Cyberpunk: Unbound

> Watson, Kabuki - Near Creek Loop

Delaney stared down at his reflection.

He was young again. His face, while lacking the maturity of a grown adult's, was still far from being anything close to a child's.

His new hair was short, black and curly, with an obnoxious fringe hanging down far lower over his face than was normal.

He could understand why this body's previous owner had grown it out though.

A large, horrendous-looking scar lay across Delaney's face, beginning at the corner of his forehead and stretching down to the base of his chin. Its marred, uneven surface was by far the most prominent feature across the backdrop of his pale face.

The scarring, while predominantly covering the right side of his face, had rendered his left eye completely blind.

'Interesting scarring.' Commented Jamie. 'Judging by the pattern I would say it was caused by a liquid of some sort.'

"That's not the fucking point Jamie." Delaney hissed, bringing up a hand to push that ridiculous fringe out of his only remaining eye. "We're blind in one eye. BLIND!"

Jamie was unimpressed with his other half's growing panic.

'So what.' He said. 'Realistically that's only about a quarter of our vision lost, and for how long? Are you forgetting what world we're in?'

Delaney exploded at his brother's nonchalance. "Okay fine, so it's replaceable! With what fucking money!?"

'We'll figure it out.' Jamie replied dismissively, unoffended by his other half's angered shouts. Delaney was just venting to deal with the stress, he knew that.

"Fuck. And to top it off my socks are soaked through. What a great start to our day."

The boy swore, getting to his feet and storming up the stairs and away from the river's edge.

'Wait. Turn back around a minute.'

Delaney paused mid-stride, obeying his brother's suggestion with hesitation. His gaze flickered downward.

Oh.

'Grab it.' Said Jamie. 'It might turn out to be useful.'

The boy stalked back to the stone steps, crouching down to retrieve a small handgun that had been discarded on the bottommost one.

The weapon felt heavy in his hand, but it was at least comfortable to hold.

Delaney pulled back the slide with his free hand, checking to see whether the gun was primed or not.

Sure enough, a bullet sat in front of the firing pin, and many more lay in the magazine below it.

"Well would you look at that." Delaney deadpanned. "A starter pack, how nice."

'Now, normally I would argue, but that genuinely looks like a Unity.'

"Doesn't it?" The boy agreed, turning Cyberpunk's famous starting weapon over in his hands. "It's loaded too."

'In any case, hide it for now. It might be 2077, but that doesn't mean it's legal to carry around firearms on the street.'

"Yeah yeah, whatever."

Delaney stowed the unity away in his hoodie's frontmost pocket, suddenly becoming aware of how utterly soaked he was.

"Shit."

He cursed, once again turning back around to continue his way up the stony steps.

Once Delaney reached street level, he was greeted by a vague, but familiar sight.

His brother's next words summed his thoughts up completely.

'It's… Identical to the game. We've been through this street before.'

Delaney turned his gaze to the right, momentarily unsure as to where he should go.

'First things first.' Said Jamie, drawing his attention away from the mismatch of greeny-coloured buildings that ran along the river's edge. 'We need a silencer for this weapon, but I would hazard a guess that dry clothes are a tad more important to you at the moment.'

"Agreed." He replied. "Any ideas on how to get either of those?"

'See that megabuilding in the distance?'

Delaney's eyes craned upwards, using a hand to shield his eye from the blazing sun above. A tall, blocky building stood out to him, towering above the rest of anything else that stood on this side of the river. A glowing number eleven was embossed onto its side.

"Yup."

'Central Kabuki is somewhere to the east of that.'

Kabuki Central was the sector's marketplace.

"Dope." Delaney agreed. "And how exactly will we be buying this stuff again?"

'We need money. We have a gun. It's not rocket science Del.'

"You want me to rob people!?"

His agitated words garnered quite a few stares from passers by, resulting in Jamie doing the mental equivalent of a facepalm.

'No,' He said, sighing at his other half's antics. 'I want you to kill people. No witnesses.'

"Jamie, this isn't a game. I am not killing people for money."

'Actually,' Jamie snapped back. 'It is. But that's beside the point. How else are we going to get money on such a short notice? Wet clothes will be the least of your worries when we're out on the street with no food or shelter to our names.'

Delaney just swore, again, stuffing his hands in his pockets crankily before immediately removing them upon feeling the soaked interior.

The boy glanced up at the megabuilding once more before beginning their walk to Kabuki Central.

"Are you sure this gun will even work after being left in this hoodie? Water does happen to be wet you know?"

'I'm not the one who put it in there in the first place.' Jamie replied sweetly. 'And water isn't wet.'

"Yes it is," Delaney argued. "Water is definitely wet."

Jamie sighed, muttering something that sounded vaguely like 'Kill me now,' before speaking up.

'I am not having this argument with you right now.'

"Yes you are."

Delaney felt a spike of irritancy emanate from Jamie's corner of their mind.

'Wetness is a property that is applied by water when it makes contact with other objects. Therefore water is not inherently wet.'

"But water touches other water all the time," Countered Delaney. "How does that not make water wet?"

The feeling of irritancy vanished, and Jamie quietened for a moment before answering.

'Zero-out-of-ten ragebait.'

Delaney grinned in reply.

"Hey, shall we stop by Judy's apartment since it's on the way? It might turn out to be interesting."

***