Chapter 1: A New Day

Year 2072, Night City, Heywood, Megabuilding H1, A small rundown apartment unit.

Faint sunlight streaming through worn out blinds faintly illuminated a messy room. There were cans littered on the floor and weightlifting equipment strewn all over the place.

At one corner was a large makeshift bed. Calling it a bed was putting it mildly. It was nothing more than a bunch of old worn out mattresses piled up together. All of them torn or bursting at the seams. And not surprising considering the occupant of this so called bed. A humongous figure was sprawled atop it. Snoring away so loudly that the windows rattled vigorously as if someone was using a jackhammer right beside them.

The figure was so large that the only part of his body that fit onto the bed was his torso and his posterior. His arms and legs, each as wide as a toddler, were resting on the cracked tiles that made up the flooring of the room.

The man's snoring was interrupted by the sudden shrill beeping sound coming from an old fashioned digital clock that was atop a stool beside the bed. An old digital clock that quickly met its end as a large metallic hand slammed down atop it and turned it into scrap along with the stool it was on.

The man grumbled some unintelligible words to no one in particular as he shifted his position in his bed and promptly went back to snoring.

The man is known as Benny. Or Big Ben as he's often known by in the streets of Heywood. And The Bear to mercs, fixers, and gangoons alike. A large man around 8 feet in height (that's around 244cm to you metric users) and about as wide as a jacked bear on steroids.

His size plus his signature chrome, a pair of oversized Gorilla Arms (they were special order made to match his unusually large size) whose fingertips he had haphazardly welded pointy metal bits to and later filed down to make somewhat decent looking claws, got him the nickname The Bear among his gang. Which later slowly spread to others in Night City as his fame, or infamy, grew.

Now then, you'd probably be asking, what's a member of the Animals doing living in Heywood? Home to the Valentino's and 6th Street? Well Benny was currently hired as huscle for biz by non other than the Padre himself. Seems like a rather important shipment was coming in for the Valentinos and their netrunners caught some Maelstroms sniffing around.

Benny, being of some repute among the Animals for his previous successful jobs and overall nicer disposition compared to his brutish muscle brained fellows, was naturally chosen for the job.

"Much better to hire someone who won't immediately tear off the heads of some of his more loudmouthed boys if they get too.. rude." were the infamous Padre's words on the matter.

He knew that quite a few of them had a tendency to get into fights because they couldn't hold their tongues. So he tried to minimize the chances of any complications from happening as much as possible.

This Benny was an oddity among the Animals. Sure he was a beast in battle, a raging grizzly bear that could easily tear grown men in half. But off the job, he generally had the disposition of a teddy bear. A large, unbelievably jacked, teddy bear. Which was rather unusual for the Animals who always seemed eager for a fight. Or rather, a brawl would be more accurate. Not surprising with all those crazy hormones they got coursing through their bodies.

Anyway, back to Benny. This biz with the Valentinos was very important to him. Cause the payout for this job was huge. Huge enough for him to finally afford something he had his eye on for a very long time. Unfortunately for him, the alarm he set the previous night so he wouldn't end up late was just turned into scrap by him. Though it seems Lady Luck might be on his side because..

BANG BANG BANG

A series of loud banging was heard on the door of his apartment.

"Oi! Oso! You up yet?! You gotta get going if you don't want to be late! Everybody is already downstairs waiting for you!"

A man yelling was heard from the other side of the door as the banging continued. This was enough for Benny to finally snap awake.