Giggity

"Door in 3…2…1" I told Jackie as I hacked the sliding entrence to the apartment in front of us and walked in ahead of him.

"Good evening gentlemen." Jackie greeted the startled young men.

I put a bullet in the guts of the first guy to reach for a gun.

"All of you sit down." Jackie ordered and waited for them to comply as they watched the blood and innards leaking out of the crater my revolver round turned their pal's stomach into, "Don't make me say it again." he growled.

The remaining three young men in the apartment complied, sitting down at the table and on the couches.

"Please… please don't hurt us." one of them begged, the other two unable to take their eyes off their friend.

"Where is the package?" Jackie asked the man.

"What?" he responded.

"The package! Where is it, you fucking thief!" Jackie yelled with his gun in the guy's face.

"I don't know…" the man's denial was interrupted by another of his friends getting shot causing the last one to scream as the brains and skull shrapnel landed on his face.

"You guys were hired to run a package for Padre. Where is it?" Jackie demanded again of the frightened man while I went over to the kitchen counter and unlocked a briefcase laying there in the open.

"Found it." I announced right before I shot the remaining two men, "Easiest eddies all month."

Jackie looked annoyed as he called it in to Padre, the Fixer that supplied us this gig and the many others we'd done together since I took out a loan with the Valentinos. I could pay it off no problem with the money I make working for the gang. I can chop six cars in a day netting me fat stacks from my day job, and I've been doing custom cyberware work for the gang which has netted me a flowing cash stream from the OG's who don't blow all their money on vice.

Despite both those revenue generators, I took up working gigs with my brother as an edgerunner - those who operate on the edge of society between legal and illegal.

"Damn it." Jackie snapped after he hung up, "It's always more shitwork. Jackie the Janitor, that's what they'll call me! When someone shits the bed I'll be there to clean up!"

"Jesus Jackie, get a grip. The hardest part of this job was the drive over here." I chided, "A fat stack of eddies for an hours work. Why complain about that?"

"Because, hermano, no one gets famous for zeroing dipshits like this. For bullying people who are behind on payments or deliveries. We should be doing gigs that get on the news! That people care about. The only person who's going to care that we offed these idiots is the guy that has to clean it up." Jackie sighed and shook his head.

"Listen, hermano, chasing clout is just going to leave you ass out. Do it for the love of the game, this way when you die it's less tragic. No one likes it when someone with big dreams dies." I patted him on the shoulder as I took the briefcase out of the apartment and fried the camera's of some lookie loos.

"We can't all be military grade borgs satisfied with snuffing out guys who don't even register as sparks, let alone an actual candle flame." Jackie shot back as he followed me out.

"I'm just happy with the grind, Jackie." I told him, "I know you can't see it, but these little jobs are adding up, building our credibility."

And it was true. Completing gigs for Padre netted me a level up which I dropped into Explosives. I figured it'll come in handy some day to be able to rig a bomb or defuse them. Plus it made me a mean mother fucker with grenades. I threw one into a dude's mouth the other night. Knocked his teeth down his throat and blew up him and his partner in crime while they both looked at each other with completely dumbfounded expressions.

Good times.

"You seeing V again tonight?" Jackie asked as we arrived at the ground floor of the mega building and walked out to my truck.

"Yeah." I nodded as I brought the engine back to life with the press of a button on my keypad and got in.

"Just thinking, hermano." Jackie grinned as he climbed in, "Never thought you'd abandon your manwhore ways and take up a Mainline."

"We've been seeing each other for a month. Mainline needs a bit more commitment than that." I responded as we hit the streets for the journey back home with a brief stop to drop off the package for Padre at a dropbox.

"Yeah, but I see it more clearly than you." Jackie continued to grin, "You been seeing this chica every chance you get. Juan D. Welles got bit by the lovebug bad."

I was about to respond when a car blew past me peddle to the metal, shaking the truck a bit as it went, right before another didn't pass by, it slid, sideswiping my beautiful teal truck on the passenger side.

"Mother fucker!" I shouted in rage prepared to chase after these putos but hesitated as I turned my head to see an asshole on a bike coming up on my side shooting a gun in the air who slapped my mirror off.

I drew my gun and turned to my brother, "Jackie. Tonight's the night bitches die."

I rolled the window down and shot once, blowing the head off the motorcyclist as he sped away. Then I floored it in pursuit of the pandejos that fucked up my beautiful truck. Despite it's heavy duty nature my Mackinaw has zip to spare and we quickly closed on the lesser driver and vehicle that wronged us.

Using a perfect mix of my Trajectory Analysis optics, my cyberarm, and the Explosives skill I chucked a cooked grenade that landed perfectly behind their back tires, going off and flipping the Thorton Colby, sending the gunmen standing in the back flying across the pavement.

I came to a screeching halt and hopped out, rolling back the bed cover and I took out a fuel can and blow torch which I carried under my arm. As I walked to the vehicle in which the driver and passenger were both moaning and groaning in pain I used the other hand to fire off shots into the men and women splattered on the road. Not to put them out of any misery, but to make sure they paid for this mistake with their lives.

"Help… help please." came the weak voice of the driver as he saw my legs coming up to his car.

I silently opened the fuel can and poured the contents out over the flipped Colby.

"No! Nonono!" the driver screamed as he saw me backing away, trailing a line of fuel to a safe distance.

"Fry you son of a bitch." I growled as I lit up the torch and ignited the fuel.

"You feel better now?" Jackie asked as he walked up alongside me.

"No." I shook my head and looked back at my damaged truck, "But now the healing can begin."

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Juan has begun the life of an edgerunner and Jackie doesn't appretiate that there are worse jobs than what they are doing. Meanwhile V is scraping by running packages for Padre to establish that relationship we saw in the Street Kid backstory.

I think Padre is a weird character. He is deeply involved with the Valentinos, employing many of them in his role as a fixer yet he provides gigs that are against them.

You can support me and my family at

ko - fi . com / jmanm