, and waved Lucy in. She thought about it, then got in.
"Del, take a look at this kid."
"Please connect the data cable. Connected. David Martinez. Severe physical depletion, neural system dysregulation. Recomnd adrenaline administration, followed by nerve suppressor."
"One adrenaline, then get us to Viktor's."
The Delamain's dical compartnt produced a hand-grip adrenaline injector. Vito handed it to Lucy.
"You do it. You're local, you know where it goes."
Lucy took it and pressed it against David's chest. Vito pulled out Viktor's nerve suppressor and gave David two hits.
David started looking more stable. Vito turned to look at Lucy properly for the first ti, assuming she was probably a classmate, maybe sothing more.
He looked over at David and raised an eyebrow.
"Well played, kid."
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