Cyberpunk Edgerunners : A Legend Is Born

A Bar for the Mercs

"Don't dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next."  -Denis Waitley

Elijah arrived at the entrance of the afterlife. The club was located at the back side of an alley between two malls, the entrance to the club was two stairs below the alley way. there was a guard standing in front of a double door and some people outside the club loitering or puffing cigarettes. you could hear the club music being played behind the door.

Elijah tried to walk inside but the bouncer blocked his way while the bouncer glared at him menacingly. The bouncer scanned him and let him in after, confusing Elijah.

"Booth number three on the far right corner of the bar, Mr Pines is waiting" The bouncer said moving aside for Elijah to enter.

When Elijah got inside he was surprised to see so much people in a compact place that has disco music that was not partying.

All the people present were only talking with each other and some was in the bar drinking themselves away. Elijah searched for his father's face since he didn't know where booth 3 was located and didn't also know where the back of the club was.

Elijah finally found his father, he was sitting in a square booth that had an open
entrance with a small square table that had a holographic Television above the table. the chair was also in a square design. Elijah saw his father drinking a glass of champagne  while two guards wearing suits watched from each end of the booth.

Hiroshi Pines was a man in his 40s, his hair was also starting to whiten, Hiroshi was wearing a brown blazer above a white shirt. Hiroshi was at the pinnacle of a fit man even though he was thin his muscles were still visible on his blazer.

"Why did you call me, dad?" Elijah asked walking inside the booth and sitting in front of his father.

"You came earlier than I expected, I didn't think you would come at all" Hiroshi laughed, He stood up and sat beside his son. " Do you know what this place is son?" He whispered

"An illegal underground club?" Elijah scoffed and rolled his eyes making Hiroshi chuckled.

"This is the club where we can find out about the incident 2 years ago." Hiroshi said his demeanor completely changing, the same could be said to Elijah.

"Who can help?" Elijah asked suddenly the anger he had before arriving at the club completely diminishing.

"Her name is Kiwi. She's a good netrunner, one of the talented ones infact." Hiroshi said hsi face turning serious as he slouched on the couch. As the Father son was talking, Kiwi who has blonde neck long hair with red eyes wearing a red trench coat walked towards them, The guard tried to block her off but Hiroshi tolled his men to let her in.

One noticable features that Kiwi had was her metallic face mask. she stood at the open entrance of the booth.

"Mr Pines I got the detes about what happened to Miranda" Kiwi said in a cold tone

"Please sit down" Kiroshi said pointing to the opposite side of the chair.

Kiwi sat down and crossed her arms before putting  two pieces of shards on the table.

"The blue one is for your personal slots the other is for a BD" kiwi said her tone turning serious "I recommend slotting in the chip first, before using the BD."

"Why are you giving us porn for?" Elijah asked exasperatedly.

"It's not, the BD is not for the faint of hearts, it would be easier to handle when you know what's going to happen ." She replied her eyes thinning.

Hiroshi inserts the first shard behind his ear in one of his neural ports. What hiroshi was seeing very much angered and horrified him.

The shard contains an email to a person named Thomas Wheeler and was sent last October 21st 2071

[To Thomas Wheeler]
    (The package was good. bring more goodies like that and we might have a proper business agreement. I'll send the rest of the cash tomorrow, The boys want to have fun with the new package.)

There was also log dates and BD supplies that were sold or ready to be bought, the log dates were written very brutal in was a descriptive on what the package was and how  the "package" was treated during the stay in their basement.

(The boys inserted the blocking chip for the trauma team after doing the job. She's mostly flesh so the product would be much more profitable than others.)

(The job was done, 15 minutes worth of XBD's  she lasted longer than we expected, we burned her body and threw her corpse at the  Laguna Bend, No traces of anything, Cops already filed a missing persons report but nothing is leading towards us, even if we get caught we can talk it out with some eddies.)

There was so much more details and email but Hiroshi had enough and everytime he reads his hear breaks for his daughter.

Hiroshi ejected the shard and the and crushed with his hand before slamming it on the table.

" HOW DARE THEY DO THIS!! TO MY DAUGHTER!" Hiroshi yelled but not loud enough for the people around to hear, mostly because of the loud music of the bar.

Elijah was surprised to see his father angry like this, Hiroshi was always calm and collected but now his face was red of anger you can see the scrunches on his eyebrows and nose. Hiroshi sat back down and exhaled he was massaging his forehead trying to stop the tears forming on his eyes.

all this time Elijah still didn't know why his father was acting like this, but he already knew that something happened to his deceased sister making his father's emotions uncontrollable. there was a silence between the three of them, Hiroshi broke the silence by lifting his head up to talk to Kiwi again.

"Are you willing to take up another job?, I'll double the pay" Hiroshi said in a serious tone crossing all his fingers that they would accept

"Send the 1st payment then we'll talk"
Hiroshi smiles and immediately sends the payment his eyes turing blue as an indicator.

[-7,500]

"I'll call my group is that alright?" Kiwi suggested. She already new what kind of job Hiroshi would give them so she needed her team for that, they might get a huge income if all of this went well.

"As long as the job's done you can call anyone you like." Hiroshi replied "We can talk about the Job, when your group gets here."

"What was in the chip dad?" Elijah asked. Hiroshi sighed and put his hand on his own knee for support.

"It was a detailed information on how you're sister lived her final moments, Tortured and Raped" Hiroshi said, Picking up the BD shard. "So this was her final moments?" Hiroshi asked Kiwi.

"Yes"

Elijah who was so pissed and heartbroken to hear that grabbed the BD chip from his father's hand and walked out the Afterlife.

"Ej wait!" Hiroshi stood up and tried to stop his son but knowing his son, Hiroshi knew that the moment he tried to stop Elijah the more his son would push and do what he thinks was right, He could only hope that there was time left before he could stop him from doing something that would get himself killed.

Ej went up to the alleyway and leaned on his bike and stared at the chip. he let out his breath in a long exhalation of sadness, and pocketed the chip.

He rode his bike and went back home to city center's apartment letting the wind that breezing on his face the only thing that felt good to him at the moment. The meeting with his father and Kiwi had brought back memories that were more sadder than before.

He was lucky when he arrived at his apartment the rain started to pour he would've been soaking wet the minute he came home any later.

Elijah opened the door and all he could hear was the hard down pour of rain and the news radio about another cyberpsychosis incident near  watson district.

Elijah took out the BD chip that was on his pocket and threw his jacket to the other side of the room, He hid the chip on the small cabinet beside his bed and dropped down to face first to his pillows.

He closes his eyes and slowly remembers memories of his old home town and the first time they went to night city and the last moments he would see his sister.