Cyberpunk - Badland Madman [Cyberpunk 2077]

Afterlife,

As night arrived, Rogue Amendiares reached the club to take her usual seat and look busy while the dreamers of Night City walked around, hoping to get a drink named after them.

But that night, there were no dreamers. Other than a few regular faces who had been coming for years, it was deserted. The bar was empty, the planning rooms were empty, and the private booths were desolate.

She remembered seeing the parking lot empty as well. Other than her, there was no fixer either. Finally, she frowned and looked at Emmerick standing beside her booth.

"It's a weekend. Why is the club so empty today?"

"Club Atlantis," Emmerick replied. "They got some nineties-themed bash rolling tonight. Whole city's probably there. Couple of my chooms headed in too. Even our facemen are there since every merc in the city's going."

Rogue's jaw tightened. Her heart sank as she eyed the club again. She couldn't remember it being this empty in months. And this was worse because it happened because of competition.

Without wasting time, she got up. "Let's go."

"Club Atlantis?" Emmerick asked.

She didn't reply, too frustrated to speak. She just walked out and got into her car. Emmerick drove it for her. The Glen was just a bridge and a sub-district away from the Afterlife, so it didn't take time to reach the place.

When she arrived at the building now named the Continental, she saw a massive line on the side that led directly to Club Atlantis through special elevators. A fully armed team of bouncers dressed in 90s black suits worked to manage the crowd.

"I know them. They're from Aldecaldos." Rogue frowned when she recognised the faces.

Thankfully, she didn't have to wait in line as she was considered a rather high-value fixer in the city. Still, she was handed a touchpad with a menu filled with all sorts of 90s themed clothes that she could rent for the party.

She glanced at the long line of people. Some were regulars of Afterlife, not just mercs but corpos as well. They were all smiling and looking at similar touch pads, purchasing or renting clothes.

Her heart truly sank as she realised the level of competition she was facing. This level of preparedness was absurd for a mere special night. Nonetheless, she looked at the touchpad and scrolled.

She recognised them all. They were so accurate, even the branding was accurate. As she was born in the nineties herself, she somewhat remembered that era. The offering was divided into men's and women's fashion: Denim overalls, spandex leggings, button down shirt, acid wash jeans, drainpipe jeans, bike shorts, babydoll dress, capri leggings, neon tops, leg warmers, leotard with jeans, windbreakers, oversized t-shirts, converse shoes, Nike, trench coats, polka dot blouse, knee boots, puffer jackets, tracksuits, hoop earrings… everything.

From the early nineties to the late nineties.

Rogue felt her lips go dry. The insane number of choices was so absurd. How could the club have so many things just for one night?

"I'll take this." She rented a double denim set and Converse shoes, simple and something she had once worn in her teens.

Moments later, she walked into the elevator with a bag in her hand. When she arrived on the club's floor, the bouncer there guided her to the change room with dozens of stalls to change clothes. There was also an attendant inside who locked away her removed clothes and gave her a token.

Finally, she walked into the club's main floor, where the large dance floor and DJ booth were. It was filled to the brim, not even space to walk without bumping into someone. Those clothes made her feel nostalgic, and then there was the loud song. She recognised it, called 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody.'

But right then, the music changed, perfectly mixed by the DJ. The new song was one of MJ's. Most of them were lost to Old Net, so she didn't know how Cypher got this one.

"Rogue?"

She shook herself from the nostalgia and looked at Emmerick, who was now dressed in a tracksuit. She nodded and continued walking, aiming for the stairs.

Afterlife will go under if this continues.

The laughter and the smiles on everyone's face worried her. The level of planning was so detailed that the entire floor was lit up in multi-colors, a disco ball on the top, and everything was 90s themed. Even the drinks had old names.

When she arrived at the upper floor, she found so many familiar faces that she felt pain in her neck, giving everyone a nod. Some were high-level corporate executives, so high even she'd need an appointment to meet them. But it made sense, the club was owned by a famous corpo as well.

On that floor, she didn't feel like a big fish anymore. There was no booth for her, no special favors. She had to go and sit with one of the facemen who worked for her. It was a small booth with a U-shaped seating and a small table in the middle.

It's as if all of Aldecaldos is here to guard the place.

She even saw Panam walking around in tight denim overalls and a sports bra, acting familiar with the bouncers, managing. But she didn't seem to be working there.

The intel shop seems successful.

Rogue noticed a large crowd at the intel shop run by the little kid. Then there was a second-hand chrome shop, run by a woman in 90s nurse clothes. But for the most part, the upper floor was to sit, relax, and drink. Yet, some were dancing by the window overlooking the city outside.

"How much money did he spend on this?"

She spoke loudly without realising. The faceman beside her spoke to answer her.

"A lot. I heard there's gonna be a two-thousands night next weekend."

Rogue frowned and quickly dropped a message to Panam she'd seen seconds ago. As expected, the Aldecaldos' wild beauty walked over to her booth moments later, all smiles, like it was her own club.

"You are here as well? I did not expect this."

Rogue ignored the cheekiness in the words. "You're close with Blackwell?"

"I like to believe that."

"Inform him that I want to meet him," Rogue stated.

Panam's smiling face turned to a frown instantly. "Look, first off, I am not your assistant or Cypher's. Second, you better ask instead of informing. And third, Cypher is not in the club. He had work outside, which is why I am here managing things."

Rogue frowned. She didn't know Panam had gotten that close to Cypher Blackwell. Enough that the man left the entire club in her care.

"He's not here on an important night?" she asked back.

"Guess it is not important to him. The things he does are way out of our league. Anyway, enjoy your time here. Got other things to handle."

Rogue watched Panam walk away, as feisty as ever.

SoftSys's second-in-command is here, and it's not important?

In silence, drinking, she reevaluated her views on the eccentric man called Cypher Blackwell.

####

Lizzie's Bar, Kabuki,

Cypher hung up the call from Panam and learned about Rogue's visit and her wish to meet him. He didn't care; all he cared about was that the 90s night was going well. But he didn't need Panam for that. Atlas had it all under control, giving him updates on all important faces that visited.

He sat in his car parked in the lot outside Lizzie's, listening to his AI brother.

[...After tracing the energy flow, I discovered Arasaka does not rely on the city grid for power. As a result, I infiltrated the Arasaka Waterfront mainframe to verify my suspicions. Cypher, a powerful nuclear fission reactor is beneath Arasaka Waterfront. It powers the mega logistics hub, the assembly lines, and Konpeki Plaza.]

"That's fucking awesome. Let's get in there when I finish the fusion core."

[There is one issue. I spread myself across Night City long ago, including Arasaka Waterfront. Even so, I had to dig far deeper to uncover this reactor. It is completely offline. Its design mirrors a pre-Network-era reactor, though modified. Mechanical arms operate every system, with no human involvement whatsoever. The reactor runs on a private, isolated network of its own. Cypher, you must breach the control room and connect me to that network. Without that connection, I cannot push the reactor to its limit.]

"Can't you just mind control someone in the Waterfront with their neural link? All you need is a probe into the isolated network."

[I tried that approach. The reactor is maintained by six fully organic nuclear engineers of Japanese descent. Either Arasaka fears cyberattacks, or they know something the rest of the world does not. They may be experimenting with AIs, which would explain contingencies at this level.]

Cypher tiredly rubbed his face, swinging back and forth in the driver's seat, thinking about it.

"Yeah, it's true. Arasaka messes with AIs. They're screwing around with the Blackwall and running black sites all over the world. They use kids to breach the Blackwall. I don't know if they still do, but if they're going this far, there's probably some rogue AI loose out there somewhere."

[Yes, I remember what you revealed to me about Lucyna Kushinada. The scenario you proposed holds a high degree of plausibility.]

Cypher pondered a little. He knew he was going to infiltrate Arasaka Waterfront now to reach that reactor. In fact, infiltration was expected no matter where the reactor was located. And he couldn't rely on hired mercs since his fusion core was a tech so advanced the lure to fuck him over would be too high.

"Atlas, I'll wait for the next two itches. I can deal with the headache till then. If I don't get a power source itch, we're going straight for the Arasaka reactor. Start planning, start infecting every system you gotta screw with, including Arasaka workers. And…"

Cypher looked out the window and saw Rita walking over to him, waving, smirking, and winking.

"And make preparations to kidnap the six nuclear engineers. I ain't gonna wait for a power source itch to drop. What if the next itch sucks down even more juice than this fusion core? We'll shove chrome into the scientists whether they like it or not, and you'll force them to build me a fusion reactor from that IEC research you found. I know it's evil, but…"

[It's a sacrifice for the greater good.]

"Yeah... for the greater good. But I'm gonna need some chrome on me for this job."

[Or an exosuit. I have complete schematics for the IEC Dragoon full-body conversion. I can adapt it into wearable armor. I will function as the system controller, eliminating the need for biological integration. Your existing brainwave interface is sufficient.]

Knock! Knock!

Cypher failed to notice the knocks on the window. His thoughts went over all the things he had built and imagined the vision Atlas presented. With all the tech he had, Blaster, Leaper's parts, Microbots, Vaporator, Servo Skull, he could build a suit of armor so advanced and powerful that only sturdy military missiles would do damage to it.

"We can slap some anti-grav engines on it, make the thing fly, or at least leap stupid high. Fuck, that's a solid idea, Atlas. Yeah, do it."

[I have finished designing it.]

"..."

Without saying anything, Cypher just fixed his tie, plastered a smile on his face, and got out of the car.

______________________

Check out Cypher X Gloria, Cypher X Judy, Cypher X Rebecca 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 NovelFire chapters.