Hellooo Night City!

Dataterms.

These indestructible information hubs open to the general public were commonplace in Night City. Or any city in this world for that matter... I wasn't sure. For 10 eddies per minute, any citizen could browse the NET and obtain public information such as business directories, local maps and even the latest news.

Not even a minute after leaving the abandoned compound, I spotted one of these terminals. It was a red, box-shaped device covered in graffiti and an uncountable number of scuff marks.

Rooted into the concrete pavement, the bright yellow hologram spinning above it made it look like a short, technological tree. A tree whose fruits I was eager to eat.

Glancing all around, I scanned the dark alleys, the lonely factory buildings, and the empty streets for anyone or any sign of danger. I found nothing that could be termed as such, just heaps of trash and the occasional husk of a vehicle.

Everything was calm and quiet, making the illusion of safety very convincing. Night City could look tame when it wanted to, it seems.

Unfortunately for this damned place, it could and would not fool me. I gave my surroundings another once over, this time watching for the smallest tingle in the back of my head. When nothing of the sort happened, I scoffed and crossed the street, my steps silent as they carried me to my objective.

Looking around once more and still finding nothing, I removed my right hand from the hoodie's front pocket and tapped the screen on the terminal.

An alert asking for payment popped up and prevented me from going any further. Not at all surprised, I put my hand back in the hoodie pocket and summoned one of the credchips from the system.

Slotting it into the right opening, the alert switched to one asking for an unlock code.

'Right. The chips are encrypted.'

I removed the chip and put it back in my pocket before making a show of rummaging for something. Meanwhile, I moved it to a fresh file in the system and hastily gave it a "Decrypted" definition.

6 Soul Points poorer, I reinserted the unlocked chip into the terminal and the payment prompt vanished, giving me access to the terminal. The first thing I did with it was check how much money I'd gained.

With a short series of taps, I learnt that I now had over 90,000 eddies.

I honestly had no idea what to expect when I checked, but this was good. Great even. I had 4 more of such cards, all encrypted, but that was a non-issue. In the unlikely event they all stored similar amounts, I'd be a very rich person once I decoded them.

Setting aside the unequal mix of elation and guilt, I swiped right and dismissed the screen displaying my balance. Eager to get my eddies' worth, I brought up the city map and zeroed in my location, instantly confirming my earlier, worrying assumptions.

Watson. I really was in Watson. Northside to be precise.

I dismissed the panic trying and failing to distract me with practical actions, swiping my fingers on the screen hastily to find the nearest motel.

The street I currently found myself on was Longshore Street. The closest place I could pay to have walls between myself and the city was on Martin street, which was more than a mile away.

Captain America in the comics was able to run a mile in just over a minute. I wanted to try and replicate that feat right now. But since nothing crazy had happened yet, I went ahead and explored the map further, even taking a look at business directories.

I memorized the addresses of over a dozen shops, ripperdocs, and weapon vendors, Misty's Esoterica the first of them. Emboldened by the surprising lack of violent interruptions, I continued my information gathering endeavor and committed more locations to memory.

On the 36th, a gym, I was interrupted by the first ever warning from my Spider-Sense.

Completely caught off guard by the alarm blasting in the back of my head, the world around me screeched to a sudden halt and the urge to step to the side nudged me like a sumo wrestler would.

Tapping the slotted credchip and storing it, I obeyed the overpowering impulse and sidestepped to the left, exposing the dataterm to the bullets that whizzed through where I'd been a split-second ago.

In a display of its supreme resilience, the rough-looking terminal weathered the lethal projectiles, its surface intact and free of any holes, the hologram above it not even fritzing.

Shocked, glad, and horrified all at the same time, I broke into a mad sprint immediately right after witnessing this. Another volley of bullets impacted the spot I just vacated, the timely tingle in my head saving me once again.

Body awash with adrenaline courtesy of the miraculous sense, I pulled out all the stops and gave in fully to my speed. My mind and body both worked at their absolute peaks, propelling me away from the would-be assailants faster than they could blink.

Buildings, sign boards, and even the wind blurred and whizzed past with an intensity that brought to mind the times I rode on highways with the windows down.

The distant sound of an engine roaring to life reached my ears, but I knew the car it belonged to would never reach me. Not if I could help it, and not with how fast I was moving.

Having memorized the section of the map detailing the straight and winding paths to Martin Street, I lost my befuddled pursuers through one of the latter, crossing nearly half the mile distance in a measly 30 seconds.

Unfortunately, my attempt to replicate the Captain's feat was denied by the increasing number of people and busier streets.

With no protests from my newly minted and field-tested Spider-Sense, I slowed down and relaxed, transitioning into a speedy jog that was still faster than your average sprint.

More than eager now to put my enhanced physique through its paces, I was about to jump over a wall that led to an alley when something triggered the trusty tingle in the back of my head again. Alongside it was a sharp, fearful cry tearing through the night.

"PLEASE!" "PLEA–"

The scream cut off abruptly, and the sound of something heavy thumping against the ground followed.

I summoned my gun and jumped, my head peeking over the wall and coming to a sight I would remember for the rest of my days.

Surrounded by filth, trash bags and discarded cardboard boxes, two people, a man and woman, lay mutilated in a rapidly expanding pool of blood. Standing above them was an older man clothed in a manner reminiscent of the homeless.

His face was twisted in a rage that looked almost demonic, his red-hot forearm blades stabbing into the man beneath him repeatedly as he screamed, "DIE! DIE! DIE!"

Still a ways away from crossing the wall boundary, I grabbed the top of it with my free hand, twisted my airborne form sideways and jerked myself forward. This brought me over it instantly and allowed me to take aim at the crazy man.

Bang after bang disrupted the night as I emptied the revolver's magazine into him without pausing. All but one of the shots hit his center mass where they penetrated his disheveled clothing but produced no tangible effect. Only when the last one pinged off his skull and knocked it back did he stop to look at me.

Somehow, his face grew even more twisted, his hoarse screams rising an octave. "YOU PEOPLE JUST WON'T LEAVE ME ALONE!"

My feet found the ground at this moment and I immediately dashed towards him. He kept screaming and rushed to meet me, stomping on his victims and their in the blood like they were nothing.

When were a few feet away from colliding, he leaped forward with his right arm sans blade stretched wide, his whole body poised to slice me to ribbons.

My own reflexes and reactions working in tandem with Spider-Sense, I dove in towards him at this exact moment and rolled beneath his airborne form, swiping his feet with my massive frame and turning his body horizontal.

This ruined his leap and dropped him face first onto the rough concrete.

On my feet in a flash, I leapt forward and dropped on put all my weight on his back, halting his attempt to get up. He grunted as his face and chest slammed into the ground again, his blade arms scraping the ground with an uncomfortable noise.

Right as he went flat, I grabbed both of his arms and pulled, my grips like that of steel.

Agony replaced the madness in his howls as I engaged my upper body and twisted his robot limbs behind him in an X shape. The squealing of metal accompanied by sparks of electricity flew from the implants, their inner workings twisted and ruined.

When the screams reduced in intensity and transformed into whimpers, I let the useless appendages drop and clenched my fist. I then pulled my entire arm back, inhaled and and brought it down with every ounce of effort.

BAM!

Ignoring the crack of what had to be bone, I brought my fist down again and pounded his face into the ground a second time. His body went slack with this hit, but I reeled my arm back a third time and added another blow for good measure.

Confident he was truly incapacitated, I got off of him and rushed to the only living victim, trying very hard to keep the woman's detached head and severed neck out of sight and out of mind.

I stepped into the pool of blood, crouched next to her gutted partner and assessed his injuries.

How the hell was this guy still alive? He looked like he'd been put through a literal grinder.

Not expecting any answer, I summoned an item I designed during the scuffle with the cyberpsycho. I made a show of trying to staunch his bleeding and poured the transparent contents of the test tube onto his skin and into his wounds.

His breathing became audible that instant as the hastily concocted stabilizer took effect. I nodded at that and tore a section of his ruined shirt, tying it around his clean-cut stump. This elicited a weak grunt from the unconscious man and that made me glad.

Pain was a positive sign.

I ripped more of his ruined shirt to plug the wounds in his abdomen only for the back of my head to tingle with an intensity that matched my encounter at the dataterm.

Cranked to the max by Spider-Sense, my perception of the world slowed, giving me ample time to consider my options.

My senses hadn't picked up anyone new around me. The cyberpsycho was still incapacitated, and the alley was totally empty save for him, myself, the guy I just saved, and the pitiful woman.

The only places that could possibly be the source of the danger were the buildings on either side of the alley. Both were warehouses, and only the one in front of me was lit. The danger however, was coming from behind.

I had plenty of time to move, but if it was a gun like I assumed, doing so would sentence this guy to death. Me intervening here would've been for nothing.

Unwilling to let that happen, I held my ground and entrusted everything to my vest. Fortunately, the piece of armor wasn't all I had.

Spider-Sense responded to my intentions and guided me to shift my body up and slightly to the left. I did this just in time to feel multiple sledgehammers slam into my back and yank me out of the bullet time.

The wind rushed out of me as I grunted and planted both arms on the ground to stop myself from doubling over. A wet, sticky sensation was transmitted to my hands and I raised them up to see the thick coat of blood they now sported.

Exactly at this moment, a rush of rotten wind accompanied by the hum of thrusters came from above. I looked up to see a Trauma Team AV coming to a halt in the sky right above me.

I got on my feet and moved away right that instant, unwilling to get in the way of the combat medics licensed to kill anyone they considered a threat to their patients.

The pain in my back faded with each step, and the reality of everything I'd experienced so far set in.

Did I make a wise choice accepting to be reborn here?

I wouldn't get to answer that question. Not yet at least.

The Trauma Team AV lowered itself and I hurried towards the wall. Right before I jumped over it though, I stopped and glanced at the head of the decapitated woman.

Her tear stained face was frozen in a scream, the depthless horror she felt before dying immortalized.

I shifted my chilly gaze to the top of the building the bullets originated from, unexpectedly catching the sight of three crimson, spider-shaped glows staring right at me.

Fear would've been the normal reaction. After all, such a scene would fit perfectly in a horror movie. But no. Instead of fear, a fury unlike any I'd experienced ballooned inside my chest like an explosion.

'Maelstrom… '

I clenched my bloodied fists and considered scaling the building then and there. However, the collision of multiple booted feet with the ground brought me back to reality.

The trauma team medics had alighted from the AV and gone to work, some securing the surroundings while the others attended to the guy. I ignored them and looked back up, only to find the crimson glows gone.

Unclenching my fists, a barebones plan took shape in mind. This wasn't over.

I leapt over the wall in one smooth motion and landed with what had to be the loudest thump I'd ever heard. Ignoring the horrid images playing in mind on repeat, I quickly found another path that led to my original destination.

When I stepped into the parking lot of the motel and beelined for the reception, I felt multiple gazes scan me before moving back to whatever they were originally doing. Bloodstains and bullet holes were not a strange sight after all. Not in these lands.

I stopped in front of the receptionist who gave me a brief, uninterested glance. She just pushed a device on the countertop in my direction and ignored me entirely, the pink bubblegum in her mouth popping under her skillful tongue.

Unbothered, I picked up the device and tried to use it, only to get the same prompt that appeared when I tried to use the dataterm without paying.

Wiping my bloodstained hands on an unsullied portion of the hoodie, I removed the decrypted credchip from "my pocket" and pushed it into the right slot. I booked a room on the upper floor for a night and paid the 60 eddie cost, pocketing my chip right after.

Seemingly connected to the same network as the device, the door to my selected room opened for me with no problem, even though I had no cyberware. Shaking my head at that egregious breach in security, I entered the room and frowned immediately.

Was a room for sleeping supposed to smell like this? Like an unwashed bedpan?

Scrunching my nose as tightly as possible, I went straight for the closet-sized washroom, ignoring the repulsive sensations battering my senses left and right.

I gave my warped reflection in the broken mirror a brief glance and rubbed the blood off my hands, letting the flow of water carry the evidence of my recent experience away. Finding no toiletries, I dried my hands on my pants and went towards the bed.

Eager to sleep and hopefully forget everything, if even for a while, I stopped right beside the mattress and made to sit down, only for the sense that'd saved my life multiple times this night to trigger.

At first I thought I wasn't alone in the room. That someone was under the bed or something else entirely. But Spider-Sense did not agree and declared the bed itself as the culprit.

'The bed?'

For some reason, this was it. The straw that broke the camel's back.

A dam broke inside me, sending multiple images cascading through my mind, all of them triggering sensations that culminated in an unrestrained yell and my fist in the nearby wall.

"Fuck!"