WarpDancer (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners)

Louder Than I Remember

"Sup."

Staring back down at the duo in the booth, a friendly smile begins to paint it's way acrossed my face. I dont deal with situations like this very offten but I'm not so antisocial that I don't atleast know how to fake it, better off disarming the tension atleast at surface level. Lucy steps past me, slides into the booth across from the pair and rests her hands on the table top.

"Not much, just found ourselves in the neighbourhood." She matches with a soft smile of her own, earning a scoff from the man. I follow suit and sit down next to her. "So, you Kiwi's crew?"

"Ha, not exactly. She's more of a-... Independent contractor. And it's My crew, remember that."

" 'course, your crew. So then, Kiwi says I could learn a thing or two from running with you guys."

"And what? You gonna join up, just like that? What makes you think we even want some snot nose kid runnin around underfoot anyways?"

"What makes you think I'm asking to join?"

Everything stops. It was only the two of them talking in the first place along with the quiet music that was playing this early in the bar, but now you could hear a pin drop. All our mock smiles drop in unison, all except for Lucy's, who carries on,

"I'm just saying what I've been told, but I've got no reason to believe that, right?"

"Then what the fuck you here for?"

"To find out if I believe it."

I'm in awe, and I nearly let it slip onto my face, but for the sake of the meeting I maintain my best scowl. Lucy wasn't just handling it herself, she was spitting back at a guy more than triple her size without missing a beat. I'd be incredibly impressed if it weren't for the concern that this dude looked about ready to knock our heads off, as much as I was quietly enjoying this he clearly felt diffrently.

The heavy silence drags on for what feels like forever before finally, he cracks a genuine smile and lets out a small laugh.

"Ha. You got guts girl, I like that. Kiwi say's you're a netrunner, damn good one too. I probably can't help to much with that but we got a girl of our own about your age who could." He leans back in the booth, draping an arm over the woman beside him while kiwi steps over and sits down next to me, shoving me slightly in the process. Atleast things seem to be genuinely comfortable this time around.

"Plenty of other punks in our group who could show ya a thing or two, you jump in with us and you can ride along to the top. Course you don't just get a free ticket, gotta prove you got what it takes first."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Little job we got lined up in a few. You run with us, show us what you got, then we decide if you're in or not."

Lucy turns to me, I shrug, she nods, and turns back to the conversation.

"All right, we'll tag alon-"

"Woah, hold up. We? Nah, we're talkin about you. Takin one kid is already bad enough, your input ain't invited."

Figures this is the way it'd go, like I said to her earlier netrunners are a premium, regular old cyberpunks are another story. Lucy's expression sours as she begins to speak up, but before she can correct or tell him off she's surprisingly cut off by Kiwi.

"Remember the building we passed by on our way here Maine?"

"Splatter house that NCPD's all over? What about it?"

"That was this guy." She nods in my direction, crossing her arms.

"So the kids crew took out a Scav den, what abo-"