506 A Lovely Intro

“That was quick... and fun.” I said when I appeared back in the space between worlds. “Thanks for the suggestion, reading buddy.”

A feeling of happiness came from beside me and a set of lips pressed against my cheek.

“It scratched a spot I didn't know I had, or thought needed to be scratched.” I said and reclined back. “Was it because I wrapped everything up so easily? I didn't think I had that kind of viciousness inside of me.”

The impression I needed to let off some anger at Sarah Connor's treatment of me, made me laugh.

“It definitely did that.” I said and hugged the presence beside me. “Now I just have to decide what I want to do next.”

To my surprise, a computer game disc popped up in front of me, with a Karma Point cost bill. I read the title and gave my invisible reading buddy a raised eyebrow.

“Really?” I asked and felt reassurance. “If you're sure, how can I refuse?”

A giddy and nervous feeling hit me and I laughed.

“I promise to take it easy.” I reassured them. “No mutually assured destruction this time, I swear.”

A popup appeared and I chose the options I felt would be for the best gaming experience, then hit accept. I felt another kiss on my cheek before everything went black.

*

I felt like crap as I opened my eyes to the soft sound of an ambulance siren in the distance. My mind was quickly filled with my background story and what just happened to me. It passed into the back of my head as the world came into focus and I discovered I had an oxygen mask on my face and I was looking up at the ceiling of the ambulance from the inside.

Apparently, being shoved into traffic by my schoolmates and run over by an Arasaka corpo's limo, in front of the Arasaka Academy and half of the student body, hadn't done me any favors.

“Hijo de puta!” A pretty redheaded woman gasped and leaned over me. “The gilipollas woke up!”

The guy driving laughed. “Just keep him calm and stop him from moving too much, Gloria. We'll be arriving at his registered ripperdoc in a few minutes, so you don't have to dose him again.”

Gloria whispered several more curses and she checked my vitals with her fingers, then she held up something like a datapad that had a cord on it. It pulled on my neck and I realized she had it plugged into my data access port.

I opened my mouth to ask her what she could see and only static came out. The vocal synthesizer I had spent ten thousand eddies to have installed, that could mimic anyone's voice, was now scrap.

“I'm barely getting anything from this stupid thing.” Gloria said and smacked the side of it, then she sighed and reached down to unplug it from me.

I jerked slightly from that and she gave me a sympathetic look.

“Easy, now. We're almost there.” Gloria said in a calm voice. “Victor Vektor's a good ripperdoc, so you'll be in good hands.”

There was a light squelch sound when she rested a hand on my chest to reassure me. Her face gained a look of horror for a moment before she pulled her hand back and she picked up the tablet thing again. I jerked when she plugged it back into the dataport on my neck and she looked sad as she tried to take another reading.

I decided to give myself a diagnostic instead of waiting for her. A sharp pain lanced through my head and the HUD in my sole cybernetic eye flickered twice before it showed me the results... and holy shit, I was a mess. Even with a subdermal armor mesh woven under my skin and the first stage of a bone lace, both of my arms and both of my legs were shattered.

My ribcage was more shards than solid bone, my spine was fractured in three different spots, and the reinforced metal plate in the back of my head, which was there explicitly for protecting my brain and the cybernetic implant that controlled everything, had split away from the skull bone it had been melded to.

The reason she was having such a hard time getting readings from me was because the port only had an intermittent connection. The base of the attachment had been sheared through by the edge of the metal plate and it was only because the corner of it touched the severed connections that there was any signal at all.

“We're here.” The driver said and the ambulance came to a stop.

“Gracias a dios.” Gloria said and unplugged me from her diagnostic tool.

I made a gargling sound and she caught her breath. She now realized she was messing around with something that wasn't quite attached and she kicked open the back doors of the ambulance.

“His braincase is floating!” Gloria shouted as she jumped out.

“Shit!” The guy said and they both pulled the stretcher out. He hit the wheel release and my body jerked as they hit and jostled me. “Sorry, kid. There's no time to be gentle!”

I couldn't speak to tell him to kiss my ass, since being gentle would have made things a whole heck of a lot better for me. Instead, the tough stretcher had no give at all as they pushed me across the street. It bounced twice on the sidewalk, front and back wheels, and he went first down the stairs and the wheels hit every goddamn stair on the way down.

I gurgled constantly as my cybernetic parts rattled around inside my head. Gloria's face looked like it had lost all its color, which was weird, because she had darker skin from her Spanish American heritage.

“Jesus, what happened to Veder?” Victor's voice asked as soon as the stretcher was through the door.

“Corpo's armored limo.” The driver said and unlocked the straps holding me to the stretcher.

“This doesn't look like a hit and run.” Victor said with a frown.

“It wasn't. He was run over in front of the academy.” Gloria said and looked like she was struggling with something. After Victor glared at her, she sighed and made a choice. “My son David saw the whole thing. An academy board member's son pushed him in front of the car coming to pick him up.”

Victor nodded and motioned to Gloria, whom stepped up beside me. “On three, we roll him over onto the surgical bed and hope he doesn't die from moving him so roughly.”

The driver let out a curse and started to apologize for rushing.

“Fuck off and get out.” Victor spat at him. “If you're on the next delivery run to my shop, I'm cancelling my contract with Meat Wagon.”

The driver looked angry until Victor pointed at me. The man closed his mouth and left without another word.

“I'm sorry, Vic.” Gloria said with a soft voice.

Victor sighed and rubbed his face, then he gave me a pointed look. “Depending on the extent of the damage, and by the looks of your boneless body, most of your updated gear's gotta go.”

I managed a single small nod as the pain lanced through my head again.

“Let's do this.” Victor said and braced his hands on my chest and my shoulder. The squelching sounds made him wince and his face gained a determined look as Gloria stood on the other side of the surgical bed to catch me. “One, two... three!”

I gurgled a scream as they hefted me off of the stretcher and I pretty much flopped over onto my chest and Gloria did her best to not let me choke on my own blood as she caught me and eased me down onto the surprisingly soft surgical bed.

“I need to keep you lucid for this bit, V.” Victor said and I felt a puncture on my neck, right below the access port. “That's a local anaesthetic that'll help during this next part.”

I gurgled and he huffed.

“I'll put you out for the easy stuff, kid. It's your braincase that's the big concern right now.” Victor said. “Gloria, can you book off or do you have to go?”

“Victor, I... I just...” Gloria stammered.

“I could use an extra pair of experienced hands for this.” Victor added.

Gloria sighed and was quiet for a moment. “I sent Craig back to base.”

“Good. Grab the cyberdeck on the left. It's pre-loaded, so we can use it almost like a shunt.” Victor said.

“A shunt? For what?” Gloria asked.

“Veder's losing most of his cyberware. Giving him one last braindance before he's relegated to being mostly ganic is fitting, isn't it?” Victor asked.

“You can't be serious, choom.” Gloria responded. “He's almost completely chromed out. He can't go back to being a normie.”

Victor laughed and his hand lightly touched my head. “V doesn't really have a choice about that anymore.”

I gurgled in agreement and Gloria sighed.

“Hook him up and I'll start the extraction procedure, then we can knock him out for the rest.” Victor said.

I felt the plug enter the port and I jerked again. Gloria whispered to Victor about the intermittent signal and what she suspected was wrong. He didn't comment as he turned it on and tried it, activated the cyberdeck and observed me. Nothing happened and I wasn't affected. I didn't see or hear anything besides what was going on around me and he sighed.

“Forget it.” Victor said sadly as the both of them went to work on me.

I must have dozed off or lost consciousness at some point, either from the low grade constant pain or from listening to more squelching sounds. When I woke up, I felt like a new man. Well, mostly man, because I wrapped up tight in splints all over and looked like an Egyptian mummy. I also felt completely wired and wide awake.

“Hey, you're up.” Gloria's sleepy voice said from beside the bed.

I turned my head to look at her, and damn, she was a hot sexy babe. Her thick EMT coat was hung on the back of the chair and her long red hair had escaped the ponytail it had been in and was now a dishevelled mass around her head. Her black sleeveless blouse hugged her upper body like a second skin and showed off her spectacular chest to wonderful effect.

“Nova.” I whispered and stared at her. “You're a preem pneumatic doll.”

Gloria's eyes widened before her face erupted in a bright blush. She quickly looked away from me to hide it and muttered something about idiot kids not knowing what they were saying to women almost twice their age. She also wondered how the painkillers I was on could make me that delusional.

I barked a soft laugh to get her attention and gave her my best Gilderoy Lockhart smile when she looked at me. “Hey, I'm no gonk. I know you're not a joytoy.”

Gloria lost the blush and her eyes went angry at being compared to a prostitute, then her entire face softened as her eyes flicked down to the back of my head and to my wrapped chest. “I'll forgive you this time.” She said, her voice soft. “You're probably still twisted out on the skezz and stims Vic had to jack you up with to stop you from flatlining.”

“Heh, probably.” I said and lifted my hand to scratch my nose, except my whole arm was immobile. “Could you scratch my nose for me? I still got a nose, right? There's an itch right by the tip and I can't reach it for some reason.”

Gloria looked surprised and then huffed as she stood. My eyes went right to her chest as her breasts swayed, showing she only wore a cloth support and not the hard cups most other women wore.

“My eyes are up here, punk.” Gloria said as she pointed at her face and then she leaned over and reached for my nose with a single fingertip.

“Wait, you have eyes?” I asked with fake shock on my face and looked up. “Drek! You actually do!”

Gloria stared at me for a moment, probably because of my sheer audacity, then she laughed. Her chest jiggled quite nicely, too. “You gonk.” She said with a hint of affection and rubbed my nose with her fingertip.

“Ohhhh.” I moaned with relief and my whole body relaxed. “I'm hiring you as my personal nurse. Fingers that feel that good need to be hoarded and protected.”

Gloria laughed again and scratched the spot a few more times, then she gave it a gentle caress before she sat back down. “I'm glad you're keeping upbeat about all of this.”

“It's better than swearing unholy vengeance against that gonk Tanaka for killing me.” I responded.

Gloria gasped, closed her eyes briefly, and took a deep breath before she let it out. “That's why I wanted to be here when you woke up. My son...” She paused as she swallowed, then straightened her back and looked into my eyes. “He saw the whole thing, but...”

“You can't let him stick his neck out for someone like me, because he doesn't have a corpo sponsor to protect him if things zero out or go delta.” I finished for her.

Gloria nodded and tried to stay firm in her resolve, then her eyes again dropped to my bandaged head and to my wrapped chest. She slumped slightly and leaned back on the chair again. Both of her hands raised to her face and she rubbed it roughly, then she sighed and dropped her hands to her lap.

“I'm sorry, Veder.” Gloria said and genuinely sounded sad. “I've worked so hard to get David into that school. In order to keep him there, I...” She stopped and sighed. “I'm working double shifts and night shifts to pay for everything, and it's barely enough. I'm doing all I can to give him a better life than I ever had and I can't let anything ruin his chances.”

“Ruin his chances?” I asked and gave her a flat look. “Or ruin yours?”

Gloria blinked her eyes at me. “Wh-what?”

“Did you ever ask David what he wanted to do with his life? Or did you just assume he wanted to get out of the slum you live in?” I asked and she looked shocked. “You're so busy pushing him hard to leave your old life behind, that you're completely missing the point of why you're doing it in the first place.”

“Excuse me?” Gloria asked, dumbfounded.

“You're trying so hard to give him a happy life that you've never once considered what he thinks is a happy life.” I said and turned my head to look back up at the ceiling. “You might be surprised that what David considers happiness has almost nothing to do with what you think it is.”

Gloria stood up and glared down at me, her nostrils flaring in and out as she breathed heavily. “I'm his mother! I know exactly what David needs to be happy!”

I couldn't help but smile up at her. “I'm glad you think so.” I said and intentionally looked at her chest, since it was right there above me. “I dare you to go ask him and see if you're right.”

“I will, estupido!” Gloria almost shouted at me. She turned around and grabbed her heavy coat, yanked it off of the chair, making said chair clatter to the floor, and put on her coat and almost ran out of the room.

Damn, that's a preem ass.I thought and then mentally laughed and closed my eyes.

It had been one hell of a gamble choosing Cyberpunk 2077 for my next world after that weird rumble in Re:Zero, except it really worked out for me. I had learned visiting that world first had unlocked something special for me. At the top corner of my vision was something I had never expected to see, even in a world based on a videogame.

Do you want to SAVE your game? (Cost: 10,000 Karma Points)

You have a total of One (1) Save Slot.

Warning:Saved games overwrite previous saved games.

I was really grateful for that, because I never want to go through something like that introduction scene ever again. That whole thing sucked, especially because I had to intentionally make Gloria angry with me. She was never going to listen to what I was saying, otherwise.

If she ever came back, I'd make that job offer again. Having a fiery redhead as a personal nurse sounded like a really good thing right now. I needed to use the bathroom really badly and I couldn't see a bedpan or the nurse call button anywhere.