What up. I'm back.
Enjoy the chapter!
-+=[BoG]=+-
Marcus felt great as he walked back with Misty. He felt far more free and confident about his reasonings than the half-baked shit he thought of before.
Now, he'll truly do whatever he want and stay true to himself. There was no need to justify himself.
Misty also smiled as she didn't pull away as he held her hand while they walked back to her shop.
"You're welcome, John." She chose to chalk up his previous words as overexcitment.
"John is my middle name. I'd like you to call me Marcus." He grinned as there was no reason to keep it from her at least.
Misty thought it was strange to introduce yourself with your middle name, but considering his resemblance to a certain someone, she didn't mind.
"Marcus sounds better." Misty smiled as she squeezed his hand.
He thought so as well as it was a short walk back. They made it back without fuss.
"Thanks again, Misty. That helped a lot." Marcus smiled as he hugged her.
She reciprocated.
"No problem, Marcus. Hope you tell me about what answer you came to, but I don't need to know today." Misty was understanding. She knew he had some kind of revelation, but wanted to make sure he had time to process it and tell her some time later.
"Of course, I suppose I'll see ya later." Marcus waved as he was about to leave.
"Wait, Vik just asked for you to head on back there." She informed him.
"Alright, be back." Marcus walked to the back of the shop.
"Have fun." She waved.
As he exited into the alley, he walked down the steps. The door opened and he saw Vik sitting.
"Yo, John." Vik greeted.
"Hey, Vik. John's my middle name, hope you don't mind calling me Marcus." He had introduced himself as John Wick because of the necessity for keeping his real name a secret, but there was no need to hide it from these people.
Vik didn't seem surprised or he has seen a lot in his time in Night City.
"Not a problem, Marcus. Anyway, since I heard about your little outing with Misty, decided we didn't have to wait the whole week to test your meddle. Still in the market for a gym?" He got up crossing his arms.
"Yeah, let's do it." Marcus saw no reason not to, plus he'd like to use an actual gym. Sure he could find one himself and it'd be serviceable, but since Vik is offering, why not?
"That's what I like to hear." Vik got some bandages and gloves. "I assume you don't know how to put these on?" He knew that he mainly trained boxing with a shard.
He shook his head and Vik didn't judge.
Putting them on for him, he showed him the bag in the room that Marcus saw during his time down here.
"I'm not askin' for anything specific, so just show me what you got," Vik stated as he suddenly started paying close attention.
Marcus went up to the bag and treated it like he had in his training shard.
He went through several different moves. Straights, jabs, hooks, and even incorporated footwork as Vik hummed.
After several minutes, he stopped and looked back at Vik.
"Not bad. Fundamentals are good. Hard to believe you only practiced with a training shard. Guess you've got the knack for it." Vik was impressed that he got that good and without any bad habits without help.
"Alright, let's spar for a bit and I'll call it there. Body shots only." Vik got on his own gloves and they moved to a more open space. "Make your move."
Marcus knew that he didn't stand a chance, but that wasn't the point of this. He just had to play to his strengths such as having a longer reach.
It would be more difficult to only go for body shots because of their height difference.
He closed the distance and sent a testing jab to Vik's chest which he blocked with ease sending his own.
Marcus felt the power behind it and struggled more than Vik blocking it as the older man took advantage to get an open hit on his stomach.
It hurt like a motherfucker. Not a boxing legend for nothing.
They went at it for several minutes as Marcus was getting pummeled, but surprisingly, he was able to get a few open hits in. It was clear to him that Vik was just testing him than actually trying to beat the breaks off him.
Vik took a step back as he unstrapped himself.
"Alright, I saw enough. You are pretty solid for a newbie, so you got my recommendation. Wonder how far you'll go with some coaching." Vik chuckled as he sent over an address. "Just go there and say I recommended you. Everything should be sorted out. Also, keep those gloves. I ain't got a use for 'em anyway."
Marcus smiled.
"Thanks, Vik. I appreciate it." Now that he had a place to practice his Brawling stat in real life, his experience gains will only soar from here. It would also help if there is lifting equipment.
"That was all you, Marcus. Don't forget the checkup, alright?" Vik sat back down.
"Got it, Later Vik." He left his clinic catching a wave from Vik before he headed up the stairs discreetly putting his gloves and wraps in his inventory.
Making his way back into Misty's store, she smiled at the sight of him.
"How'd it go?" Misty asked.
"Pretty good. I got a gym membership now." Marcus grinned as he leaned against a wall.
"Nice. Perhaps I'll cheer you on from the sidelines." Misty offered.
"Now how could I possibly lose with such support?" He asked.
She shook her head in amusement.
"Next time bring over that book, yeah?" Misty asked before Marcus blinked.
'Damn, I forgot.' Marcus grinned sheepishly.
"Right, see ya, Misty." He made his way out.
"Later, Marcus." She waved.
He stepped out of the building feeling like things were going great now.
Suddenly, someone bumped into him.
"Watch it! Lo–" The person in question was surprised.
"John?! What are you doing here?!" It was Rebecca as her tone shifted instantly.
"Just hangin' with Misty and Vik. What about you?" Marcus didn't feel like correcting her yet since she seemed to be busy.
"Ah...just to talk to Misty about things." Rebecca looked uncharacteristically saddened but he had some idea to what brought this on. "Anyway! Send me your address so we can hang sometime, choom!"
He didn't feel the need to hide it, so he sent it over. He was just a little surprised she knew Misty but not that she was here in Watson. She lived with her brother here.
"Alright! I'll see you later, John." Rebecca winked before walking into Misty's shop.
Marcus continued on his way.
-+=[BoG]=+-
He got off the elevator and made his way to his apartment.
Opening the door, he immediately stripped off his hat and cloak placing them into his wardrobe and the hat went on his shelf.
As he sat down and lit up a cigarette, thinking of how to best utilize the gift that the system gave him for his training shard, there was banging at his door.
His eyebrow raised in suspicion. There was no way that it was Rebecca, so who?
Marcus walked up to the door and opened it pointing his Nue right at the unknown person.
"WOAH! Chill, choom! John, it's me, David!" He held up his arms in fright.
'David? Why's he here?' Marcus lowered his gun before stepping aside to let him in before closing the door.
Taking a drag, he looked at the young boy. Naive, but he had no ground to stand on. He was just like him not even a day ago. Thinking that he had his own dream until realizing he was just a pale imitation without even knowing it.
If he did nothing, and let things play out. David would take Maine's guidance as gospel and become just like him. Chromed to the teeth and even going barechested like his mentor.
The thing is, David had so much fucking potential. His cyberware tolerance was truly top-tier in the verse behind the likes of Adam Smasher and V, but one had limitless resources while the other had another person in his head taking the brunt of side effects, or if you subscribe to the theory that Johnny was a high-functioning cyberpsycho.
David had neither but still was insane. If David had slowed down and actually worked through his trauma and Lucy had been upfront about him being a test subject, who knew what would happen? It certainly couldn't be worse than what happened in canon.
Is he supposed to do something here? Take him under his wing? He had his own shit to deal with. Plus, he really wanted the sandevistan that David would get. That was probably the best one in the verse. How could he not want it?
The problem was that he already had a cyberdeck installed. If he also chipped in the sandy, his brain would turn into soup before he even fired it. Maybe if he got Reflexes up to level 20 he could handle it.
"What are you doing here?" Marcus walked over and sat down on the couch as David awkwardly did the same.
The younger one of the two coughed a bit at the smoke before replying.
"Mom is acting weird and telling me not to contact you. What's up with that?" David asked with confusion.
"So you decided to ignore that and come in person?" Marcus had an amused grin.
David scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.
"Yeah, but I had to know, so spill." He pushed for an answer.
Marcus wasn't surprised as David could be very stubborn. It's what caused his death after all. Believing that he was special and stubbornly refusing to look at the same warning signs that Maine also had before he lost it.
The older man sighed.
"We just came to a disagreement of what I wanted to do with my life. She didn't like it." Marcus responded.
"Must've been some choice, choom, for her to cut contact. What was it?" David was curious.
He decided to be real as there was no reason not to.
"Being an edgerunner." Marcus answered.
David looked excited.
"Really?! That's sick, John! You get chipped yet?" David started getting giddy.
"Some Kiroshis and a cyberdeck." He responded.
"Damn, choom, Kiroshis? That's a lot of eddies. You gonna get some Gorilla Arms or Mantis Blades next?" David rattled on about cyberware and how cool quickhacking some gangoons would be.
Marcus laughed.
"All in due time. I'm not that rich. Haven't gone out on a gig yet." He smiled in amusement.
David was lost in thought as his mood sombered.
"How lucky." He muttered unknowingly.
"Oh? Does my dear ol' cousin want to be an edgerunner?" Marcus noted as David froze.
"I don't know. Mom wants me to graduate and get a job at Arasaka. It makes sense. A lot of people would kill to have a corpo job." David sighed.
The older man knew how David felt. He didn't really want to be at Arasaka but didn't want to make his mother's efforts wasteful.
"But you wouldn't right? You don't want to be a corpo." Marcus got straight to the heart of it.
David's face twisted.
"What difference does it make. Mom already doesn't want me talking to you. How would she react when I say I don't want to be a suit." David felt stuck in a life path that he didn't want.
Misty helped him and now it was his turn to return the favor.
"The difference is when you look in the mirror and say you are doing what you want to do. There are many things we can't control, but choosing how we want to live is one of the few." Marcus smiled as David froze.
'How do I want to live.' David questioned himself.
"What about mom? She would never agree." The thought is nice but how could he realistically go through with it?
Marcus suddenly felt like a bad influence, but he didn't care. Gloria's intentions were pure, but she never thought to ask what David really wanted. She only saw that his life would be far better than on the street, but is that really true?
Yes, it comes with far more risk and the chance of death, but you'd also have to deal with coworkers backstabbing you to further their own position. David would never be able to trust anyone. What kind of life is that? Gloria likely knows, but it was still more sustainable and lucrative than edgerunning.
"You're right, she wouldn't, but it's your life, isn't it? Don't you want a say in how you live your own life? Gloria has done above and beyond for you, that much is undeniable, but will you go with her every whim? Shape your life for you? What about your dream? Does that not matter?" Marcus laid it into him as David was feeling more riled up.
"I want to be an edgerunner. I want to take care of Mom, so she can relax and do what she wants without having to worry about me. My dream is to be the best edgerunner in this shithole, to prove that I'm not some street rat!" David hyped himself up.
Marcus had a wide grin. He never knew that David had a dream of his own, or maybe he never got the chance to. From trying to achieve his mom's dream and then Lucy's. Now David seemed like a new person.
He got up and extended his hand as David grasped it.
"You've finally figured out what it takes to be a legend." Marcus laughed on the inside but it truly felt like a paradigm shift. David had untapped potential to be one of the greats.
David's energy was at an all-time high.
"Nova! What now?" David was practically bouncing on his feet.
"You tell your mother," Marcus stated.
David froze.
"Shit."
-+=[BoG]=+-
We have corrupted our boy but for the better. How could Marcus possibly allow his cousin to not have a dream of his own after everything he has experienced and seen?
It only goes up from here.
Thanks for the continued support!
Should I do the thing where I ask for power stones for bonus chapters? I don't have too much time to really build a stockpile.