Cyberpunk - Badland Madman [Cyberpunk 2077]

"Atlas, I doubt she remembers much of the outside. I want to show her the sky."

[I must recommend otherwise. If she goes missing, Biotechnica will determine there was a break-in. I have another option. We can take her to the terrace, and I can place her into a permanent sleep. She will feel no pain.]

Cypher just nodded and reached forward, grabbing the girl by her upper, intact body. She giggled into his metal arms, and he didn't bother covering his face anymore.

"Where are we going? Can I see a tree?"

"We'll see the sky, Jane," Cypher replied, forcing a smile on his face.

"Woh! Sky? I can draw the sky, and birds."

Even her voice was breaking at times, as if the machine parts were malfunctioning. But she didn't seem troubled and talked excitedly. She chirped frenziedly when the elevator started moving up.

Soon enough, he entered another elevator that took him all the way to the top. This time, when the door opened, Night City's air reached them directly.

"Waaaaah! Stars!"

They were barely visible in all that pollution. But for Jane, it was everything. She waved her arms, one real and one chrome.

"Is that Mars?" she asked.

Cypher looked at her, the face that people could only call a monstrosity, yet he could imagine what her human self must have looked like. "No, that one's Sirius. It's a star eight light-years away."

"Whoa! And that one?"

"That's Vega."

"And… that?"

"Arcturus."

Cypher's armor slowly unlocked itself, and without lowering the girl, he stepped out of it, his human body still holding her. He slowly walked to the edge of the roof so she could look down at Corpo Plaza.

Then, he sat down there.

Sure enough, Jane excitedly chirped instead of recoiling in fear as they were too high. They had become friends so fast simply because she didn't understand anything.

"Look down there, that's a tree."

"Wow… I love trees. They make oxygen."

She was far too intelligent for her age. But Cypher could feel it, as Jane's little frame started to grow cold and her words slurred. Atlas was doing his work.

"Do you have a dream, Jane?"

"Yes! I wanna ride a horse."

Cypher smiled at that. He reckoned even he couldn't fulfill that dream. Were there even horses left? He didn't know.

"Anything else?"

"Eat! Lots of tasty… thing-sh."

Cypher carefully held her against his chest so she wouldn't fall. But it was impossible not to grow emotional. She didn't know anything, having spent her learning years locked up.

"What else?"

"Mm…" Jane hummed, her human eye narrowing, her human side of lips pursed. "Friends! Make lot-sh… and lo-sh… I had friends. But mom said they went home-e."

"Mom?"

Jane nodded softly. "You don't know her-rr? She alway-sh wear-sss a big white… co-h-at. Very pret-ty. M-Mom said I will be pretty when I'm o-o-olde-rr."

Her voice started to glitch, and at the worst moment. Listening to the false hopes and dreams she was fed, his anger only increased.

[Cypher. It is time.]

Cypher just nodded and turned her slightly so he could look at her face and into her eye. "Jane…"

"Hm?" She looked at him. Her little hands came up and touched his face, one side flesh and the other cold metal. "Ar-e y-y-you sad-d?"

"No," Cypher muttered and smiled. "Do you know, people live on Mars?"

"Really? Can I go there?"

I'm just like those lying bastards, I guess.

Cypher nodded. "Sure, I'll take you there."

"I c-a-n't wa-it!" Jane replied, her flesh hand shifted closer to his eye, and a finger traced a wet stain. "Ah! I do-h-n't know yo… n-na-name. H-w… wi-l I f-f-f-find…"

Cypher noticed the fading light in her mechanical cybereye and quickly replied.

"Cypher Blackwell."

"C-C…" She smiled, half a face. "Cyph—"

He waited a while for her to finish saying it. But all he felt was her body growing cold in his arms. He let out a weary exhale and looked down at the Corporate Plaza. The Militech Offices, the Arasaka building, all there.

[Cyph?]

Smoothly, Cypher shifted backwards away from the edge and got up, never letting Jane's body touch the floor. Lifeless, he felt more weight to her now. And her half-lips still held onto that final smile.

"Let's go."

Cypher stepped into his armor and walked into the elevator again. All the way down, he put Jane back in that little room. His heart wanted to give her a proper funeral, but his logical mind held back.

Without wasting time, he went back up through that security elevator and then took another to go down into the parking lot. Sasha stood there beside the cargo van Atlas had prepared. She had a bag on her own back, filled to the brim.

"Mr. Blackwell! If you ever do a raid like this again, call me anytime! I loved it!" Sasha excitedly chatted.

Cypher just gave a nod, never taking off his visor. "Good. Glad it worked out. You should get going now. Maine's waiting on you. I'm heading out too."

"Got it, Boss! And remember, call me anytime!"

He watched Sasha run out first. There was no risk as Atlas controlled everything. And once it was clear that she had left with Maine, he stepped out of the armor and let it walk into the back of a second parked van.

Meanwhile, he sat inside the first one with all the seeds and food. The itch for the Hydroponics Bay had started to slowly turn into an annoyance now.

"Atlas, can you drive this time?"

[Of course, Cyph.]

Soon, the two vans started to move. They took a few turns here and there first before heading towards Lake Farm. The entire way, he silently stared outside from the window.

However, right as they were crossing Santo Domingo, he asked Atlas to stop the car.

"Atlas, you got that full Biotechnica offer for Saul Bright, yeah? Hit up Panam, tell her to meet me out in the Badlands by one of the wind turbines. Saul still hasn't given me an answer, and I'm done waiting. Call Del and have him send me a car first."

####

Near Big Rock, Badlands.

It was in the middle of nowhere, and it was dark at night. That far out of Night City, the sky was more visible. He hadn't come prepared, so he just found a flat spot and sat down on the dirt. He did start a fire first, however.

As minutes passed, Cypher said nothing, just silently stared into the fire. Around that time, Atlas appeared in physical form right beside him, visible only to him. The old man was dressed in a white suit as usual.

"What are you thinking?" Atlas asked.

"Jane. That kid was way too damn young, and they put her through hell. How's anybody even cool with doing that kinda shit for cash? How many Janes died in that little room? Lucas could've wound up there, too."

"As I said before, Cypher. This world has forgotten morality."

"Man, even my last world wasn't this fucked. I... What the hell am I even doing?" Cypher muttered, knees pulled up as he stared into the fire. "Atlas, what're you gonna do when I die? I mean, yeah, I'll get you to the stars. But the money I'm gonna leave behind? I want you to invest it."

"In business?"

"Fuck no. Nah, just help people. Like Lucas, like Jane. I... I don't know how much time I've got, Atlas. None of this feels right. Doesn't make a damn bit of sense. These damn itches, me still being alive, you being here. We just don't make sense."

"Your heart rate is elevated, Cypher."

Cypher just kept shaking his head like he didn't hear a damn thing. "I miss my mom... my brother... Bruno. I'd made peace with dying back then. Didn't mean I wanted to die, man."

"Cyph…" Atlas tried to touch his shoulder, but the holographic hand passed through.

"Then there's all the shit you keep chanting. Emperor and all that. I'm a dumbfuck, Atlas. I used to run deliveries. I ain't some genius. I was nothing, and I died nothing. So quit looking for something great in me, because I sure as hell can't find it either."

"You are wrong," Atlas loudly replied.

"Just, stop—"

"You." Atlas interrupted, a rare frown crossing the old man's face. "You experience these things. You know anger. You know sorrow. You perceive injustice. That alone distinguishes you. Yet you are not unique in that respect. Where you are singular is in your gifts. You create technology beyond comprehension. Your existence itself surpasses my understanding. What you were is irrelevant. What matters is who you become now."

Cypher looked at Atlas' face and loudly exhaled, shaking his head. "I'm just a lucky, hypersexual freak. I got nothing here, no family, nothing."

"And yet somehow the likes of Judy, Misty, and Panam find goodness in you. Do it for them, and for yourself. Make this world one worth having a family in."

Cypher kept shaking his head. But there was nothing he could retort with. He didn't understand those women either.

Suddenly, Cypher just got up and started pacing around the fire, his eyes dark, brows creased. He crossed his arms and just walked for a few minutes silently. In silence, he weighed his options, his future, and what he should even do.

In the end, there was only ever one option.

"You know what? I'm done." Cypher locked eyes with Atlas. "I'm done holding back. I can't watch another Lucas, another Jane, another David, or another Lucy. Let's just end this already. Let's fix this fucking world."

"Let us do that, Cyph."

"No more waiting for the right time. We're moving now. Do whatever you've gotta do to bring the Aldecaldos in. We need the manpower. I'm gonna handle the Fusion Reactor myself. And make me a list of everyone we gotta kill to make things right."

"It's done," Atlas snappily replied.

Right then, Cypher heard the sound of Panam's motorbike nearing.

"And let's take over Maelstrom. They ain't shit against your abilities. Find someone worth putting in charge for us. We'll use them to exterminate the Scavs."

"I will begin right away, Cyph."

"And get inside NUSA! Do whatever you gotta do."

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Check out Cypher X Judy, Cypher X Rebecca, Hanako Arasaka Solo NSFW ART, and advance chapters at [email protected]/MrPlotThickens Or Subscribestar.adult/mrplotthickens

Advance chapters on [PATREON] are in long-form format. I have 10 long chapters of this story on P@treon. That's equal to 35-45 NovelPhoenix chapters.