The Protagonist System

Delamain parked the taxi in front of Kei's house and I climbed out.

“Thanks for the lift, Del. I'll find my own way home later.” I said and opened the trunk and lifted out the large crate to set it on the pavement.

“Have fun, V.” Delamain said and the trunk closed by itself and the taxi drove away.

I waved at the car and turned to bend down to pick up the crate. Before I could do more than touch it, the gold skinned maid was there and lightly patted my hand as she bent over to pick it up as well.

Of course, the top of her maid outfit gaped at just the right moment and gave me a perfect view of the golden valley between her perfectly biosculpted breasts. That distracted me enough for her to scoop the crate up before I could and she gave me a smug look.

I didn't bother explaining that I was reminded of the news woman's gold top that hugged her breasts and instead motioned towards Kei's house. She nodded and I walked behind her and over to the front door. As soon as we stepped inside, Kei's mother was there.

“You're Veder, I assume.” She said, a little skeptical as she gave me a bit of a glare. I could tell by the suspicion in her voice that she thought I was a typical corpo kid, especially with the way I was dressed in my best corpo suit. I had assumed it was the appropriate attire for meeting Kei's parents and keeping things professional. Apparently, I was wrong.

“Mom, he came right here from a meeting.” Kei said from behind her.

“He couldn't take a few minutes to change?” Her mom asked.

“I only need a few seconds.” I said and slipped off my corpo suit coat and both Kei and her mother's eyes widened at seeing the holstered weapon under my armpit. I turned the suit coat inside out as I transfigured it into an Arasaka Academy uniform coat and put it back on. “There we go. I feel much more relaxed now.”

Kei looked embarrassed and her mother gave me a pointed look. She hadn't missed the implied threat from the danger I represented, which was why I had revealed that I was armed. It changed her perception that I was there for her daughter and was a danger to her innocence, to becoming a physical danger to her entire family because I was a Counter-Intelligence Agent.

The maid almost looked amused at the whole interaction. “I've notified the rest of the family to join us in the kitchen, now that the ingredients are here for us to start preparations.”

That comment gave me an opportunity to turn the potentially detrimental conversation to what I was actually there for.

“I thought about sending it over before, except I didn't request it until after my meeting ended prematurely.” I said and patted the crate. “I wasn't sure how long the meeting was going to be and had to wait until it was over to have it prepared. Not having freshest ingredients would make cooking with them less of a pleasure and more of a chore as we would have to cut away the parts that might have started to wither or wilted.”

The maid smiled at me and nodded in a direction. “The kitchen is this way. Please follow me.”

I nodded and did as she asked while I ignored the questioning look on Kei's face and the stern one on her mother's. It was a surprise that the maid's skirt covered her lower half well and hid her ass as she walked.

It wasn't until we reached the large family kitchen that I realized the true nature of her outfit as she set the crate on the center counter and then bent over at the waist to grab something from the cabinet underneath. The fluffy skirt tipped right up, as it was apparently designed to, and revealed her entire ass wearing black lace see through panties that hid nothing.

The black contrasted well with her gold-colored skin and really highlighted her heart-shaped ass and framed her womanhood perfectly. Instead of staring at the obvious offering and enjoying the view she was giving me, I turned around and looked right at Kei's mother.

She hadn't expected me to do that and I saw her frowning at the blatant flirting the maid was doing. By her thoughts, she was trying to not be embarrassed at the maid showing me what she usually did in front of her husband all the time, which told me what kind of marriage they had. One of convenience and probably for political or financial reasons.

“Kiara, that's enough.” A man's voice said as the man I assumed to be Kei's father entered the kitchen.

The maid jumped at his voice and abruptly stood as she smoothed down her skirt to cover her assets. She had a hammer and a small crowbar in her hands and her face showed obvious embarrassment, since gold skin did not show blushes and she had to compensate by exaggerating her facial movements.

“S-sorry, Jeremy.” The maid said held out the hammer and crowbar to him.

Jeremy waved them away and turned to Kei's mother. “My apologies, Elizabeth. I'll see that she is appropriately punished in private later.”

Kei's mother nodded and didn't comment. Her frown did fade as the maid worked to open the crate and we could all tell the gold-skinned woman was not looking forward to whatever punishment her master would be giving to her.

Several other people entered the kitchen at that moment. A much older man with grey hair, a tiny little wizened old woman, and a little girl that was only about 10 years old. The crate popped open with a hermetically sealed hiss of air and they all leaned forward to see what was inside as the maid lifted the top off. Sounds of 'ooo' and 'ah' came from them at the carefully separated contents inside.

Their hands made short work of pulling everything out, from vegetables, to various meats, to many different spices. They covered several counters with everything and spread it all out, then they just kind of stood there and admired it all. There was a fortune in real meats and vegetables in front of them and none of them knew what to say or do about it, because they had never seen so much of it before.

“So!” I said and clapped my hands to gain all of their attention. “I have a few recipes to share and compare to your own. Does anyone have any suggestions on what meals we should make first?”

“Chicken Cordon Bleu.” The little girl said and pointed at the sprigs of asparagus spears. “Mom said those are the appropriate side dish, even though we've never had them before.”

“Then that's what we'll make first.” I said and walked over to her. “Can you give me a hand picking out the best chicken cutlets to slice up and tenderize?”

The little girl beamed a smile at me and then took my hand to lead me over to the various piles of meat and started to do exactly that. This action woke everyone else from their stunned states and the kitchen seemed to explode with activity as everyone dove into the fun task of choosing the best ingredients they wanted to use to make their favorite dishes.

Not surprisingly, I ended up spending most of the evening with the little girl and she had a great time telling me all about her day as we cooked. There were a couple of ovens, with one of them a split one, and we used the smaller one for our dish.

Everyone else made much bigger things and we didn't mind. Ours was going to taste delicious and they were all going to want some, or so little Summer bragged. That made me laugh and I gave her a hug, which she returned happily and also gave her older sister a smug look when she thought I couldn't see her.

Eventually, all the dishes and various meals were done and a buffet-like setup was made in the large living room for everything to be set out and plates and serving utensils were used liberally as everyone tried a bit of everything.

Not surprisingly, Summer looked quite pleased by the end of the meal, because her bragging had proved to be right. Our dish was the only one that had nothing left of it when we all finished eating and everyone had tried some, with Jeremy and Elizabeth going back for seconds.

I pretended to pull something out of my pocket and pinned it to the shoulder strap of her dress. It was a blue ribbon with a gold star at the top, with a large Number 1 on it. She looked surprised for a moment, then we all started lightly clapping and she blushed and looked quite proud of her achievement.

I figured this was a good time to take my leave, since hanging around for the after dinner discussion was not something I wanted to be involved in. Family politics usually happened then and I wanted no part of that. I bid them all farewell and retreated before Kei or her mother could stop me. I even deftly avoided the maid that seemed a little desperate to thank me for everything, even though she was going to be punished later for it.

I left the house and stepped out into the cool evening air, took a deep breath, and let it out. It was another nice night for a walk and I took my time as I strolled down the subdivision's street. A notice-me-not spell let me avoid being noticed by anyone and I enjoyed it for as long as I could.

*

Atlas ended up hiring many people that day after their interviews. Giving them full medical coverage was apparently a huge incentive for potential workers and they were more than a little grateful for it. He successfully fended off the many requests, by both men and women, to pound them into the surgical beds after their cyberware upgrades had been applied and he healed their various injuries and diseases.

The biggest change was removing the traces of their cyber-psychosis and giving them clarity of mind. It had pretty much changed their outlook on their entire life and they all knew it was because of Atlas that they had a new lease on life and they didn't want to waste it.

More than a few chose to move into the facility permanently, as did the families of the guards and police officers that had been hired. Veder joking about them being able to brag to everyone that they had apartments near downtown had been a huge understatement.

They adored the prospect and praised both him and his corporation as they started an anti-anti-information campaign to try and mitigate some of the damage the smear campaign had against him and his products. It was barely a waterbreak against the tide of misinformation, though. Despite it being the truth, no one really believed them until they experienced it for themselves, which most wouldn't, because of that same misinformation.

Atlas had accepted that things were going to be that way and wasn't upset about it. Things might change for the corporation after he started working on the Coronado Dam; but, he wasn't going to hold his breath for it. People were finicky and judgmental at the best of times and he doubted any major event would change that, no matter how beneficial it was to the people of Night City.

*

Panam Palmer was a little upset that the leader of the Aldecaldos didn't bother looking at the results of the investigation into Biotechnia's deal with them. After a few pointed questions, it didn't take her long to figure out that Saul already knew about the details and hadn't told anyone.

The deal with the company was going to give him and his people the means to grow their own food and they would no longer have to roam around doing odd jobs for people to buy enough food for them to eat. To him, that was worth almost any price and a few of his fellow Nomads agreed with him.

As for the rest, they argued for hours over the details that had been revealed. Losing their independence, becoming underpaid serfs for a conglomerate, becoming volunteers for Biotechnica experiments that they knew for a fact were inhumane and caused many deaths. It was so much bullshit that Panam wondered how Saul could sleep at night with the guilt he should be feeling.

As the discussions grew heated again, Panam couldn't help but mention the new corporation that had entered the scene recently. A lot of them had heard about how Atlas had cleaned up most of the city and how he was instrumental in ending the riots and gang fights in the city a couple of days ago.

Unfortunately, they also heard about all the horrible things it was involved in. Illegal vehicles, using a garbage cargo hauler for food shipments and limo deliveries, cyberware that was untested and unlicensed, as well as ripperdoc services where he harvested preem cyberware from people and replaced it with cheap garbage.

Panam tried to argue that none of it was true. She had driven by the office and it was a legitimate business. The counter arguments about not being able to contact them, or find anything about them except for their false brochures, made her realize they still weren't going to listen to reason.

When she brought up the giant hovering ship the size of a city block that had taken out swaths of Scavs and Wraiths as they tried to enter Night City during the riots, most of them laughed. Holograms and bright lights couldn't do anything like that. The news footage was obviously faked, since a lot of them had gone into the city and saw for themselves that the streets were clean and they could find no damage at all.

Panam called them all stupid gonks and left their temporary camp even angrier than she had entered it. She knew for a fact that her friends and family were going to be screwed over by Biotechnica and Saul was too stubborn to admit that he was making a mistake.

She would have to do something desperate and probably a little reckless to fix things and make sure they can't accept that ridiculous deal. She also knew the perfect merc crew that could help her. The problem was finding the money or the motivation to convince them to help.

Since they had already messed up Biotechnica's HQ offices and taken some revenge for their lost crew member, what else could she find to entice them with? The problem would bug her for the entire drive back to Rocky Ridge, where she would return to the main road out of the city and make her way back to the bar Mama Welles ran.

Did a Fixer somewhere in the city have a great paying job she could take to afford to hire Maine and his crew? Dakota in the outskirts didn't have anything available, not after so many Wraiths and Scavs had been taken out. Maybe she should contact Regina or Wakako. They usually had a few high risk and high reward missions for solo mercs available.

Panam drove on through the desert and her mind worked over what she could do and her eyes glanced back and forth as she also looked for the telltale signs of the abandoned settlement she used as a landmark to find the main road. She didn't see anything as she approached what she thought was the area where it was supposed to be.

Where is it? Panam asked herself as she slowed down her excessive speed and her ride stopped bucking as much on the rough ground and the many rocks she drove over. She was sure there was an old powerline pole in this direction and a burned out wreck of a car that she knew had been left there by the Wraiths to mark the direction into town.

A sudden lurch jerked her out of her contemplation and then her modified truck dropped down ten feet and slammed into a solid dirt wall. Panam wasn't wearing a seatbelt and was thrown against the steering wheel and bounced her head off of the reinforced windshield.

Luckily, she hit the hardest part of her forehead on it and only suffered a concussion. The three broken ribs from the steering wheel and a broken wrist were a little harder for her to ignore. The Thorton Mackinaw, or Warhorse as she called it, whined and sputtered as its engine tried to continue to pull the truck forward and the tires spun.

Panam groaned and had to fumble with her off-hand to turn the thing off. She sat there for several minutes as she tried to come to grips with what happened. She closed her eyes briefly and took several short breaths, because her chest hurt so much, then she used her good hand to open the driver's side door and stepped out.

She blinked her eyes at finding herself in what appeared to be a basement. It took her a few moments to turn around to take in the scene and she silently cursed at seeing the partially crushed front of her favorite vehicle pressed against the strong dirt wall. She held onto the truck and felt a little woozy as she walked around the back of it to look for stairs, and saw none.

She cursed again and spent several minutes climbing up into the back of the truck, then over the cab and onto the crumpled hood. She rested there for a moment and did not look forward to trying to climb up onto the ground with broken ribs and a broken wrist. It was going to hurt like a bitch and she hated that she had to do it.

Panam had tried sending a few messages and nothing reached anyone, which sucked, because she was essentially in the middle of nowhere with miles and miles of desert and harsh conditions around her. She might have a bit of luck at the old radio station if she jury-rigged up something using her truck's battery and boosted the signal... if she didn't have a busted wrist that stopped her from doing any kind of work that needed both hands.

Before she could build up the courage to tackle the chest high dirt wall to escape the basement, she heard the telltale sounds of an AV approaching. Panam didn't bother trying to jump down off of the truck's hood or tried to hide. It was obvious that she had nowhere to go while inside a pit in the ground and couldn't have run even if she was able to.

A sleek black AV with the Atlas Incorporated logo on the side of it, floated into view. It carefully landed just in front of her and Panam was shocked that it didn't throw up any dust or blew sand in her face from landing so closely. The doors opened and two finely dressed corpo officers stepped out to stare down at her.

“Miss, it seems you've run into a bit of trouble while trespassing on privately owned property.” One of them said.

Hearing that made Panam laugh, which creaked the broken bones in her chest, and she cried out in pain. A moment later, both men were at her sides and held her steady as one of them used some weird scanner to swipe over her.

“Three broken ribs and a broken wrist. She also has a slight concussion in the frontal lobe and a small laceration on her forehead.” He said.

“Shit, criminal or not, we gotta follow procedure.” His partner said.

“Gather the evidence, return to base for medical care, and let the boss handle it?” He asked.

“You got it.” The other said and he scooped Panam up carefully and his partner easily hopped up onto the dirt wall and the pair easily slid her into the other man's arms and to safety.

Panam let out a sigh of relief as the other hopped out easily as well and then he worked for a few minutes as he took pictures and video, noted the track marks, and where they were. Once he was done, Panam was loaded into the back of the AV into what she thought was a luxury limo, was set down on the softest stretcher to ever exist, and she lightly dozed as the AV lifted off.

“No, don't go to sleep.” The man above her said and lightly poked her hand.

Panam woke instantly and hissed at him.

The man smiled. “Keep your eyes open or I'll do that again.”

Panam growled at him and that just made him keep smiling.