Chapter 1
Night City is sometimes called the 'City of Dreams'. It isn't, not really. People in Night City die in enough numbers that anything under 30 killings is considered a good day.
So when a group of Scavs cornered Melissa Gamble, she didn't have much hope in her. The four Scavs had chased her through the streets for a few minutes. She'd tried to get the police on the line, but they'd hacked her agent. She'd tried to get home, but they kept blocking her.
And now she was in an alley. Watching four people with bright digital masks hiding their faces approach her. One, a woman, lifted a baseball bat.
"Help me!" Melissa screamed desperately. "Somebody, please, anybody!"
No answer. People die every day in Night City. And if it wasn't a choom, nobody gave a fuck about the next one to go.
The Scav with the baseball bat went to swing for her head. Melissa screamed again. She was going to die. They were going to take her, rip her chrome out, and leave her in the trash.
Just before the bat could cave in her skull, a thwip sound filled the air. A bright red wire wrapped around the baseball bat, pulling it out of the Scav's hand before she could hit Melissa.
A figure dropped down in front of Melissa. The glowing red wire sliced through the bat, reeling back into the figure's wrist. Melissa's scream cut off. She stared at the figure.
A yellow jacket, an EMT one, glowed in the dim light, blue lights from the collar illuminating the figure. Like the Scavs, he wore a mask. A black one, with a webbed pattern across it, and large white eyes that narrowed mechanically as he glanced at her, then at the Scavs.
"Hey guys. You look like you're having fun."
"The Spider!" one of the Scavs, a tall heavyset man, shouted. "Get em!"
Melissa backed away, watching fearfully. The group of Scavs rushed her savior. And he began dancing around them.
"Oh come on, gonk," her savior leaped over a kick, easily dodged a bullet from a pistol, and sidestepped a clumsy stab from a knife. "'Get em'? That's so boring! At least say something original. Or classic!"
He caught a punch in his palm before spinning around and throwing that Scav at another like a doll, then lashed out with a monowire to slice the pistol one was holding in half, before backflipping over a Scav woman and landing on the small of her back, punching her.
"How about, 'rattle em boys!' I saw that in an old holovid!" he grabbed the woman he was on top of and tossed her, smashing another Scav out of the air. Then he moved in, faster than Melissa could see. Later, she'd wish she'd recorded it with her optics, but she was just so mesmerized.
He danced around them, jumping from wall, to floor, to Scav, fists and feet flying. The Scavs tried to swing at him, to shoot him. But he was just never there when they tried to hit him.
Seconds later, the last Scav fell. He turned to look at her.
On his chest. A spider. A large emblem of a spider.
"Spider-Man," Melissa whispered.
"That's what they call me," he chuckled. He looked around. "Okay. Should be good. You need a ride home?"
"Uh…" Melissa shook her head, breathing hard.
"Gotcha. Just glad the gonks didn't hurt you. Well, the badges are on their way. Stay safe!"
He snapped a hand out. His monowire snapped out, longer than she'd ever seen one go, attaching to the side of a building. Then he was pulled upwards, moving high into the air.
"Holy shit," Melissa said softly.
Spider-Man had just saved her life… ahhhh, she should have recorded it!
The sound of police sirens filled the air in the distance. Melissa ran for her home, smiling the whole way.
And high above, Spider-Man swung through Night City.
Let's do this just one more time…
The Multiverse is fucked.
This is not an opinion. It is a fact. The Multiverse, all multiverses, are a massive complete mess. Each universe is created, destroyed, melded together, ripped apart, condensed, and widened in a chaotic flow that only a madman can traverse.
In one set of universes, a man named Miguel O'Hara blames a young man named Miles Morales for this chaos. He is both wrong and right. The multiverse responds to our actions, but it is meant to. It will always change, flow, and destroy/create at random.
We do not live atop a solid foundation. Every universe is a set of bubbles bouncing within a storm. This is not bad, or good. It is.
The Multiverse is fucked.
David Martinez would learn that one day. But for today, he was getting punched in the face.
Metal fists crashed across David's arms, chest, face, and stomach in a quick combination while David tried to understand what the hell was happening. A loud and whiny sounding 'waaaaaah, tatatata!' filled the air as David's body exploded with pain.
A final kick sent him flying back, the feel of something shattering against his back followed by the smell of shit from the public toilet he smashed into. David weakly gasped, barely able to hear the sound of Katsuo Tanaka mocking him. Again.
Eventually the asshole and his asshole chooms walked off. Leaving David slumped up against the toilet. He kept his eyes closed, blood dripping off him as pain ebbed and flowed through him.
It was amazing he could feel anything crawling on him. David glanced at his hand. He blinked, slowly. A spider.
…He'd never seen one before. Not in real life. He'd heard of them. But he thought they were only in labs or something. He could count the number of actual animals in Night City he'd ever seen on one hand.
The spider was red and blue colored. About an inch wide. It stared at him. Then it, while David was watching, slammed its head into his skin, biting deeply.
David took in the painful sting of that bite. But, combined with everything else, it didn't seem to matter much. Just a bit more shit in his cereal.
His agent started ringing about then. The hospital. David brushed away the spider and answered.
"Mr Martinez? I'm calling in regards to Gloria Martinez's condition."
As he took the call, he didn't notice the spider dying on the ground next to his foot.
Hours later, he pushed his way into his apartment through the window. Carefully, he lowered himself in along with the jar holding his mom's ashes, stumbling as he landed in the shower.
David felt sick. Wrong. He was shivering, sweaty. Weak. Cold. He'd planned on calling Doc, maybe cashing in on that implant. But he could barely move. He couldn't think. His head was pounding. He carefully put the plastic container holding his mom on the table, shutting the blinds on the window.
So hungry…
He grabbed a burrito xxl. Then a tofu bar. And another, and one more. He was so cold though.
He moved over to the couch and tumbled down, clutching himself tightly.
Soaked in sweat, muscles and bones aching, still bruised from Katsuo beating the shit out of him, David stared at his mom's jacket. Memories flowed through him.
His mom smiling. Then lying on concrete, blood pooling under her. The principal. Katsuo mocking him. The voice of the holographic teacher from class talking about biology. That spider. Staring at him.
And then… that girl. With the white hair. She was the last image in his mind before he passed out.
He never heard it when Katsuo called.
He woke up late for school. Who gave a fuck? His mom was dead and the school would probably expel him when they found out he couldn't pay to fix the shit he broke.
David got up. Quickly. He blinked at how fast he moved. He felt… awake. Really awake. He'd never felt so full of energy. Had he slept for longer than normal or something? And he didn't feel any pain from Katsuo's beating from yesterday.
He went over to the bathroom. For some reason, he felt like the apartment was smaller. Or like he was more aware of it, somehow? David sighed, reaching the bathroom and looking in the mirror. As he came into view, he stared in shock.
David was taller. By a couple of inches, maybe more? And his body was…
He took off his black shirt, formerly just a bit baggy and now almost too tight, ignoring the sound of his necklaces bouncing across the tile of the shower as he looked himself over.
Muscle. Not the skinny muscles he'd had before. Real muscle, uniform across his entire body. He'd gone from a teenager to a fitness model out of a vid or braindance, or a guy out of a Mr. Studd ad for a runner or swimmer type.
"What the hell?" David poked at his chest. "What, did I go through puberty again?"
He pulled off his pants. Same deal. His whole body was bigger. He wasn't a giant bodybuilder or anything, but it was still huge compared to his skinny ass before.
Then he smelled himself. Sweating through the whole night hadn't done him any favors.
Shower time. He hopped in, turning the water on. For some reason, the cold water didn't suck as much to get hit by as usual. The hot water wasn't hot enough either. He cleaned himself off quickly, trying to understand what the hell was happening.
He was so full of energy. He always felt like that, always tapping his foot or something, but this was even worse. He needed to get out. Head to the streets. Fuck school.
After his shower, he pulled on his clothes. After a bit of thought, he wore his mom's jacket, the Sandevistan inside pressed against his back. Better than leaving the expensive tech in the apartment.
He headed out. As usual, he fell down into the pile of trash, though his legs didn't even feel the recoil he was used to when landing. Past the homeless guys masturbating, people heading out to shop, the guy trying to convince his wife he wasn't sleeping with a Mox. Just aimlessly walking along.
Everything felt so weird. It was like his senses were clearer now. Like the world had become more vibrant, or he could see more of it. Everything still smelled bad, but even more than before somehow?
Mom was gone. David scowled at the thought. He just… how was he supposed to keep going without her? He had to pay the bills, so he'd need to quit school. And she was gone. He was never going to see her again.
He reached a crosswalk, stopping briefly before stepping out as soon as the robotic voice chirped 'Walk. Walk. Walk.' Halfway down, not really paying attention, David felt as though something started screaming in the back of his mind, a strange tingle that was telling him to move-!
It happened without thinking. Putting everything he had into it, David jumped upwards. Rather than a couple of feet, he rocketed upwards, backflipping around, shock filling him. Below, he could see a car with Tyger Claw colors and decals roar through where he'd been walking just a moment ago. Then David landed on the side of a nearby building.
And attached. He stared at his hands, sticking to the concrete like someone had welded them there.
Then he looked down at the crowd of people. People currently glancing at him. Then mostly shrugging it off. After all, anyone with the right cyberware could do what he did.
Except David didn't have cyberware. Not beyond the basic stuff everyone had, like an internal Agent.
David stared at the wall where his hands stuck to. "No fucking way…" Experimentally, he lifted a hand. It came off easily. When he put the hand up higher, he almost felt like some kind of suction effect took place.
Panic flooded him. And suddenly both hands detached. "FUCK!"
He fell for a few dozen feet before slamming back first into the concrete. "...Owwww."
A woman with fancy clothes, cyberarms, and red shades stepped around him, ignoring his prone body entirely. David stared up at the sky, mind racing.
What was going on?
At home, he checked himself over. Still flesh. His legs, hands, everything was made of muscle and bone. So how the hell had he jumped like he had chrome legs? How was he sticking to walls?
It was during his inspection of himself that he felt where the spider had bitten him. The bite had somehow disappeared in a single night. And a crazy thought hit him. Spiders could walk on walls, right? He remembered vaguely reading something about that.
David sat on his couch, and quickly began looking it up. Spiders. They could walk on walls, yeah. They also spun webs out of their butts? Weird. Some species could leap 38 times their body length.
He thought back to how high he'd jumped before.
They were stronger than their body weight as well… David hesitantly lifted his couch.
Easily. With one hand. He didn't even feel the weight.
David slowly lowered the couch again.
What had happened? A single spider bite and he got superpowers? If that happened to everyone, he would have heard about it! Maybe some crazy escape corpo experiment?
Maybe it had happened before?
Feeling a bit ridiculous, he searched it up. 'Spider bite, gives powers, history'.
Once he put it in, he found a few links. He stared at them. Huh. He clicked one.
"...Spider-Man?"
The image of a guy in red and blue tights shone on the screen before him.
Chapter 2
Spider-Man was a superhero. From old comic books, ancient ones. The first one came out in 1962, and the last one was in 1990, when the company that made them, Marvel, shut down and was absorbed by a different company. David ignored that part, corps got eaten by other corps all the time. He was more focused on the actual comics.
Peter Parker, a nerd, who got bit by a radioactive spider and somehow got powers from it. David was fairly sure that wasn't how radiation worked. But the point was, he got powers, made a costume, and eventually became a superhero.
The comics were kinda badly drawn at first, but the art got better and better. He only read about a decade's worth before stopping and staring at the wall.
Spider-Man. David had been bit by a spider and got powers. Was the spider that bit him radioactive too? How many powers did he have that Parker did?
And how crazy was this shit!?
David snapped to his feet and began to pace. This was all too much. His mom was dead, he had no eddies to pay rent with, and now he had powers. He needed to do something, to-
A notification came in on his Agent. He looked at it, then blinked. A voicemail. From last night. He opened it up.
"Katsuo here. Heard about your mom… I'd offer my sympathies, but find it hard to sympathize."
David listened. He stopped pacing. Katsuo kept talking. And talking. David stared out the window as Katsuo's words filled his mind. As his echoing voice filled his mind, mocking his mother.
David grabbed his mom's jacket and slipped it on, turning around. As he headed out the door, his eyes were hard as steel.
"Responsibility… fuck that!"
Class was in session when David walked into Arasaka Academy. They were a few hours in, after lunch. The Arasaka kids were sitting in their chairs, casually listening to the teacher giving the lesson. David ignored them all. He focused on Katsuo. The cocksucker noticed David walk in and scoffed.
"Check it out. Get a load of this guy," David got closer. "Is he serious-"
David tried to kick gently. He still ended up sending Katsuo flying into his friend, the two tumbling to the ground.
"What the hell!?" Katsuo snapped to his feet, grabbing at his side with a wince. "You gonked, Martinez?! We're at school! The cameras. Have you lost-"
David smacked him in the face. Again, gently.
Katsuo was on the floor, gaping in shock. Damn. David really didn't know his own strength right now. He tossed off his jacket, revealing his new physique, much to everyone's shock.
Naturally, none of his corpo brat classmates did anything to stop him. They spent their whole lives not lifting a finger for anyone but themselves, why start now?
"I'm sorry, I don't speak dumbass," David said while gesturing with his fingers for Katsuo to come at him. "Now get up and let's do this!"
Katsuo growled, enraged. He rose up and raised his hands up, the cyberware in his palms glowing. Katsuo began punching the air.
Slow. So slow. Before, Katsuo had moved like lightning. Now he looked like he was moving through ballistic gel.
David felt that tingle again. The comics had called it a Spider-Sense. It was like he could feel every punch from Katsuo before it even happened. David stepped forward into Katsuo's range.
He blocked one punch. Parried another. Then he kept at it, sliding aside from some of the punches, blocking them. Katsuo's metal arms, so powerful before, felt weaker than a child's now.
Katsuo's eyes widened in horror as David easily dealt with his assault. When Katsuo went for the final kick, David barely twitched aside, letting the kick slide uselessly through the air.
Then he smashed him with a punch to the jaw. He felt something crunch under his fist. Katsuo went flying into the wall, shattering the window there. David watched quietly as Katsuo, knocked completely out, slid down the wall. His jaw looked broken.
Holy shit. David hadn't meant to… well, no, he had meant to. He just didn't know he was that strong. It wasn't like he'd really believed he was exactly as strong as Spider-Man. That was just a comic book. Not everything would be the same, right?
David quickly grabbed his jacket off the floor, ignoring Katsuo's friends running away, and quickly started walking. "Don't look down on organic knuckles next time."
Katsuo was left on the floor to bleed from his mouth.
David went back home and started reading more comics. What else could he do? He didn't know enough about himself right now.
He took a nap, woke up and ignored a call from the school, and kept on reading.
Those comics were so damn corny. Spider-Man wasn't like the characters he'd followed before, or even like the virtu's he watched, like the Edgerunner series. Spider-Man didn't zero his enemies. Even when it probably would have solved a lot of shit. Killing a few the second time they showed up would have made sense at least.
And seriously, Parker's life seemed to really suck at times. David couldn't access all the media that had been made before Marvel shutdown, but he was really hoping he didn't go through half of what the other spider-guy did.
Still… Parker reminded David of himself. Not just because of the powers. After Parker's Uncle died, he and his aunt had no way to pay rent. His aunt wanted him to follow his uncle's dream of him becoming a scientist. But they needed money.
Peter had thought about klepping shit from people. So did David.
But people in his world were more dangerous. Any gonk on the street could be chromed up to the gills. David had no clue how to use his powers, no control yet. He needed to learn more. To practice. But he still needed money too.
Could he still sell the sandy to Doc? Nah, that guy was stiffing him enough already. He needed something different. Too bad he couldn't sell his new powers.
David wasn't dumb enough to spread around that he had powers though. The last thing he needed was some corp like Biotechnica catching on, sending an army to grab him and shove him into a lab to get cut up and studied.
…Maybe he could 'sell' his powers. In a different way though.
For now, he downloaded scans of the comics, as many as he could find at least. While a few of them were free, a lot more were collectors items, the kinds of stuff that would be in a shard in some corpo's vault, or maybe an actual comic hidden away.
There was apparently some lady in Night City who claimed to have a few of them? A ripperdoc. He'd look her up later.
For now, he headed out, putting his mom's jacket on again. Least the jacket fit him still. The rest of his clothes had gotten a lot smaller recently.
The sandy was still inside it. It felt heavy as hell, that valuable piece of chrome against his back. He tried to ignore it, instead heading out. If he could travel around a bit, he might find somewhere he could test his new powers. He hadn't broken anything he didn't want to yet, but accidently shattering Katsuo's jaw had taught him he needed some actual practice with it.
When… when Parker's uncle died. He'd gone after the guy who did it. David didn't know who exactly he could blame for his mom getting murdered. There was a list. But on that list were the Animals, who's drive-by shootout had caused them to crash and land his mom in that cheap ass clinic.
Animals, who ran most of the fighting rings in the city.
He didn't know exactly who was behind the shootout, he probably had no way to find out. But who cared? He needed money and he wanted to pummel someone even tangentially related to it.
David walked out to Rancho Coronado. To a street and gym everyone in the neighborhood knew to avoid. His mom would have killed him if she found out she was heading there. And here he was, casually strolling through the streets to reach it. On the way, he stopped by a clothing stall, stealing something and disappearing too quick for anyone to respond.
Everything was like that. Easier. He felt like he'd replaced his whole body with the world's best chrome overnight. After a bit, he stopped walking. He started running. Faster and faster, until he was outrunning cars. He jumped, and even with barely any effort behind it he must have reached over thirty feet, higher than some of the buildings.
"Hahaha!" David cheered, backflipping in the air. "This is so nova!"
He passed a group of people running like him, some waving cheerily as they did similar jumps to him. David landed in an instinctive roll, grinning widely. For a moment, just a moment, he felt great. Everything else sucked.
But man, these powers were preem.
Soon he was standing in front of the spot anyone without the right mods in Rancho Coronado would've avoided. The Tripple Xtreme Epic Workout Center. Tripple was spelled wrong, but no one expected Animals to be geniuses.
David pulled the item he'd stolen over his face, a mask. Not a great one, just a thin balaclava with flowers across it. Lame, but he needed to hide his identity. Right now, no one knew he had powers. He was just a normal teen with mods. David suspected though, if he really did have Spider-Man's powers, corps would hunt him down. Either the corp that made the spider that bit him, meaning they could claim he 'stole' it, or corps trying to copy his abilities.
Better to start hiding his powers. Random people on the street might mistake him for any other chromed up adrenaline junkie when he was running, but a real fight meant doing crazy shit.
In retrospect, fighting that asshole Katsuo in a school full of cameras wasn't smart. Fun though.
David walked up to the door of the gym, where a guard stood. The Animal looked him over with hard eyes. David spoke first.
"This where people can fight for cash?"
The guard was huge, like all Animals, muscles practically about to burst out of their body. Everyone knew that most Animals didn't get normal chrome, but instead used biomods. Implants and nanosurgery to roid up, nutrients to feed those giant muscles, and the like.
They were so overly huge, bulging with tube-sized veins and muscle that looked like it was ripping the skin, that they needed endoskeletons and joint reinforcements just to get by.
Apparently, some of their mods came from actual animals. Funnily enough, that meant they were kind of like David's powers… if way less lowkey.
Thank god he didn't need to worry about that, having to get those weird damn metal sections ripping out his skin. And being that huge would look wrong on him.
Although, with his new strength, did that mean his bones were tougher too?
As he was musing on this, the giant of a guard scoffed. "Sorry tiny. Animals only. We don't want some gonk kid in over his head to get crushed around here."
"I'm stronger than I look."
"Then let me restate. We don't want some chromed up idiot to brag about the fake metal muscle he got," the guard flexed for emphasis, muscles grinding together almost audibly. "We go all natural here."
He doubted any of it was 'natural.' Organic, maybe.
David then shrugged off his mom's jacket and his shirt, leaving the mask on, showing off his bare and unchromed body. "I'm not chromed, but I bet I can beat you in armwrestling."
The guard looked him over. Then he chuckled, shaking his head. "Well, you're more built than most brats that come here. And I gotta admire the confidence of someone who can wear a mask with flowers on it to come challenge us."
"It was on sale." Five finger discount.
"All right kid, go on in. This should be hilarious. Rhino will be in there," David flinched at that name. No freaking way. "She's always sitting in her spot next to the ring. Tell her you want the test. And keep the shirt off."
The guard turned and looked into the eye reader next to the garage door, the metal grating and bouncing as it rose up. David crouched to get under the door before it fully opened, finding himself in a concrete and metal room with a giant pit in the center.
Men and women stared at him when he walked in, all of them various flavors of 'giant fucking behemoth', all lifting and lowering weights that had to weigh more than him. Nasty looking, with the crazy muscle and metal poking out. Ugh.
The whole place gave him weird vibes beyond that. Oh right, Spider-Sense. It was weird, feeling a sort of tingle across his body while getting glared at. Different people gave him a different level of buzz. One guy barely made him twinge.
But next to the giant pit in the center of the room was a woman that, despite being one of the biggest ones there, somehow felt… safe? Not a twinge from his Spider-Sense at all. She was sitting casually, looking bored.
"Come on, doesn't anyone want to go?!" she yelled out, only to get ignored, a few hastily avoiding her gaze. "Ahhh, pansies!"
Then David stepped in front of her. She looked him over, while he did the same. Yep. Big. She had some thick black gloves on her fists, red hair about shoulder length in height.
"Huh… Now what the hell do you want, tiny? Tips on fashion?" she teased.
"You Rhino?" David asked. "Guard out front said you could set me up with fights."
Rhino blinked up at him, then scoffed. "Seriously? I want real fights, not some kid with pink flowers and the build of a twig."
"Fuck you," David spat, unthinking. "Trust me, I can hold my own. Or you worried I'll make you look bad in front of these gonks?"
The others in the gym quieted. David felt his spider-sense act up even harder and he tried to ignore it telling him to run, to fight. Rhino, on the other hand, grinned up at him.
"Oh yeah?"
She rose to her feet. And suddenly David realized just how damn big she was. His spider-sense twigged out harder, focusing in on Rhino.
"Okay kid. Then let's brawl. And if you win, we'll let you hang out here, get in more fights."
"Deal!" David spat, clenching his fists tight. "When do you want to start?"
His spider-sense tried to warn him, but he'd been ignoring it to try and stand his ground. So when Rhino gave him a powerful shove, he took it.
And fell into the pit behind him. On instincts he'd never had before, David flipped backwards, landing on his feet. His spider-sense screamed, and this time he listened, jumping backwards in time to avoid Rhino stomping down into the ring. She grinned at him.
"How about right now!?"
David landed on the side of the pit, ignoring the sounds of people gathering to cheer. Rhino charged across the pit, faster than he could believe. David dodged her fist, only to gape when her gloved knuckles dented the metal there. Suddenly the hundreds of dents all across the pits walls made for a way more terrifying story.
"Okay. Might be tougher than Katsuo."
Rhino raised her fists, a bright and happy smile on her face, and David crouched low on all fours, eyes narrowing under his shitty pink mask, still shirtless.
Time for his first real fight.
Chapter 3
David hadn't thought about much beyond just finding more things to hit. More people to take his anger out on. Hitting Katsuo was so damn short. Preem as hell, but short. He'd hoped fighting Animals would help.
He hadn't expected the first Animal he'd fight would treat him like an old choom though.
"Nice!" Rhino said when he backflipped away from a punch. "Well done!" She added when he parried a quick cross.
God, she was fast. He hadn't been in a real fight before, but Rhino moved quickly and efficiently. If it wasn't for his spider-sense, she'd have hit him already.
That was another thing. His spider-sense had immediately focused on her the second she started attacking, and had been constantly warning him. Like it knew even before she did when she was going to attack. He ducked under one punch, side-stepped another.
Then she threw another right. David went to dodge it. Another punch was thrown towards where he was dodging. He barely raised a hand to block it, and Rhino's gloved fist slammed into his guard.
"Gah!" David was thrown back, smashing into the wall behind him with a loud clanging sound. Rhino rushed in with a boxer's stance, diving in to punch at him again. David barely ducked it in time to watch her fist dent the metal behind him. He instinctively kicked out at her. She blocked it.
And she still was thrown back into the other side of the pit, gasping in pain.
The crowd of Animals around them cheered in unison. Rhino's cheery demeanor faded into a snarl. She dropped to the ground with her fists high, while David gaped at her.
Shit. He'd been really hoping to take her down with one big hit. Did he have to hit her harder? But what if he killed her?
Gritting his teeth, David crouched low, his stance feeling natural despite how unusual it looked, his legs all bendy, one hand flat on the floor, the other arm behind him.
"All right." Rhino rushed forward, throwing another punch. This time, when he leaped up out of the way, he kept an eye out, seeing when she aimed a second fist for where he had jumped upwards to dodge. David tapped his hand against that fist, flipping around in mid-air to smash his heel into Rhino's skull.
"Kra!" Rhino spat, reeling back, then reaching out for him.
David grabbed her arm as he landed. She fought his grip, but it did nothing.
He stared at her, shocked, as the woman's far larger arm fought his grip. Even with his new muscles, Rhino dwarfed him. But she wasn't stronger.
She wasn't stronger.
Emboldened by the repeating thought, David pulled her close. His first punch bloodied her nose. Rhino weakly punched at his head, but he slapped aside the fist, grabbing her by the neck. Twisting around, he lifted her into the air, then spun around while swinging her towards the ground.
"YAAAAA!" He screamed aloud. Rhino's back slammed into the ground like a slab of meat. She gasped quietly, but only David heard it. The rest of the Animals cheered aloud, screaming their heads off. She tried to roll, but he punched her hard enough to bounce the back of her head against the pavement. Not hard enough, she was still moving. David raised his fist, ready to slam it into her head-
"Enough!" Rhino raised her hands up, freezing him moments before he could smash her skull in.
David's breath came out hot, heavy, and fast. He slowly backed away from her, clenching his fists. His arm still hurt from where'd she'd punched him, but the rest of him felt wired as hell. Like he had CHOOH2 fueling him directly.
Rhino groaned, rising to her knees. She growled, clutching at her back and face. "Fine. I quit, I'm done!"
Animals cheered, though a few booed while trading eddies with flashes of gold in their optics. The crowd above broke up, walking off and leaving David and Rhino there.
The far bigger woman scowled, getting up fully and clutching at herself. "Agh! I can't believe I lost!"
She slammed a fist into the wall, growling. Was she… pouting?
"Uh…" David wasn't sure how to take the giant woman acting like a little kid who had lost her favorite game. "Sorry?"
"Sorry!?" Rhino glared at him. For some reason, he relaxed. She didn't seem as dangerous anymore. "Aaaargh, FUCK!" She took a deep breath. Finally, she rubbed her head, sighing. "Yeah. Sorry. I just…"
David raised his hands up at her, chuckling awkwardly. "Hey, hey, it's cool. I, uh, guess you don't lose often."
"Try never," Rhino grumbled, sighing. "Still. You hit hard, kid. No polish to your moves, but whatever upgrades you got make up for it."
"Polish?"
Rhino smirked at him, calming down a bit. "Yeah. You punch and kick like you learned in grade school. All telegraphed instead of efficient."
She demonstrated with a couple of jabs. They were quick, short range movements, with her hips going into them. Same with the low kicks she used. Still, they didn't seem as strong. When David said that, Rhino laughed.
"Oh they're still powerful. Harder to counter too. If you weren't so fast I'd have dodged every one. I'll get you next time too."
"Oh," David grunted, his excitement over winning fading a bit. "Still beat you though."
"Don't brag about it," that sense of danger flickered. "I can't promise I won't go all aggro about it."
David chuckled, rubbing a bit at his sore arm. "Yeah yeah. I guess I need to learn."
"This is the place for it," Rhino said. "You want to learn how to throw a hit, we can help you. You wanna stick around?"
The offer surprised him so much he couldn't think of what to say. He looked around. His eyes landed on one of the Animal symbols on the wall. A fanged jaw.
His mom's face flashed into his mind. Smiling while she drove. Just before-
"Think about it," Rhino said, cutting off his thought process. Her eyes briefly flickered, sending him her deets. "Just call up before you come. I'll make sure no one bothers you."
"Kay," David said, trying to avoid thinking about that. "So, how about my money?"
Rhino blinked at him. "Money?"
"For winning the fight?"
"Who said we were fighting for money?"
David stared at her. He ran through everything that had happened in his head. Then he grabbed at his masked head. "Goddamnit!"
It wasn't entirely back to square one. Rhino had promised him more fights in the future, with money on the line. Rhino herself didn't brawl for money, but the Animals had long cornered the market on fighting in Night City. Organized and not.
Didn't help David right then though. He was still broke. Getting on a train with his mask now removed and his jacket on, he aimlessly rode the line. He didn't have anywhere to go until Rhino contacted him.
Still, he felt pretty good. That fight had been a mind clearer. His head had felt all fuzzy until he'd gotten out and started moving around. Riding on the train was helping too, just chilling.
Until he caught a glint of neon pink flickering past in the window's reflection. David glanced up…
Nothing. Just passengers. He looked around-
There. That girl. The one he saw around Arasaka Academy sometimes. Neon Pink hair with blue at the tips, cut all, what was the word? Asymmetrically? She had on a cropped white jacket with a black unitard with red accents over a pair of white shorts and gray stockings, and black knee-high boots.
And she was a picksocket. She slid up to a corpo in a suit. His shard slot on his neck flickered green. A shard flipped out of that slot, landing in her hand as she zipped away. Again, some skinny guy in another suit.
David found her easily. She was sneaky. But still, his new senses seemed to help. And she… stood out.
That hair.
Then, suddenly. He felt it. His spider-sense, warning him. His shard slot, on his neck, buzzing. With superhuman reflexes, he caught the shard out of the air just as it popped out. Then he was in her face, looking down at her with her right arm in his hand.
She looked up at him, eyes wide. He took a moment to be thankful for his new height. He'd been shorter than her before. Her eyes then narrowed and she tried to pull her arm out of his grip. It didn't work until she shifted her weight and pulled him along, David finally letting her.
Away from anyone else, she eyed him. "So what's your angle, spill it?"
He crossed his arms. "Do I need an angle? You tried to steal from me."
"Hm?" Her eyes flickered, glowing red. Then she eyed him harder. "Huh. Pretty fast for a guy with no real chrome. Except for what you're carrying."
"That's none of your business," David eyed her again. Holy shit, she'd hacked him just like that? He didn't even feel anything. Except his spider-sense. It was going off low-level now. That, combined with, uh… the other things he was feeling, were leaving him a bit off. "Man. Can't believe you're a petty thief."
She'd seemed so… well, not simple, that was for sure.
"Oh?" She suddenly placed her hands on his face. And it was like his brain short-circuited. Her hands were soft as they traced across his cheeks, down his neck, his chest. Each individual finger felt like they were sending light through him. "You sound awful disappointed in me. We chooms?"
"Uh, no, I uh, just-" his spider-sense flared, but he was so distracted by all the other things going on that he ignored it.
Until she pushed him against the wall. He flinched, trying to-
Wire wrapped around his neck. And his spider-sense screamed. His hand snapped upwards, wrapping around her neck as well. David stilled, looking down at her. They eyed each other, his hand squeezing while her monowire rested tightly around his neck.
"Fast reflexes," she noted, smirking. She didn't seem bothered by the hand wrapped around her throat, actually pressing closer to him. "And damn. Sandevistan just hanging out in that jacket of yours? You are in trouble. Where'd you find it?"
For some reason, he couldn't help it. He had to say it. "I got it at the corner store. Picked it up with bread and milk."
"Oh, a jokester?"
"Whose joking? It's all about budgeting your shopping wisely."
She grinned, for just a moment. "Huh. Funny. Tell you what. Why don't we work together?"
"What, stealing?" David said.
"Is it stealing if you take from corpo suits?" the girl asked, smirking up at him. "Come on big guy, you defending your own?"
"I ain't corpo," he snapped.
"You sure? Scan picked up an Arasaka Academy ID," she looked him over. "And you certainly got the size for it. Momma fed you real well, huh?"
Pain filled him for a moment. She'd tried. His mom really did. Still… klepping? For a moment, he rebelled against the idea in his head. His mom would be so disappointed. Spider-Man hadn't-
But he wasn't real. This was real life. And David needed to make eddies somehow. His mom wasn't here anymore. Move forward, get past that.
"I dropped out of the academy."
"Bad boy," she said, teasing. God, that voice…
"Fine," David said. He slowly let go of her throat. Her wire released his neck. They stepped back from each other. "Corpos only though, right? "
"Only ones worth stealing from," she said with a smirk. "So big boy. Gotta a name?"
"...David. You?"
"Lucy," she chuckled. "All right. Come on. Just keep it secret, don't want momma to get sad her that baby boy is stealin'."
David kept quiet, following her.
"Okay, listen up. Lesson number one-"
The whole thing was way easier than he expected. After deciding what the split would be (70/30, what a ripoff) he just moved around grabbing shards she sent flying out.
Spider powers were perfect for stealing with. His new reflexes and speed made swiping shards out of the air easy as pie. And his spider-sense meant he always knew when someone was about to spot him too. He could grab them, toss them into his pocket, and walk off before someone saw him. Easy as pie.
They cleared out the car in no time at all. Soon, Lucy was bouncing the shards they'd klepped up and down in her hand, chuckling. "Damn, that was nice, big guy. I don't think anyone caught a glance at you. Like a ghost."
"Or a spider," David said without thinking.
"Uh, what?"
"Nothing. Just… something I read once." That didn't make any sense at all. When had he started making such dumb jokes? "So, worth the 30 percent?"
"You mean 20."
"I mean-"
"Kidding, kidding," she chuckled, waving a hand dismissively. He smirked at her.
"So. Wanna keep going?"
"Sure. Just need to change lines. Can't risk someone calling the pigs. More we hop around, less chance of getting caught.
He wiped at his nose, nodding. "Got it. Let's do it."
That was the night for them. Hopping from car to car, line to line, snatching shards from unsuspecting corpos. By the end, they had a stack of them. Lucy cheerfully played with them, giggling to herself in a way that was somehow both creepy and hot.
"What a profitable night!" Lucy said aloud, leading the way.
"Yeah," David grinned at her. "You wanna make this a regular thing?"
"Hm. Maybe. Let me make a call real quick."
She stepped away, pressing a hand to her ear. David watched her briefly, then looked out at the city. He felt pretty good. Klepping wasn't as bad as he thought. Well, long as it was corpos. Their money was insured.
Peter would probably disapprove. Who knew? David had barely thought of Spider-Man for the last few hours. He'd been distracted.
Who could blame him?
Lucy approached him, done with her call. "Let's call it for now."
"Oh," David couldn't hide his disappointment. "All right. You want my deets?"
She gave him that smirk that made him feel things. "Oh? How flirty."
He sputtered. "I-I didn't mean-!"
Lucy chuckled. "I didn't mean we had to split up. Come on."
She walked off, leaving a blushing David to follow. Soon they reached her apartment. Something he couldn't have expected in a million years.
As they entered, she headed to the kitchen. "Sit down, relax. Beer's all I got, you drink?"
"Uh, yeah," Once, out of curiosity. "Of course."
Wait, how would his new body react to alcohol?
Clinking their glasses together, they sat down. David took a sip and grimaced.
Carbonation. Ugh. He hated all those bubbles going down his throat, the weird burn like battery acid.
He coughed, leading the smoking Lucy to chuckle. "So, this is your first time drinking."
David shook his head. "Second, really. I just don't like carbonation."
"Ha!" Lucy chuckled, then grabbed at his jacket a bit. "So… What's with the getup? You use it for anything other than carrying military tech?"
"Sometimes," David chuckled. He gripped the jacket briefly.
"Here," Lucy pulled a bit harder.
"Hey, what are ya doing?" Despite complaining, he let her take it off him. She got up and put it on.
She looked good. Probably looked good in anything though. After some tinkering on a tablet, a logo was projected onto the back. Edgerunner.
A projected logo. Now that was an idea. He forgot his mom's jacket could do that. Then again, it hadn't been his for long.
"Edgerunner," David mumbled.
"It's what you want to be, right?" Lucy asked teasingly.
David sighed. "I don't know about that. Recently I've been thinking about other options."
"Oh? Like what?" They met eyes. "The prep boy has dreams of being a corpo?"
"No way," he couldn't help his disgust at the idea. "No. I just…" He clenched his hands tight, one fist entering his palm as he squeezed. "Have you ever been given something? Something you never expected? Something that could change everything and you need to decide how to use it, but the person you depended on to help with that is just… gone?"
She didn't answer. He kept talking.
"So I don't know what I want. If I want to be an Edgerunner or a-"
Hero. God, that was so stupid sounding.
"Huh," Lucy walked over, tossing the jacket into his lap, the Sandevistan inside making a metal sound as it did. She hopped onto the couch behind him, picking up her cigarette again. "What a surprise. Thought you prep kids had your whole life planned."
"Wasn't like that."
"Really? Don't know many plebs that go to Arasaka Academy."
"You run with a lot of 'plebs'?" She smirked. He continued, taking a swig from his drink. "My mom and I weren't well off. She worked herself to death to get me in there. Keep my gonk ass in there. And the worst part is, I didn't belong there."
He gripped at the beer, being careful not to squeeze it too hard.
"I knew it. Those assholes in class knew it too."
"So why even go?" Lucy asked. "Why stick with it for so long?"
"Because my mom wanted it," David finished off the drink, placing it on the table. "Get to the top of Arasaka. Become a corpo… that was her dream. But it wasn't mine."
He could see that more clearly than ever now.
Lucy hummed just a bit. David looked at the poster on the wall, finally noting it. "How about you? That gonk poster mean anything?"
Lucy looked at it. The image of the moon, with a rocket taking off, a man pointing into the distance. 'Your New Life Awaits!' in big letters.
"Got a problem with it?" Her voice had changed. Became almost dead… defensive.
David leaned back his head to look at her. "No. No problem. Just… all those ads make it seem like a dream. Then you read about all the statistics of how many peeps die there, trying to make that dumb white rock into something good."
He looked back at it.
"Seemed more like a prison camp than a paradise."
The moon had two cities on it, two colonies really. Tycho and Copernicus. Both sounded like they sucked to live in.
"Now you do sound like an academy educated kid," Lucy said casually. "Learn that from homework?"
"I ain't as gonk as I look," David said. He looked back at her. "Still… Who am I to talk? Least you have a dream. That's worth something, you know? Having something to fight for beyond just living."
Lucy leaned over, resting on his shoulder. "You know… You can find one too. A dream, I mean."
They looked at each other. "Why the moon?"
She looked at him. Then, before he could say anything, she got up. "Come on. I wanna show you something."
The moon. They were on the moon.
He stared up at the Sun, trying to comprehend the scene before him. The braindances he usually watched were action stuff, gore and violence… or porn. He'd never done one like this. Staring up at the Earth and Sun far off in the distance, shining brightly.
Lucy and him were at the edge of a crater now, sitting side by side with their legs swinging in the shared virtu. They'd bounced around for a while. Seeing the people constructing and working there, riding on a moon car, feeling the low gravity. It was preem as hell.
He kind of understood where she was coming from now.
"It's beautiful," David said to Lucy, staring at the cloud covered Earth.
"Yeah," Lucy sounded so thoughtful. "From up here…... You can forget how bad it can get down there. I feel free here. You called it a prison camp."
David laughed. "Yeah. But since when do I know what I'm talking about?"
Lucy chuckled, with no real humor. "...I hate Night City. I just… wanna leave it. Get as far from it as possible."
David kicked his feet slowly. "I get that. That's not a bad dream at all."
He looked at her, smiling. Lucy looked back. He wished he could hear what she was thinking.
Lucyna Kushinada
Lucy stared at David for a moment. He was smiling at her. After a moment, he blushed, quickly looking up at the Earth again.
"I've never shown anyone this," Lucy looked away when his head started to turn.
"Oh, really?" He said, sounding nervous. Lucy hid a smile at that. "Uh, so, like, why me?"
Because he'd seemed so lost. Like a puppy left in the street. Some part of that resonated with her. With the person she'd once been. Just looking for something to latch onto.
"Dunno. Guess it just felt right."
He chuckled. She glanced at him.
When she'd been caught stealing by him, she'd thought he was older than her. Tall, built like a swimmer or dancer model in a Mr. Studd ad, all lithe muscle packed into a sculpted frame. No implants. But fast. Faster than some chromed up folk she knew.
But god. He was young. Even without the Arasaka Academy ID, she'd have figured it out.
There was something about him though. It made her feel like…
"Got this feeling," Lucy found herself saying, not knowing why. "That you and I would make a pretty good team."
For a moment, just one, she could believe it. Believe that maybe this naive man and her could go on for a bit, klepping shards together and making eddies. Maybe-
"We're in."
Maine's voice hit like ice water across her skin. Bringing her out of the dream. Back to the real world.
The kid looked up into the sky. Lucy put away any thought of what was happening to him.
Then he backflipped through the air.
It was that fast. One second, he was staring up at the Earth. The next, his eyes widened and he went flipping through the air.
"What the hell?" Lucy said, surprised as David seemed to be. She pulled them out of the virtu.
Maine, Dorio, and Pilaf were there. Except Pilaf was screaming, his nose broken, wriggling on the floor, while Maine's arm had a dent in it as he held it in front of him defensively.
David was on the wall. Just holding himself there, like it was the floor. And he wasn't awake yet. He slowly blinked, shaking his head. Then his eyes widened. Maine growled.
"Damnit Lucy, what the hell is this kid?! I thought you said he had no chrome!"
David's eyes landed on Lucy. The look on his face. The betrayal. It sucked.
That was when Dorio pulled out a pistol, and David leaped off the wall, twisting around foot first to attack.