Chapter 12- Eye Of The Tiger

As he'd done the first time around, David immediately paid off his rent for the month. Unlike the first time, he'd also paid up on the next two months as well. His landlord had been surprised, but as always in Night City, didn't question where he'd gotten the money.

After the party, he'd spent the night with Lucy again, cuddled up against her just happy that he was able to do something like that again. It made him the happiest goddamn man in the world.

The next morning had been a little awkward with him having woken up with a hard cock nestled between her ass cheeks. Lucy had taken one look at it, her eyes widening in shock and not a little bit of lust, but had swiftly disengaged to go get ready for the day.

He'd remembered a similar reaction last time around but he didn't really understand why she pulled away. Then again last time they'd gotten to this point they'd already slept together.

That wasn't to say that he was disappointed they hadn't done so yet of course.

He was the happiest man in the world just holding Lucy's hand. But it did seem like a weird divergence compared to where they'd been before.

Ah well. They'd get there.

What was more pressing however was the information that had been passed onto him shortly after the next day that due to Faraday screwing them on the bonus objective, they were looking to ditch Faraday.

On one hand, the four eyed fucker had messed up in a way that would do exactly what David had hoped he could do. Get them away from his influence. Hell. He'd basically done David's job for him. Thanks you fucking backstabbing cunt.

On the other hand, Faraday was a vindictive BITCH and wouldn't be against getting people to flatline them due to their assault on his Ego, and possible knowledge of his plans. So that would need to be handled. But handled how?

He wanted Faraday dead. And not want like a kid sees a candy, and desires it.

He wanted Faraday dead like a man wants water in a desert.

To do that, however, would require him to FIND the man. And unfortunately that was beyond his skills. He wasn't a detective. And he wasn't a netrunner.

And it wasn't like he could ask Lucy to help him find Faraday to zero him and put him out of everyone's misery.

The fixer had earned the crew's ire, but not enough to warrant killing the man.

He sighed and got up off the couch in his apartment, moving to the bathroom to look in the mirror.

His body didn't look too different, but that was ok. He didn't expect himself to suddenly put on a fuck ton of muscle just yet.

You could, you know…

He closed his eyes. No. No. He didn't need it right now.

Maybe not… but eventually. Even Maine wasn't strong enough…

It wasn't about strength!! No matter how much cyberware they put on it wouldn't be enough.

He gripped the sides of the sink tightly.

Maybe…. No. No.

He needed to do better. He couldn't….

His mind went back to when he was in the Kurosaki cyberpsycho BD again..

Fuck.. fuck fuck fuck. He didn't want to be that.

Just a weapon. Not again.

He needed to go see Vik. Let him check the Sandy. Leave it at that.

You could at least look at the-

Catalog! Yes! Look at what's available, see what he MIGHT decide to get in the future. That… that was alright right?

Just looking?

No harm in just looking…

Yeah… yeah! He'd talk to Vik, see what was on hand, and then… go for a run. That sounded like a plan.

He walked over to where his mom's ashes were sitting on the center table and frowned as he placed a hand on the urn.

"..... I hope like hell I'm going down the right road Mamá. I'm scared. I'm still so scared I'm gonna wake up. Scared that I'm NOT gonna wake up and fuck everything up."

He waited a moment, and snorted.

"Yeah… yeah I know Mamá. 'Watch your language!'"

He smiled and bowed his head, closing his eyes.

".... I hope I'm not too big a disappointment Mom. See you when I get back."

And with that, he made his way out of his mom's (his now) apartment and made his way to the NCART to hop on a tram to Watson. Keeping his eyes open for any picksockets, it was then that he got a call. Not from anyone he wanted to hear from either.

Principal Maliwan.

He grimaced but answered the call, a projection of the man being shown before him, only visible to himself.

David: "Hello?"

Principal Maliwan: "ah.. Mr. Martinez. I'm calling to speak to you about your crashing of our systems with illicitly acquired programming. Your mother has stated that she would be paying us for the damages, but she has yet to do so. Could you please let her know that unless she pays for the damages immediately, we will be forced to expel you."

David: "she's dead."

Principal Maliwan: "ah…. Excuse me?"

David: "she was killed in a gang drive-by on some corpo asshole. Trauma team left us both to die."

Principal Maliwan: "ah… I see. Well that is a shame, but unfortunately that does mean you will be expelled unless you pay for it. The cost is-"

David: "Fucking nothing and you know it. All you had to do was reset it to the daily backups, and you'd lose maybe 2 minutes of material. Takes 10 minutes, if that."

He was actually starting to get pissed. After having told Lucy about what happened this time around, she'd been confused as to how it could have possibly cost 15k to pay to fix things when Arasaka Academy had multiple backups that would have handled it in minutes.

Officially, it was because they wanted to make sure education for their pupils was never at risk or delayed.

Unofficially?

Spoiled corpo kids had a habit of downloading sketchy Net files and the like. Never once did they get held accountable for their shit.

This was them trying to get rid of the poor kid who was showing them up.

Principal Maliwan: "I don't know where you came up with that idea Mr. Martinez-"

David: "just.. don't. Don't fucking lie to me. We know why you want me gone. A bunch of corpo brats and their parents don't like that their precious babies and all the chrome they can afford got out performed by street trash from Santo Domingo. So they want me gone. If you have even the slightest amount of respect for me, at least admit it."

Principal Maliwan: "I cannot confirm or deny this Mr Martinez. As these calls are monitored and recorded. But…."

David cocked an eyebrow, not suspecting this. He'd thought the man would just repeat himself..

Principal Maliwan: "if hypothetically that were the case, I would inform you that it would be safest for you to leave as there have been suggestions of getting rid of you more….permanently. all hypothetical you understand."

David couldn't deny, he hadn't expected that. Though he really shouldn't be. He was more surprised that the principal was being honest with him.

David: "I see. Well, in that hypothetical scenario I would thank you for being honest with me. Non-hypothetically however, I'm officially placing my request for withdrawal. That will keep all my credits intact, correct?"

Principal Maliwan: " Yes it will. Officially, Arasaka Academy regrets a promising student leaving and wishes you all the best. Your transcripts will be sent to you soon. And… unofficially…."

The principal took his glasses off and rubbed his forehead.

Principal Maliwan: "From one Santo Domingo street trash to another. I'm sorry."

He blinked and looked at the man with new eyes.

The Principal wasn't born Corpo?

Huh… looks like if you wanted to get higher in life Faraday, ya should have been a principal.

David: "if you're from Santo Domingo, you know why I ain't gonna accept that."

Principal Maliwan: "I know. Good luck Mr. Martinez. And the fee…. It will be waived. Have a pleasant day."

As the call ended, David snorted as the car came to a stop, and he disembarked.

He supposed that was as much kindness the rat could afford him.

He was surprised to hear that the Principal had been from Santo Domingo, but he supposed it took all sorts.

Making his trip through Watson, he sighed as he looked up at the Misty's Esoterica. Welp… time to get checked up again.

Walking in, he smiled at the sight of Misty who was with a customer. She waved at him before going back to the woman there, and David went into the alley. Petting the cat that always seemed to be there, he made his way down into Viks Clinic.

The man himself was reading a well worn medical journal, but looked up, with a small smile.

"Hey Kid. Been about a week huh? Let's go ahead and check the status of that fucking weird ass tech."

He laughed weakly and got into the chair, Vik hooking up to him through his ports and jittering his leg as he looked around, his eyes keeping going to the chrome on display.

He stopped looking when Vik gave him a steady glance, trying to avoid an awkward conversation.

"So, what's the readout say?"

He just looked at David for a moment before bringing up the scans.

"Well,. It looks like your new spine is encouraging the growth of new tissues. Capillaries, muscle tissue, the works. All in all it's naturally reinforcing the Sandy, and the readouts are just getting better and better. Fucking weird ass piece of tech. I want you to stick to the dilation I told you, as well as the amount of time. In the meantime… is there anything I can do to help you kid?"

The catalog…

"I'd like to look at a catalog of chrome you have on hand? Not for today but… but the future….."

Vik just gave him a steady glare.

"Kid, I know that look. You're fucking jonesing for some chrome aren't you?"

He couldn't say anything. So he didn't, but he also couldn't look him in the eyes.

…. Fuck. Fuck what was WRONG with him???

Vik just sighed.

"Kid….are you okay?"

Was he okay?

…. He… well yeah of course. He was back! He had the chance to do things right! Do all the things he regretted not doing before dying.

….but…

He swallowed and looked over at the screen showing an amateur boxing match.

".... I don't know. I just… I keep feeling like I'm not getting stronger fast enough. And like… if I just take one or two pieces…"

Vik sighed, and crossed his arms as he leaned back.

"Like you'll be able to catch up. Get the boost you need."

David frowned, and looked back.

"Yeah. How did you know?"

"Been doing this a long time David. Believe it or not, you're actually doing a lot better than some I know. Let me guess…. Never really had the money for upgrades before, but now you're running on the edge, making some real eddies, you're suddenly shown that you can get whatever you want. And you see someone like Maine, chromed out the wazoo, and he just seems like the most preem badass gonk out there."

It was kind of scary the way the man just cut through and saw straight into the heart of things. Spooky actually.

That was exactly what he'd thought the last time around.

".... Yeah. I know I don't really need the stuff right now. And I just…"

Vik hesitated but put a hand on David's shoulder.

"Kid… not gonna lie. This shit right here? This is making me VERY nervous about adding ANY kind of chrome to you. But…. Fuck it. Come on. I'm closing up shop early."

Vik said as he got up, and disconnected all the reading from David, offering a hand to pull him up.

David took it but was still confused.

"What's going on?"

Viktor ignored him as his eyes flashed with a call, before turning back to him.

"We're gonna start on those boxing lessons. You're too wrapped up in that head of yours, and the best way to do that is to practice something new. Can't afford to think about anything else while doing so."

He blinked but slowly a smile grew on his face. Well hell yeah! Sounded like a plan to him!

But the-

SHUT. UP.

"Hell yeah Vik! Sounds great! Where we going?"

"A little place a couple blocks away. Stallion Boxing. It ain't no big chain, but it has the basics. Free weights, jump ropes, punching bags, speed bags and a ring. Perfect for you."

And with that, Vik led him down the streets into the little out of the way boxing gym where mostly hardcore folks were working out there.

And the thing that caught his eyes the most?

Hardly anyone had noticeable chrome or synth muscle.

"Is this.."

"A natural gym? Bet your ass kid. You want to learn the real basics of the basics? Find out what the limit of your 'ganic body is? This is where I'll teach you. This is where you learn. Is that what you want?"

But the-

Yes.

"Yes. That's what I want."

He had to. He'd promised himself. Promised everyone he would do better. Be better.

"Good. Now take off the jacket, and go change into the sweats I got for you. They're in the locker room."

He damn near ran to the locker room.

Last time around, he had never gotten any formal training. Hell, he hadn't even used any martial arts chips. He'd just made use of the Sandy and pure power that the chrome had given him.

Once he was in the sweats, he was practically bouncing as he stood in front of Vik who only raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"Alright kid… Do you know the VERY basics of what you need when you're fighting?"

"Um… a good stance?"

"Heh. Classic answer, but no. The very basic thing you need is good cardio. How much do you run?"

"Um… about a mile or two a day? I just started a week ago."

Viktor nodded approvingly.

"Good. Keep that up for now. But what I'm gonna want you to add to that, is sprints. Five 200 meter sprints with a minute of rest in between em."

He said as he led over into one of the practice areas.

"Boxing needs a lot of cardio, but you also need the RIGHT cardio. Running is good. Sprints are better. Plus, sprinting will help put some muscle on that twig of a frame."

He said, slapping David's torso with his non metal gloved hand, laughing.

David meanwhile had the breath knocked out of him a little.

"O-ok. So…. What else?"

Vik chuckled.

"Well, get ready to learn."

He was ready.

--

30 minutes later

--

Oh Jesus fuck he was not ready. His lungs felt like they were both burning, as well as being pulled out his mouth as he tried to keep up with the drills.

"Alright alright, take 5 kid. Here. Got you some RealWater."

He took the can gratefully, and only just managed to keep from guzzling it. Remembering to take slow sips, his heart rate eventually lowering to something that was capable of allowing human speech.

"How do you feel?"

How did he feel?! He felt-...

Actually he felt pretty good. Calm.

"...I feel better I think."

Vik nodded and leaned against a load bearing pole in the gym.

"Yep. That'll do it. Boxing takes a lot of discipline and focus. Seems to me you got focus. And willpower. And drive. But you don't have much discipline. And that's part of what's keeping you twitching for some more chrome. I ain't gonna say you don't have some mental scars, or shit that happened that makes things more complex. Unfortunately, despite my lovely bedside manner, I'm not a therapist. And we both know you can't afford one."

Only corpo pricks had access to that shit. Not that they use it all that much.

".... Vik… I can't pay you for these lessons. They gotta be worth 1000s of eddies a session."

Vik just waved his hand.

"Tell you what kid…. You let me train you up, get you in fighting shape. Then, you let me take you to a couple of underground places I know. No to the death shit, and I'll make my money back betting on you."

David just… he couldn't understand.

"Vik… why are you doing this shit for me? I've barely even paid you for the checkups. I know you're not charging me what you should."

Vik sighed and looked over at him.

"Kid… David. You're only 17 and you're in one of the lowest fucking life expectancy lifestyles out there. You're angry. But you have a grip on yourself that I haven't seen in a while. You got Lucy looking at you like you're the best thing since fresh food. Is it so crazy that an old man doesn't want to see another kid with a bunch of potential die? I see too fucking many of em in this city. If not making as much money or offering up some of my experience means I don't have to go to another funeral? I'm gonna do it. Now, you ready for the next round?"

David took a deep breath, and let his heart rate finally revert back to his usual resting rate as he considered the man's words.

He just .. he wasn't used to this. And he didn't think many people would be used to the kindness the man showed.

Viktor Vektor. Fucking Saint Ripperdoc of Night City.

David looked him in the eyes and nodded.

"Let's go."