"You are late rat!"
He hadn't even walked a single meter when thunderous voice rampaged the entire factory.
Michael calmly continued walking and replied. "I am early by 4 minutes."
The factory had been a paint job factory of some sort but had been shut down for some reason.
Slapping in a few mechanism and a bar as well as a few air-beds, it was now a ring and a gang site.
Within the bar, a beautiful dark-skinned lady with sexy curves in the right places, wearing a red crop top along with short blue jeans served drinks to two individuals seated opposite her, across the bar.
The two individuals, One a middle-aged muscular man, the other, a chromed up, punk styled man with glowing eyes as well as two pistols magnetised to his waist. The one who had spoken was the middle aged muscular man.
The beautiful lady behind the bar, Rach let out a pretty smile as she said.
"New kid, you back."
"Bet." Michael nodded his head in response, completely ignoring the man who had growled at him.
they called him Steelz. Aka, Man of Steel but Michael preferred calling him a Mad man, of course behind his back.
Steelz strength was something Michael wasn't sure of as he had never seen him in a fight and was incredibly shameless as well as an open pervert to both men and women.
But he was the one who created the Iron Clawz gang. Which is one of the three famous crazy gangs within scrap yard district. Therefore, the amount of respect he commanded in the streets of Neon city was astonishing
It was something Michael failed to understand.
Most times, Michael even had a strange feeling that the mad man didn't own a sandevistan, neither did he install a karesnikoff, which was rather strange since without chromes cyberware upgrades and shards, one was like a seating duck within in this world, soon to become another corpse within the streets of Neon City.
His thoughts quickly returned to that night, two months ago.
Steelz had been attracted by the commotion from the explosion and had come to see exactly who he needed to Ice for causing a ruckus within his territory when his saw Michael on the verge of death, flesh all coaled up, burnt to crisp as his muscles emitted aroma similar to pig's fat on fire.
Steelz saved him, getting him to a ripper doc before he flatlined, in hopes of getting something good from the transaction only to find out Michael was a no body with no name to himself.
For an entire month, Steelz had been livid! He had actually made a loss instead.
Recalling the first time he saw Steelz, he noticed the man didn't have much cybernetic implants like the other gang members.
Moreover, as Michael was sensitive to cyberware due to his system, he noticed that the leader exuded the same energy wave as the man from that night!
Michael was starting to suspect. His eyes squinted as he stared at the perverted expression of the leader, staring at Khesha across the bar and shook his head.
'Nah, he definitely is no Altered.'
Shaking off the thoughts from his head, he threw the bag filled with shards over and sat at the very edge of the bar where an empty seat was located.
"Your potion?" Rach asked.
Michael tilted his head and replied, "The usual."
Rach nodded her head and began mixing the drinks behind the bar together as she worked her magic.
"Oi! Didn't you hear me brat?" Reluctantly removing his gaze off hue exposed boobs of his female gang member, Steel Clawz got off his seat as he walked towards Michael, cracking his knuckles.
Michael sighed, shifting his long braids forwards, he turned around, squeezed at a smile and said with the best fawning expression he could muster. "Leader! Forgive this brat for I didn't see your mighty self. Your influence as wide as a Corporate leader. Your presence even more frightening than a troop of Eve Stormer."
Steel Clawz was at first stunned then he let out a cold harrumph of disgust, reverberating like a thunder storm and spoke in a rumbling but disdainful voice.
"Well kid. It's good you know how great your leader truly is. But that expression of yours is truly unatural."
He then turned to Rach. "There's no need to get him a potion, get him liquid poison."
Putting his gigantic hand on Michael, he picked up the bag and said "All here?"
Michael nodded. "The spoils and chrome's all in there."
Steel snorted coldly, throwing the bag towards the muscular lady chilling at the edge of the boxing ring. "Handle it."
At the same time, Rach slid a glass of drizzle-phet at Michael.
"Here."
The purplish liquid smelt similar to candy and the drink wasn't alcohol but contained chemicals even worse.
Michael had no qualms as he grabbed the glass off the table, taking in a sip. Instantly, he felt his tongue lit up and his head spinning but he was already used to it therefore the effect didn't affect him much.
Sleth came up from behind and patted Michael's back. "You did good kid, Klepting three high-end shards."
Steel Clawz managed to pry his eyes off Rach once more and said. "You had a good haul brat."
Then he turned towards Sleth and said. "Get the stuff to Drake and split the resources by half, give the brat his own half. "
This time, not only was Sleth surprised, even Michael was also stunned.
Sensing their reaction, Steel Clawz folded his arms in anger. His voice booming as he asked. "What'yall looking at me for? He did do a good job, then I decided to reward him. And since he was the only one who did the job this time, he gets an even split. Anyways, out next job is serious. Don't want him holding us back with his cheap grade chromes and barely up to standard Iron." Steelz lamented as he explained.
Michael looked at him in doubt before downing the entire drink down his throat.
"Pa!"
Steelz smacked Michael's head and glared. "Don't be watching me with that expression, brat. Also don't forget you still owe me 70k Credits."
Michael immediately spilled his drinks and glared at the leader. "It was 50k credits, When did it increase by another 20k?"
Steelz sneered bedlfirr turning around as he left to the boxing ring. "Tomedo, tomado!"
"That's not even how they say it!" Michael growled angrily.
"Fuck off, punk!"
Witnessing this scene, the others had a good laugh.
Michael snorted and turned around to face Rach. "I think I might need another one of this."
"No problem choom." Rach said as she prepared another glass.
Duriod rolled his chair towards Michael, I ruffling his braids and asked with a grin. "You got any BD during the haul?"
Michael tilted his head and hummed in response. "Flat-line, militrch style and porn, one corpo worker of some sort."
Duriod's smile widened and he replied, " I knew you'd keep the good shards to yourself and give the leader scraps. How much for the two."
"Flat lines 1000 Cr, porn for 500. Deal?"
"Deal!" Duriod burst into a perverted laughter, grabbing the BDs from Michael's hands as he moved out. It was obvious what he wanted to do at that moment.
Michael watched him go with a smile and shook his head. He turned around only to see Rach staring at him with a weird smiling expression.
At first, he was taken aback but then he calmly took his drink and said. "What? Have you fallen for me?"
Each immediately leaned backwards as she chuckled. "Don't flatter yourself kid. You are way too young for me."
Tilting her head, she suddenly asked. "You ever iced someone?"
Michael's hand paused but resumed, taking a sip of his drink. "Why? Someone piss you off lately?"
Shaking her head, she went back to the bar, cleaning her glasses.
Michael's eyes suddenly flickered and an amount of 27k credits entered his vault. He couldn't help but grin pleasantly. With this, he could get a few special metals and help increase his abilities.