I looked past the love story currently forming in front of me, and saw Maine's fully crew behind Sasha.

  Of course, there was Rebecca grinning like a fiend, and Dorio blushing as she saw me. Maine standing tall and wide, giving me a grin.

  Then there were the folks I hadn't met. Kiwi, a Netrunner who'd brought the new girl Lucy into the crew. Pilar, a techie, and Rebecca's brother, who modified all of their guns. Lastly there was Falco, a former racer turned getaway driver. Sasha introduced the white haired girl as Lucy. Their backup netrunner and cryptography specialist.

  Maine walked over and clamped his hand on my shoulder, he gave me a look that said it all. He and Dorio had been having a great time, with her body all healed up. I gave him a return thumbs up and grin.

  "Let's head to our booth for a little more privacy."

  I nodded to David who still hadn't taken his eyes off of Lucy. I elbowed his gut lightly, then gestured at him to follow.

  I was honestly shocked that no one had noticed the walking carpet, until we'd gotten to the booth.

  "Is that an actual dog?" Dorio gruffly questioned me about Mith. Her eyes were sparkling, "You are just full of secrets."

  "It's a bot right? An incredibly lifelike... that's a real dog!" That was Pilar, who could spot the difference. He seemed the most shock at the presence of a living animal

  "Where did you find a living dog?" Rebecca half amazed, half already diving into Mith's fur like she belonged there. She'd even put down her gun, as she nuzzled into Mith's silky fur.

  Everyone's eyes bulged out at that. Including mine. even David who'd just gotta here and was besotted with Lucy realized what a big deal that was.

  Rebecca stared out at us from her new fur lined perspective. "What?"

  Mith, of course, loved being the center of attention. He sat there with a doggy grin, as Rebecca tried to find the best way to snuggle him.

  We all looked away, not wanting to break the magic of the moment.

  "Are you rich? Why are you hanging around here?" That was Kiwi being a spoilsport. Her eyes crinkled at me in suspicion.

  "We had a dog on the farm back in Texas, but nothing like this fella though." That was Falco, his accent barely noticeable. He gave me a friend, "No one that takes good care of a dog, can be all bad."

  "Nya, I think I'll just stay over here." Sasha was looking nervous. Maybe she was taking the cat act a little too far.

  Maine started laughing at his crew's antics.

  "Hey Maine, before we get to business, you mind if I give you a once over. I made a promise to Dorio, and it can only work if you are both in tip top shape." I liked to keep my promises, even if things got delayed for a while.

  "Sure, let's see what it's like." He gave me his giant oversized metal paw.

  Maine was mostly Chrome, his whole body was actually an exoframe. Just a large metal box they'd shoved his squishy organs in. Even some of those were chrome. Which while all of that wasn't as uncommon as you'd think it be, it was a combo leading to a quick jog on to the cyberpsycho route. It took a lot of anti-rejection drugs to keep him stable. Even those were slowly failing, and he was also on anti-psychotics. Which in my opinion weren't helping. Every augment I could sense was a mismatched hodgepodge of just slapping whatever seemed to get the job done in there.

  I sighed, disappointed in the reckless nature of Maine's life choices, and the unscrupulous rippers enabling his poor decisions. But it wasn't like I had room to talk. My choices weren't exactly sterling examples of peak performance.

  I slowly trickled healing mana into him, trying to avoid certain reactions. His organs were easy to repair, and flushing all of the drugs was a matter of a few minutes. It was much harder to soothe the connections between him and his cyberware, as everything was such a hack job. Still a little persistence paid off, and slowly his nerves started communicating with his chrome properly.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  I ran into a problem with his ahem "equipment" it was just as artificial as most of the rest of him. Damn.

  Creative problems, require creative solutions. I started weaving my repair ability into the shape of Life Crafting.

  It hurt. Some fundamental process was being violated, and I was being taught not to touch the fire. Heh. As if humanity had ever really learned that lesson, or accepted it when they had.

  While my appearance might have changed and my behaviors were slowly changing, I was still human where it counted.

  I dug in stubbornly and forced my will upon the working. Using nothing but my raw will to hold off the agony. I growled.

  And Maine's body changed. What was once chrome became meat again.

  But I hit my limit and my mana crashed to nothing. I had to stop. I'll have to give him a check up later, to make sure it fully took.

  I leaned back, ragged out. The Omnimechanic skill were hard to use to begin with, that merging was terribly stressful.

  Maine himself had passed out somewhere in the process.

  I weakly said, "Hey Dorio check his man tackle, because I'm not touching it."

  She didn't even hesitate and plunged her hand down his pants, exaggeratedly feeling around. Then she frowned. Slowly, understanding of what I'd done settled in, and her eyes went round.

  "Y-You...said you couldn't affect cyberware. It feels normal like real flesh." She was now starting to play with Maine's piece, perhaps unconsciously. Lucky bastard.

  "Yup. Newly learned. Needs a lot of work. Costs a lot." I took a guzzle of my soda. Ah, sweet nectar of the gods.

  "What did he just do?" Kiwi's eyes flashed.

  "He gave Maine back something he'd lost a long time ago." Dorie said with a smile.

  Then Kiwi seemed even more pissed, "He's 'ganic, 100% flesh. the bio-sculpting alone... " If she still could have she'd have spit at me.

  "Unasked for, forced." I said between sips.

  Mith growled at her, softly but with clear warning.

  "Why do I have the feeling the dog just understood every word?" Falco asked eying Mith with a more interested look.

  "Because he did." David chimed in, finally having started paying attention to something other than Lucy. "Mith is really smart."

  Mith grinned that doggy grin, winning over hearts and minds. My true secret weapon was covered in copious layers of fur. That a slightly insane gun toting little lady was clinging to him, like that was just the way things were, was all the proof required.

  Me, I really wanted to sleep, but now was not the time. I took a meal I premade out of my back pack. Eating always seemed to help with mana crashing. I uncovered my food and you'd think I'd opened the Ark of the Covenant. I handed David his own premade meal.

  "What is that?" Sasha asked getting closer.

  "This is real pizza. Made with real meats and cheeses. And fresh tomatoes made the sauce." I took my first bite of cold pizza and sighed in contentment. Now, if only I had some cold fried chicken. Maybe next time.

  "How can you afford all of that?" Kiwi practically screamed. I knew that sound. The sound of someone who'd been screwed and screwed hard. However, unlike when I usually hear that sound, not a drop of sympathy formed. I had the sense she'd screw over others if she that she had to. Without blinking an eye.

  "Did you see what I just did?" Yeah, I wasn't going to really explain where'd I'd gotten my money. She obviously didn't trust me, why should I trust her?

  "Yeah." Indifference.

  "And what I did to Sasha, Rebecca, and Dorio?" I waved my hand at the folks mentioned, between bites of pizza.

  "Yeah." Lower tone this time. Part of her didn't believe it.

  "What do you think that people with more money than sense would pay for this kind of treatment?" I was lying, of course, and David knew it, but kept his mouth shut this time.

  "A lot." Her tone said she was seeing the possibilities. But it didn't make her more comfortable with me. It seemed to do the exact opposite.

  "A metric fuck ton." I grinned at her. Then went back to eating.

  "Why are you here?" She just couldn't let it go. I began to suspect she had major issues. Perhaps my flippant attitude rubbed her the wrong way. Not that I gave two fucks. I like being this way.

  I sighed. I turned to the kid. "David?" He had a slice of pizza hanging from his mouth. He quickly chewed and swallowed.

  He looked at me, "Yeah, Boss?" Not at all half choking. Ah, youth.

  I pointed at Kiwi, "Answer her." I was tired of her shit already. Maybe she'd take it better coming from him.

  He turn to look at Kiwi, frowning. His head tilted as he pondered his answer. Then he smiled, "We're here to help."

  He nodded as if that was all that needed to be said and returned to eating. Sometimes the kid showed real potential. Someday he go real far.

  I chuckled.

  Kiwi was not amused. As if I cared. The chip on her shoulder wasn't my problem.

  But Dorio stopped further grilling, "Kiwi, it's alright. I trust him." I tried to ignore what her hand was still doing. That Maine hadn't... that asshole.

  He was awake, he was just sandbaggin' to keep the attention to his shmeat from going away. I could see the ever so slight smirk on his face.

  Maybe I was just being sore about it because I wasn't getting any. Not that I'd ever gotten any. Maybe I should look into that?

  "If you want some real food, keep your eye pealed when you're running around the city, I run a food truck. And I have better prices than a vending machine." I gave them my best sales pitch smile. "I'm always happy to see a friendly face."

  They all just stared at me. Yes, even David. The crickets were chirping. Shit, was my timing off?

  "Who are you?" Sasha asked as if she hadn't already met me.

  "I'm the Medic," I pointed to David, "That's the Mage," I pointed to Mith, "That's the Best Boy in all the Worlds." I delivered it deadpan. I gave her a curious look, "Who did you think we were?"

  Maine couldn't help it, he started laughing, giving up on his pretend unawareness.

  The rest of them followed into their own mirth.

  Except Kiwi, that bitch kept staring at me with contempt or spite. Probably both.