Chapter 24: Chapter 24: New Arm, New Me

Sitting on his bed back at his place, John looks down at his phone.

He stares for long periods of time in complete silence.

After a while, he finally sighs.

“I want to talk.” John says.

John waits in silence as he waits patiently for something, anything to happen.

“I know you can hear me, and I know you know that.”

Just about as he’s about to give up, his phone begins to ring, an unknown caller is calling him as John looks at it for a moment before picking up the line.

An electric tone can be heard as a robotic voice begins to speak.

“Please wait, until we transfer you to the line.”

“The line is now encrypted. Both parties are now connected.” A long beep can be heard. John stands up as he walks back and forth in his studio apartment. 

“Hello, John.” Nathan says.

“I almost died in there, he had a hit squad ready and everything.”

“But you didn’t. And that’s all that matters.”

“I’m not sure I can do this.” John says as he sits back down.

There’s a brief pause from the other end.

“But you already have.”

John crosses his arms while still holding his phone.

“Don’t worry, they won’t have any idea that you were involved. At best, they’ll think it’s some ICE made by the Yasuda’s incase someone else got onto their network.”

John sighs.

“I saw something last night… One of the Host’s was beating a Hostess for coming to a disagreement with a client, I think…”

“Disagreements happen all the time in this business.”

“Yeah, but. It was something else.”

“Look, my hands are tied as it is. They have the proper licenses and everything. At best you can get an inspection done, but none of the girls will talk. It’s a community, friends, family. Most of them start at a young age, told by these groomers about the money they can make, how desired they’ll be. There’s just nothing we can do about it.”

“You can’t be fucking serious.”

“It’s just an industry like every other one. Who do you think pays for the sex positivity movement? Woman? Hah. Don’t make me laugh, half the books on this fucking platform talk about little girls. Really makes you think.”

“I never thought about it like that.”

“So, what should I do for now?”

“What do you think? I know a lot has happened, but aren’t you forgetting about something? Or someone? Maybe even a group. Huh.” Nathan says.

“Yeah, I get it.”

“You’ve done us a solid, my CO is very interested in a deeper relationship. I’m sending Katarina to come by later, you should get down there before the others arrive.”

Walking towards the door, John seems a little annoyed.

“On my way.” John says.

“Great.” Nathan says as the line disconnects.

“Ah, this fucking asshole.”

 

---

 

Walking towards the clinic, John passes by a familiar car, a small silver coupe. It’s the same as the getaway car they drove in. He looks over at it as he passes by. Walking down the stairs, Peter comes out of the clinic. He’s alone as John stops and looks over

“I’m going to find somewhere to park the car.” Peter says.

Peter closes the door, as he looks up and stops seeing John. His eyes turn towards a large duffel bag as he looks back at him. He stares at him for a bit and turns away as he begins to walk towards him.

“Thought you skipped town.”

John doesn’t say anything as he makes his way towards the door.

As Peter drives away, he holds onto the handle but doesn’t open it as he thinks to himself.

Opening the door, inside, Rachel and Ben are talking to each other as they watch the News. Rachel looks over at the door as her eyes open wide seeing John.

Walking inside, John looks at the others.

They look at each other in silence.

“I got the money.”

“You’re here.” Rachel awkwardly says seemingly surprised.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“It’s just when you didn’t show up…” Rachel looks away awkwardly. Ben doesn’t say anything as he opens up his cyberdeck as if avoiding confrontation. The Doctor exits from the patient room as he looks over at John.

“Ah, I thought I’d have to send a bounty hunter after you.” The Doctor jokes.

John walks over to him as Rachel and Ben don’t move.

“You’re kidding right?” John says with a fake sense of enthusiasm.

“Haha. Of course not. Anyways, looks like you’ve brought something for me. But that can wait till later, your friend Jamar is finally up and running. Why don’t you talk with him? I’m sure he’s getting a little worried.” The Doctor says covering something up on his body.

John looks down at it and notices a bruise.

“Yeah, probably best if we handle that.” John taps him on the shoulder.

Rachel and Ben get up hearing the news as they walk towards the Doctor.

“How is he? Is he alright?”

“Yeah, just a little shocked by everything. You know, suddenly waking up in a hospital bed can really get the mind racing. Honestly, I had to sedate him, just a little to get his heart to calm down.” The Doctor anxiously replies.

Shouting can be heard from the patient care room.

“Someone get me out of here!”

John looks over.

“Don’t worry!” John shouts back.

John begins to head towards the room as the others follow suit behind him.

As he enters the room, Jamar can be seen moving his head around confused by his surroundings as John walks inside and looks over at him.

“John, John? Is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“The mission, how did the mission go?”

“Went just fine all thanks to you.” John replies.

Jamar begins to hyperventilate.

“No, something’s wrong, John. I can’t. I can’t feel my arm.” Jamar tries to flail his arms as it looks like he’s jiggling around. John turns to the Doctor who bites his lip.

“He’s delirious.” The Doctor comments.

“Who the fuck is he? And why am I laying in this bed?” 

“You’re in a hospital.” John says calmly while performing calming motions.

“Fuck, you know I don’t have insurance right? Are you trying to get me killed?” Jamar asks.

“What am I going to tell my parents? My sisters.”

John looks away as Rachel pats him on his shoulder lightly pushing him forward. He looks back at her as she seems to suggest for him to continue speaking. Looking back at Jamar, he walks up to the bed as he grabs Jamar's hand.

“Relax, we have enough money from the gig to cover it all.” John replies.

Jamar sighs.

“I was going to use my cut to help my momma buy a new house.” Jamar says.

“And you still can.” John replies.

Jamar shakes his head.

“It’s okay, John. You don’t have to lie to me.”

Jamar begins to cry as the Doctor looks over at Ben as they quietly begin to leave. Rachel stands behind John as she watches it all unfold.

“I’m sorry, Jamar.”

Jamar continues to cry, as tears start to fall from John’s eyes.

“Sometimes, things in life don’t go the way we want them to go.” John says.

“But it doesn’t mean it’s the end of the road.”

“Shut up, John. Just, shut up.”

 

---

 

It’s calmed down inside as the Doctor knocks onto the door. Walking inside, he looks around at the room with a tablet in his hand. John and Rachel and sitting beside Jamar as he lies on his bed, Ben and Peter walk in with the Doctor.

The Doctor feigns a cough as the others look over at it.

“I guess now would be the appropriate time to talk about possible prosthetics and cyberware.”

“New arm, new me.” Jamar jokes.

The Doctor does a small laugh as he hands him the tablet.

“Take a look at our current inventory. There isn’t much on the market for black market, cybernetics and prosthetics. The demand for them is always higher than the supply, but I still manage to keep the good stuff in stock. Prices of the lower end products are a bit high, but that’s because it’s hard to hold onto.” 

Moving towards a giant screen, the doctor begins to play with it. On it we see a selection of prosthetics and cybernetics, the same on the tablet. The cheapest of which being over ¥50,000 yen. For a simple ceramic finish.

“Ah, this one’s a dummy. Won’t be able to actually use it for anything, but most people buy it so they can at least feel as though they have something there. Guess I’ll go over functionality first. From top of the line, to… this.”

Scrolling through his inventory, he stops at one.

“Mmm. This is our best one, the Neihon Seido Mark II. Not the best, but still top of the line, a few years old but it connects to the central nervous system allowing for full haptic feedback. It’s like if you still had your arm, but better. Well, stronger that is. The shape can be molded to fit the patient’s body type and allows them to use five times the amount of strength they’d regularly be able to do. Overall, it’s pretty amazing. But unaffordable, this one’s ¥5,000,000.”

“Not bad.” Jamar says.

“How much is one for basic functionality? Same feel and everything?” Rachel asks. 

The others stand around the room as they look over at the doc who begins to scroll through more models before stopping at a selection.

“That’s more of a middle model level kind of deal. Normally, insurance pays out and it’d only cost maybe a couple hundred thousand, but you’d be stuck paying maybe a couple thousand. But, black market one’s well… You’re looking at one to two million.”

“Fuck.” Jamar says.

“Got anything cheaper than that?” He asks.

“In the hundreds of thousands we have models that give the same feeling but have artificial limits for how much power they can provide. I wouldn’t recommend them as well either as they’re usually built for smaller frames than yours, they wouldn’t really fit.”

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Jamar thinks to himself as the others look over.

“You can’t be serious Doc. Is there any way you can lower the price just a little for my friend?” Peter asks him.

He shakes his head.

“That’s not possible. I’d lose money doing that.”

“And don’t even think about killing me for them. They’re locked away in a place where you won’t even be able to gain access to if you do that.”

John raises his eyebrows.

“Nobody here is going to hurt you, Doc.”

“I know. Just letting you know so you don’t get any ideas.”

“That’s a little dark don’t you think?” Jamar asks.

They continue to stand around in silence as the group is unsure what to do. John looks around the room as he begins to take off the duffle bag. Jamar turns to him.

“Don’t. We all worked hard for that money. I’m not taking someone else’s cut just because I got myself injured.” Jamar says to him.

John turns to look at the Doctor as the others look over at him.

“How much did you say the Mark II was again?”

“¥5,000,000. But I know it’s out of your price range.” The Doctor responds.

“We’ll take it.”

“What?” Rachel says.

“What the fuck, John?” Jamar responds.

As Peter gets up as he walks over towards him.

“Ah, you should have just run away if you were going to rob us like this.” He says.

John looks away towards the ground, then back at the others.

“We got a little bonus for the job. Hazard pay. If everyone here is fine with taking 5 Million. There’s enough to pay for Jamar to get a new arm. And since he’s the only one who took a real risk out there, I think it’s only fair we give it to him.”

They think to themselves not saying anything. 

“So, you’re saying they paid us TEN Million?” Rachel asks.

Peter seems shocked as he looks away.

“Used us as bait.” Jamar mutters.

“Mhmm. And at the end of the day, we’re the only ones who got the job done.” John says.

John walks forward a bit as he looks around.

“So, what do you guys think?”

“Fine with me, I wouldn’t even have known about the job if it wasn’t for him.” Rachel says.

“Sounds good to me.” Ben says as he reads something on his cyberdeck.

Peter looks around as he turns to John.

“If Rachel’s okay with it. So am I.”

They all turn to look at Jamar who seems a little distraught. He turns to John.

“But, John. With that five million, you could pay for all your cancer treatments and never have to do this again.” Jamar says.

“What about you? Your friends, teammates. How are you gonna work without an arm?”

Jamar reaches for his missing arm.

“I’ll find a way.”

John shakes his head.

“No, you won’t. Now, shut up and let us take care of you.”

John kicks the duffle bag towards the Doctor.

“There should be ten million in there. Take half of it for the arm and give back the rest.” John says. The Doctor gets on his knees to pick it up as he looks over at him.

“Alright, but you come with me, don’t want you to think I’m taking your money.”

 

---

 

Standing in front of a money counter, the Doctor throws several wads of cash down into the hopper and John stands by him in silence.

“Huh, I’ve only seen one of these in banks.”

“Yeah, usually only places that have them are ones that deal with a lot of cash.”

“Mmm… Makes sense.”

The counter’s user interfaces adds up to just over ¥5,000,000. As the Doctor stops feeding it. Pressing a button, it automatically closes as John looks over at the Doctor.

“Ah, looks like it’s a bit over. Is it alright with you if it’s just an extra charge?”

“Not sure how the others will like it.”

“It’s a pain to open this thing up.” The Doctor continues.

“Ah whatever, it’s only a couple hundred dollars.”

“Thanks.” The Doctor says.

He presses a button as the machine begins to produce a receipt, taking it out, he hands it to John. Who looks over at it, total received ¥5,000,700.

“I can start on the attachment right away, the newer models automatically work to fit onto the host. Takes a couple hours for it to get itself right but… It’s a really simple process. Won’t charge you for it or anything.”

They walk together out of the room. 

Making his way towards a more secure one, the Doctor puts his hands on a scanner as he puts his eye up to a retinal scanner. John watches from behind.

“Wait here.” The Doctor says as a series of locks open up.

He heads inside of a room in which another series of intricate locks can be seen.

The door behind the Doctor immediately shuts behind him. John leans against the wall as he uses his time to check his phone. He unlocks it as it opens up to a website showing various details for a medical facility, scrolling through it, his hands stop at a button saying book an appointment today.

Coming out of the door, the Doctor can be seen holding the Neihon Seido Mark II in his arms as he begins to walk over to John. John locks his phone as he puts it away. Seeing him walk over, they head back towards the Patient Care Room.

The Doctor knocks on the door as he enters. John follows.

 

---

 

Inside, Rachel, Ben, and Peter are all talking with Jamar.

“I don’t know what I’m going to tell the others.” Jamar can be heard saying.

“That sounds rough.” Rachel says.

They look over as the Doctor walks in holding the arm as John follows behind him. Seeing the scene the Doctor puts on an inauthentic overly happy face.

“Who’s ready for their new arm?” The Doctor shouts.

“Bit too loud, Doc.” Ben says.

The Doctor walks up towards Jamar.

“It’s going to feel a bit weird.” The Doctor says as he moves part of Jamar’s medical gown where an already existing connector end can be seen on Jamar’s arm. At the tip of the arm, sharp needles can be seen extruding out of it.

“Ah, fuck!” Jamar shouts as the Doctor, quickly injects the small needle-like end onto him. Jamar begins to rapidly twitch his body as John and the other looks at the Doctor who raises his arms up.

“It’ll be fine. It’ll be fine.” The Doctor repeats.

“Why are you raising your hands?” John asks.

“Oh, usually when my clients see this, they usually try to shoot me or get upset.”

“What?”

The Doctor puts his hands down, as Jamar’s seizure comes to an end, he moves his hands to start playing with Jamar’s new arm. Almost like he’s massaging it.

“So, how does it feel?”

“It’s like you’re touching me.” Jamar says.

“Good. Means that it worked, well at least this part. Now we’re going to need to see how well up to spec it can work. With the Japanese models you usually get quality assurance… But you never know unless you try.” The Doctor replies.

“Try moving your arm-” 

Without even finishing the sentence, Jamar looks at his new arm as he twirls it around inspecting every bit of it. A crackling sound can be audibly heard as his arm visibly begins to slowly expand outwards to match his body size.

“Oh, don’t worry about that. It’s just liquid filling up inside your arm to help expand it to the proper size.” The Doctor waves.

On a tray in front of him, Jamar picks up a can as he looks at it.

“How does it feel?”

“Like I’m picking up a feather.”

“Now try squeezing it as hard as you can. Let’s see how well the grip strength holds up.”

Jamar squeezes as hard as he can as the can crushes in on itself into a ball in front of their eyes as Peter and Rachel flinch. The Doctor begins to get up.

“Well, looks like it works good enough.”

The Doctor begins to walk away towards the door.

“If you need anything, I’ll be at the front desk. As for the bill you can pay me when you leave.” The Doctor says as he stops in front of the door to look at them.

John and the others walk up to Jamar as he begins to stand up.

“So, how do you feel?” John asks.

“Want to arm wrestle?” Jamar asks jokingly.

“Hell no.” John replies looking down at the can he destroyed. Jamar starts to laugh as he falls back down onto the bed. The others move but stop after realizing he’s moving around like a little kid on his bed.

“Just messing with you. I like it. Feels better than my old one.” Jamar says.

“You know what they say. New Arm, New You.” Jamar continues.

Rachel looks over at Peter who shakes his head. John moves towards him as he tries to get him to stop being so reckless.

“Easy there.”

They look at his arm as a fluid can be seen moving around.

“So is that like your blood?” Rachel asks.

“I think it’s a coolant of some kind.” Ben says.

“Ah, that’s pretty cool.” Jamar replies.

A knock comes from their door as they look over. It opens as Anya and Katarina can be seen coming inside.

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