I passed through the outer doors, only to have to push my way through a curtain of metallic beads. Argh, the overhead lights were way tht. Both my eyes and ears were assaulted as the rattle of the beaded curtain filled my ears. When my senses had mao adapt a bit, I noticed that there was a ter off to my right.

  The décor of the room was touched by purples and pinks, u with blue everywhere. There oundi, vibrating my chest and head even though it was muffled out in the lobby. Looking closer, I could make out sound insuting panels, so it robably going to be deafening iual club.

  "Hey, a new faot too scop either." That was the the girl manning the ter. At first, I was taken aback by the neon sign behind her prog, "Fuck to Death!" Ah, What? This pce seemed to be trouble that I didn't uahe girl behind the ter was a chipper little thing, maybe 5' even, with pink hair that bzing with neon light. Her eyes were like two purple hearts. No, I meant that literally.

  Alright, I didn't get it, but okay. Her green and purple leotard, barely covered the important bits. Well, on sed gnce I supposed she had nothing to be ashamed of. Though I could tell she had a lot of little cyberware mods. That detail lead me to the thought that these augments, were as much fashion as funal? I found that uling.

  There were coats on dispy behind her, all greens and purples with some pink highlights. Yeah, I was getting the theme.

  "Hello, could you give me the name of someone, who'd be willing to give me the run down on this City. I'm from out of town." Agaie it probably being a bad idea, I went with hoy. Maybe the fact she retty had little something to do with it as well.

  Her eyes fshed at me. That still sent shivers down my spine. "Bennie, eh, and 100% Ganic too," She let out a manic little giggle, "Tempted to take you into the bad do meatspace, just to see the differehere was something odd about the tone of her voice. I had no text on what it might mean.

  "Oookay?" I'm sure I looked totally lost, felt it, didn't I. I slowly pced my Omaha on the ter, like I was afraid she take a bite out of my arm. Or lick it. Yeah, I was getting the vibe that she might just try to taste me, whether I wa or not.

  "Oh, that's a nice pieeeds a little color though. I wonder if your other Iron needs some color?" She gnced down at my dick. Like she could see it through my pants, or was really trying to. Now, I'm no prude but that was setting off all kinds of arms in my head. Then again, I've never been the ter of this kind of attention before. Fttering and siing all at once, is that a thing?

  Thankfully, I was saved, from further embarrassment. A dy with one of the rgest 'fros I'd ever seen, stuck her head out a door to the left. "Kimmie, you are there to help people get detes not hit on them," She gnced me over, "Sorry she's a newbie, and still getting use to how we do things." She nodded her head like that was enough, and vanished bato that room.

  The atmosphere shifted almost instantly, with Kimmie giving me an apologetic grin. "Sorry, too much? I just get sooo excited. But to answer your earlier question, Mateo at the bar set you up. He knows most everyone. Any sitch you need id out, he find you who you need."

  "No you're adorable. But yeah, maybe dial it back a tad. I still don't even uand what I've gotten myself into yet." I shook my head. "So I'm looking for Mateo?" At her nod, "Thanks, Kimmie."

  "Alright, have a good time." She was defted, but shrugged it off in a few seds. Her griurned, and her eyes started to wander over my body.

  I went through another beaded curtain, marveling how more sound didn't pour into the entryway. The main club room was a rge space full of trasts, being both tht and too dark all at the same time. Some kind of ser light show was fshing off to one side. Holograms were dang at tables. The people gathered around those tables, talking, drinking, were an eclectic mix of styles and colors. I couldn't get any kind of read on what was normal. Sure it was a club, and all of these people were probably dressed in their "best". I felt like I was in an insane music video. The music wasn't bad though. A little too beat heavy, filled with too many odd noises, but hey, it got that heart rate up.

  The feeling I was really out of my element hit me hard as I passed another dy who was sing the crowd like a hawk. Bouncer, I supposed. She focused on me for a moment. "Bar?" She gestured with her head. "Thanks." She nodded a back to her job.

  I wove through the dang people, trying not to touyone. Not out of some, "ew, gross" sense, more out of a "I don't roblems." sense. When I finally took a seat at the bar, I g to it, like it was a life preserver. Somehow everythi a touch calmer over here.

  "You look lost." A man had e over, I would have called his fashion Miami Casual bae. The posture he put up was kind of like the guy who stole yirlfriend, then wondered why you were upset with him. Having never had a girlfriend, a small amount of envy stirred in the bay head.

  "You could say that. I'm from out of town, looking to get a rundown on how things work around here, people pointed me this way." Once more, I pyed my cards fairly straight. If I appeared to overshare without actually giving away the important part of my story, people would be less likely to ask the unfortable questions.

  He gave me a long stare, trying to get a read on me. In a lot of ways his attention made me far more nervous than Kimmie's did. Probably because he wasn't in the least ied in pying. "I'm Mateo, and I get one of the girls to update your files. She'll dand answer questions, but nothing more, alright?" He seemed chill, unfppable. A little smug. I really didn't like him. Those muscles were probably fake.

  "Ryan." I gave him a Bro nod. He retur, the fraternity of brotherhood had beeablished. Okay, maybe not so bad a dude.

  After sing the menu, which he was amused that he had to pull out a pstic sheet with all the options printed out, I bought a coffee and a pretzel like thing, while I waited. her was great by my standards, but no where near as horrid as Buck a Slice.

  Maybe Meadran could figure out a way to produce fruits and veggies. I could make a killing feeding people actual fug food. If I could keep them from killing me over it.

  Mateo set me up with a dancer called Sinnamin. She was a brute of a woman, who looked down at me with boredom, but maybe apathy was better thaernative.

  Her price was 20 Eddies for 5 minutes of dang and questions. I threw down 340 for 85 minutes. I required info more than cash right now, and that should be enough time to get at least the basics.

  Sinnamin guided me into one of the back booths, where it was a little quieter. I caught glimpses of people doing all manner of unsavory thing back there even if I didn't uand way some of those thing were messed up, I could still tell they were thing to avoid doing. The zonked out behavior of some of the people with headsets bothered me the most. It seemed like areme version of folks bae with a phone addi.

  Once we were in her assigned booth, I leaned ba the coud asked her to start at the beginning.

  Sinnamin, as it turned out, liked talking a whole lot more than dang.

  She id out a lot of information for me, about the Corps, about the Gangs, and about how life worked in a day to day sense for people. That left me without a lot of deeper text, but I now knew some pces and people I should avoid.

  She did drop a major bombshell ohough. I had casually mentioned Ruger, and she got real quiet about that. Her face went through a wide gamut of emotion very rapidly. Shock, envy, and surprise were the ones I mao notice.

  "So you must be super preem rich? You a puppet?" She started pulling a little back. Her tone had grown cold. Whatever a puppet was she didn't want anything to do with one.

  "I don't know what that means?" These cultural ndmines were getting a little old. That's why I had to keep her talking.

  "Nobody affene rebuilds that aren't top shelf loaded." She told me, and I thought she was lying, I mean she had to be. No dogs, no cats, no birds, barely any rats, but plenty of bugs though.

  I started sweating from my eyes. I might have let out a couple of unmanly sounds. My behavior caused her to bee incredibly distressed. I guess she had never seen a man leak stress from his eyes before. She started making all kind of awkward gestures and stuttering sounds. I got the sense she had a big heart to match her giant body.

  "How do you get through life without dogs?" She didn't have an answer. Were these people even worth saving if they let dogs die out? I felt a stone begin to form in my heart. I wasn't sure those folks could or should be helped. I held on to that feeling for a moment, as it burhrough me, but let it go. For now. The average person probably had nothing to do with it. So had had to be careful about assigning bme. I o rein in these mgressive tendencies, before they got me in trouble I couldn't get out of.

  We went back to talking, her more helpful attitude had returned. I guessed she didn't think I pet anymore, whatever that was. We haltingly talked aber, she seemed almost desperate for stories about him, and any other stories I could remember about animals. Her eyes lit up with joy when I talked about their crazy antics. It was hard thoughas everything I told her was overshadowed by the fact cute fluffy critters were missing here.

  Which made her seem almost happy to get to lighter topics, like gang violehe Strom, the Tygers, The Scavs, The Mox, The Valentinos and her personal hang up the Animals. I got a brief rundown of each group, who was fighting who and where to avoid to not have to deal with them, as much. There were tless smaller gangs almost too many to t, but these were the major pyers.

  The into the Corps. Arasaka, Militech, Bioteica, Petrochem, and the familiar Kang Tao. You couldn't avoid their influenatter where you went. So her advice; just choose the fvor you might live with the easiest.

  I mao get the year, if not the month, through text. 2074. That was shocker, I was on some alterure version of my world. I wished the folks bay world never had to face these kinds of terrible times.

  Also, a picture began to form about what I o do to get by here. I required work, and I had no acceptable form of ID. The ao both of those problems was a Fixer. Fixers were shadow brokers dealing ihing below board, anything from just a little shady to ht illegal. They could be your fence, your bookie, or your limited tractual boss. They could get you information, or buy the things you knew. Yeah, I needed one of those. Sinnamin knew a Fa, which was kind of a ckey to a bigger Fixer. Someohat could be cut out before you got to the head honcho. She gave me their tact detes.

  Before that, though, I had to "get chipped". At least enough to i with the world everyone else art of. Enough to get ay setup, trying to get setup without a e was a major problem. There was the addition sideration that there were plenty of ao be found o.

  So I needed a Ripperdoc. Sinnamin gave me a few names from here and there, and a list of pro and s. One ood out as being the least likely to screw me over. Viktor Vektor. Best of all, he wasn't too far away. I'd head that way .

  When time , I thanked Sinnamin, and headed back to the bar. It was even more balls to the walls busy.

  "So you get caught up, Ryan?" Mateo asked as I sat down. He gave me a bro nod, and I retur. Yeah maybe I had been too quick to judge. Still wouldn't trust him with my girlfriend though, if I could ever find one.

  "At least a little better of an idea how screwed I am." I shrugged, then had an idea, "You got anything substantial to eat around here, I'm running on fumes?"

  He nodded. "Sure, we whip up something, just don't expect The Gourmand experience." He chuckled as he pulled out the menu again. Then he frown as he realized why I'd asked the question the way I had. The menu was mostly drinks and quiacks.

  "Better than Buck A Slice will be great. Please."

  He saw the terror on my fad chuckled. "Yeah we do better than that scop." His eyes fshed putting in the order. I decided to live a little and order a rum and co, to wash whatever they came up with down.

  A few mier, I had a pte of what looked like over loaded nachos. It wasn't bad at all, just off. Cheese not quite right, which was unsurprising. Meat with a weird texture and not quite beef fvored. Jape?os that really weren't snappy or really spicy at all. But pared to that "pizza" it was heaven.

  As I got up to leave, I payed up a a good tip.

  "Thanks Mateo." Despite my initial impression of him, I really meant it.

  "Anytime Ryan. You're not bad for a Bennie." He gave me a cocky grin and a wave.

  I went and collected my iron. A different dy was w the ter, friendly but not overly so. No problems there.

  The scary bouncer dy, who name was Rita, acc to Sinnamin, was displeased. "Hey gonk, your car fried a couple of Dorphers. Keep it on a leash. We don't need bodies stinking up the joint." I unsciously so attention. But this brought up an iing point, apparently they couldn't see the Probes right now.

  "Yes ma'am. You wa them away?" Wouldn't hurt to be friendly about it. She was just doing her job.

  "Nah, we already threw 'em in the dumpster." She sigh exasperated, "Cars zeroing junkies. What , vampires?"

  "Thanks Rita, you have a good night." She s me, not even phased that I knew her name now.

  "Get out of here, Bennie. while I'm willing to let ya." Smirking at me. I think she was cheg out my ass as I walked away. Which would have been quite the feat, in these robes.

  Scuff and Fix reported it was clear. I was amused that they seemed to be happy to zap some "gonks". We loaded up quickly.

  Ba the car, I made my way over to where a pce called Misty's Esoterica was supposed to be. this was where I had to go to get in touch with Dr. Vektor. The store was across from Gomorrah, a Dollhouse. The cept of Dolls disturbed me. Both the sheer surrender of personality and the fact they recorded everything that happehen there was the levels of abuse some of them would probably face, it made me shudder.

  I left Fix to guard the car, and took Scuff with me.

  When I found Misty's, it was still open. Upoering, I got another surprise.