Chapter 6: Chapter 6: B For Basement

[Little China, Watson]

In a dimly lit basement, Ethan sat in the corner of the place, tinkering with his cyberarm using an old-school screwdriver as he watched the owner of the basement, Viktor Vektor, quietly operating on a woman who Ethan had ‘saved’ before, Evelyn Parker.

“Jesus Christ, what happened to this woman?” Viktor asked as he did an incision on the back of Evelyn, exposing her backbone. The cyberware was completely burned, even making some of her flesh black from all the oil that came out of the metal backbone.

“What do you think?” Ethan said casually, twisting his arm as if he was trying to feel the sensitivity. “Netrunner attack, obviously.”

“You did this?” questioned Viktor again, trying to fix what he could.

Ethan scoffed. “Vik, you think I’d bring my victim to a ripper doc?”

“Hey I’m just sayin’.” Viktor shrugged, pulling the entire backbone out of her body. “With all the talks about you, one might need to think about what you’re actually planning.” 

“She looks corpo to you, Vik?” Ethan pointed out.

“No, but still…” Viktor then pulled out a new metal backbone, slowly installing it inside Evelyn. “You’re paying for this right? This is my last stock, I’ll have to wait for another two months for another batch to arrive.”

“Sure, put it on my tab.” said Ethan. Suddenly, his left cyberarm was detached from his body, and he put the left arm on the table. “By the way, you got the thing I asked you for?”

“It’s in the box.” said Viktor, pointing at the corner of the room. “What else are you gonna put on that thing? First Monowire, then Gorrilla arms mod, and now a fucking PLS*, what’s next? Mantis blades?”

“Nah, wouldn’t work.” said Ethan, opening the box, and taking out the raw PLS mod inside it, before putting it on the table where he put his left arm on. “It’s either a PLS or Mantis Blades, rather the former.”

He then started working on his left arm, with only one arm. He skillfully dismantled the left arm, and installed the PLS. As he was working on it, he could hear the sound of footsteps from the stairs. The footsteps sounded in a hurry, so he pretty much knew who it was.

“Is she okay?!” said the woman that came down from the stair, it was Judy.

“Woah, I need some concentration here, miss, she’ll be okay.” said Vik, trying to calm down the girl.

Judy just nodded weakly, she walked towards the corner of the room, where Ethan is. “What happened to her?”

“I told you, a virus attack. Though I found her almost getting dismantled by the scavs.” said Ethan, still focusing on his arm. “The culprit? That, I don’t know.”

“Ugh, it’s probably because of that gig…”

“You mean the gig with V?” said Ethan. “Hm.. probably. You know who hired her?”

“How should I know?! I only compiled her BD!” Judy exclaimed in frustration, making Viktor hush her again.

“You know the content of the BD?” asked Ethan again.

“It’s… It’s about one of her ‘sessions’ with Yorinobu.”

“As in Arasaka?” Ethan frowned. “That never ends well, you know that Jude.”

“She was quite close to him, and I know that it never ends well Eth…” she murmured. “But I can’t control her, can’t I?”

Viktor suddenly called Ethan. “Hey E, you done there yet, help me here a bit will ya?”

“Just about done.” Ethan hummed, tightening up the last screw. He then grabbed the arm using his right arm, before coupling it to his body, releasing some kind of gas that tightened it. “You’re staying here?”

“Well where else is Ev going to stay? Yours?” Judy scoffed. “Not a chance.”

“Hey, I can call you after it’s done.” Ethan shrugged. “Alright, just don’t make any noise, Vik’s quite sensitive when he’s at work.”

—

Viktor and Ethan worked on Evelyn for hours on end, replacing her implants slowly and carefully. Viktor mostly did all the work, as he’s the ripper doc with actual experience, while Ethan helped with bringing the new implants, calibrating it with her body, and checking if any dangerous virus is still in her network.

It was around midnight when they finished, and when Ethan turned around, he saw that Judy hadn't fallen asleep at all, in fact, she was tapping her feet sporadically, anxiety in her heart.

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“Not sure how she will fare after this.” Viktor sighed as he threw away his gloves. “If what you told me is true, that you saved her from the scavs, who knows what they had done to her before you saved her, she was conscious all the time as well...”

“I know.” Ethan hummed, crossing his arms. “I’ll ask Jude to watch her, but at the end of the day, it’s Evelyn’s choice, not ours nor Jude’s.”

Viktor then turned his gaze on Judy, who was waiting anxiously. “Gonna talk to her?”

“Yep, just dress her up, I’ll carry her to the car after this.”

Vik hummed in agreement as Ethan turned around to Judy, who finally noticed that they were done. She stood up, and walked up to Ethan.

“She’s fine right?”

“She’s fine… honestly, you’re too much sometimes.” Ethan sighed. “Though, if you had listened to me before, you must know that I got her from scavs right?”

“Yeah…”

“So you can probably guess what probably happened to her?”

Judy didn’t say anything, she just nodded at Ethan’s words.

“Just… watch her.” Ethan smiled, patting Judy’s shoulder.

“I know… I’ll try.” Judy smiled. “Thanks Eth.”

“No prob.” Ethan shook his hand in the air. Suddenly, a scream came from outside, it was Misty’s voice, the owner of this basement.

“Vik! It’s V!” she shouted, her voice shaking.

Ethan raised his brow as he heard V’s name. Vik ran upstairs, there seems to be chaos outside.

“Gonna help him?” asked Judy, already trying to carry Evelyn from the operating chair. “I heard V’s name.”

Ethan hummed. “Depends. Let’s carry Ev to your van first.”

—

As Ethan and Judy reached the outside, they both saw a unique sight. They saw a delamain cab parked in the middle of the alley, with two men bleeding on the ground, Vik and Misty trying to drag them to the clinic.

“Hey E! Help me here!” shouted Viktor, making Ethan frown.

Ethan quickly activated his face-jammer, and stared at a certain someone that was bleeding on the side of the cab. He was Japanese, and he knew his face very well from all his reconnaissance of Saburo Arasaka. 

“Is that—”

“Just hurry!” shouted Vik.

“Just go Eth. I can take it from here.” said Jude. “I’m stronger than I look.”

“Sure you do.” Ethan rolled his eyes. “Fine, be careful.”

Ethan gave Evelyn to Judy, and rushed towards Viktor, who was dragging V, who was bleeding on the ground.

“Help me bring the other guy!” Vik shouted.

“I’m not going to save that guy, Vik!” Ethan refused to help the corpo guy.

“Oh for god’s sake! Fine, you’ll bring V, I’ll bring the other guy!”

After that, Ethan brought V to the clinic, while Viktor dragged the corpo dude.

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