After getting the amped up Khai and Kaldorei back to base. I checked on the steady progress of the Probes' clean up action. It didn't seem like much, but the tireless robots were making good progress, and our store of Minerals and Vespene were already overflowing. I started them on a few new building projects, and bid everyone farewell.

  It was time to go meet with the crew.

  I'd already called David to bring himself, Mith, Sasha and Rebecca to Maine's backup garage at the northern edge of town. I'd meet him there.

  I made sure to avoid New Town, not because I thought anyone there would recognise me, especially after all this time, but because I didn't like being reminded of my failures. Someday I'd have to check up on that situation, but not today.

  No, today was about success, or so I hoped.

  When I got to the garage I saw a number of different vehicles, I didn't recognize alongside Falco's Emperor. My first thought was, that meant that the switch off had gone well. On the other side of the lot, my own Emperor was already there as well. David had gotten here first, I wasn't surprised.

  Giving the whole area a once over, there was nothing but empty fields directly north and the nearest building were hundreds of feet away. There was nothing immediately out of pce. I still had Probius do a quick sweep around the outside of the building. He returned in under a minute, with an all clear beep.

  The wind carried the scent of the oil fields over here today. All that unrefined oil smelled wrong to my new senses. I was gd we weren't any closer to the source of that nose stinging smell. I might have missed the smell of blood. That coppery iron tang was a faint note under the tar-esque like smell of the oil.

  I didn't know what it meant, and part of me wanted to rush in and try to help. But it could be a trap, or it could be a prisoner the crew snatched to learn some extra info to sell. I slowly worked my way into the garage's main bay. They would've called if my services were desperately needed.

  My heart lifted because I could hear people cheering and soft music pying.

  I found them all in the building's lounge room. It was a pretty nice employee break area, still with all it's old out of date furniture. Someone had stopped for take out and beer. Probably Falco. Because David would have brought some thing from home.

  A party was in full swing, and I got a round of , "Medic!" and one bark, as I walked in. I gave everyone a friendly nod.

  Maine was dancing around regaling everyone with his and Dorio's exploits. Falco was sitting and drinking. Pir was acting like a buffoon while juggling random items. Kiwi remained aloof. Sasha was dancing and singing along to something on the radio. Lucy and David were sitting together on a loveseat. Mith was keeping an eye on David. Rebecca was stuck on a couch, but she was still yelling with everyone else. Someone had bandaged her up, likely Evie.

  Maine went on to expin how they'd pyed tag in the Dust Runners for a while, before ditching their pursuers. There had to be more to the story though, as both of them were fucked up and probably going to bleed out soon. Though they were both acting like they were invincible, and massive blood loss wasn't a problem.

  "And then Dorio clipped a rock and flipped her Runner. My heart stopped. I spun back around to help out, but she got up and strong armed her Runner back over, jump back in and zip by me like nothing happened!" Maine voice boomed with his excitement.

  So I got to work on them. Posthaste. I couldn't let some of my new favorite people off themselves accidently.

  Maine had taken a beating, several bullets had kissed him good, and his left cyberarm was nearly scrap. I didn't know what happened but it was messed up good. I rapidly got his flesh sort out and then managed to get his arm back to a semi-functional state before stopping to conserve mana.

  "Nah, it wasn't as bad as he said, it only rolled over on to me a little bit. I'm fine." Dorio acting like nothing went wrong at all.

  Dorio was battered and scraped to fuck and back. There was more dirt and rock in her skin than skin. She really had rolled over her Dust Runner at some point, and it had rolled back over her in revenge. Healing her back to pristine condition was easy and quick, but brought a startling surprise. There was a second little tiny stirring of separate life, it was just a clump of cells right now, but a very important little clump of cells.

  I knocked the beer from her hand. No big loss, it probably wasn't very good beer.

  "What the fuck!" She looked at me in absolute confusion and shock. Unable to believe I just did that.

  "I don't want to have to figure out how to heal Fetal Alcohol Syndrome." I growled at her.

  From loud cheerful exuberance, to dead silence.

  She looked at me with wide eyes. "W-W-What?"

  The silence returned for another minute, while I just stared at them grinning, letting the good new sink in. My own heart was beating fast.

  Maine crowed in triumph, "I'm going to be a Dad!"

  I nodded at him, "That's right! Congratutions you two." It was a great feeling to know I helped make this moment happen.

  Everyone cheered again, this time even louder than before.

  Maine and Dorio cshed in an epic power hug. It was honestly kind of scary.

  "I love you, baby!"

  "Love you too, you gonk brained idiot."

  The beer started flowing again for everyone except Dorio.

  I had more work to do.

  Kiwi and Falco, had made it through unscathed.

  "It was quiet on our end, and we got away without a hint of trouble." Kiwi was ice cold.

  "I didn't even have to floor it." Falco was disappointed. He lived for speed.

  David was sticking close to Lucy, his me attempts at gauging her interest was complimented by her equally me attempts to feel him out. Spare us from the awkward teen love drama, please. Neither of them was that hurt, and fixing them was a cinch.

  "I woke back up in the apartment with Mith, slobbering all over my face." The kid seemed sad he didn't get to see the fallout of our encounter with Smasher.

  "I gd you made it back." Lucy whispered at him with gleaming eyes.

  Then I started on Pir, who had a slight concussion. I reduced the swelling of his brain and cleared out the ringing in his ears.

  "A grenade went off next to our Runner, Lucy was fine, but my bell got rung. I left a few of my toys behind for them to py with." The techie was pying the fool, now that everything was over.

  Sasha had a cracked rib and a few sprains after her tumble in the Van. Nothing a little mana couldn't make right.

  "Nya, it hurts so bad Medic, please fix me." She said it low and slow, making sure only I could hear it. T-that was a very interesting way to ask.

  Then it was Rebecca's turn, David had carried her in and id her on one of two couches. She was awake, aware and drinking, though that st part was probably dumb, as one of her kidneys was still back in the badnds, maybe part of her liver too. Oh, well I'll put it all to rights again.

  "It's fine, It's fine. I hardly feel a thing. Hurry it up already. I need to punch my brother in the face."

  Regrowing organs was nothing new to me, even repcing a limb was not much of a challenge. No the challenge was getting the job done with the trickle of mana that wouldn't send her screaming in pleasure. It was fun sometimes, but now wasn't one of those times. It took me over an hour, though I remembered a time it would've taken much longer.

  She hopped off the couch and jumped about bringing her own blend of chaotic fun to the party. she cracked her knuckles, "Oh Pir, I'd like to have a word, you fucker." After a few minutes of chasing her brother, she switched targets to Sasha after some small joke the silly netrunner made about her.

  I hit everyone with a round of Remove Impurities cleaning them up, nice and shiny.

  "Hey nice!"

  "That's a neat trick!"

  Sitting on a nearby chair I went still. Everybody was fine, and our first run together went better than I honestly expected. With the healing out of the way, I could rex. For some reason, I was bone tired.

  Falco came over and handed me a beer, "Good Job." Then he sat on the chair next to me. I bet he had a no one should drink alone policy.

  I twisted the top off of mine and took a swig. It could have been worse.

  I found myself falling back into the old habits of watching others. It was fun, but now there was a desire to join in the merriment. I didn't want to be locked in to my old patterns, and unlike the Nomads, these guys weren't going to try to pull me into their circle, I had to jump in myself. It was up to me to break the cycle of my grump loner problem.

  So I got up and drove in, sweeping Rebecca up and spinning us both around. She cackled manically as her feet dangled about a foot off the ground.

  "Hahaha! It's like I'm flying. Faster!" The small gun enthusiast ughed as we went through another spin.

  Sasha jumped on my back, and Pir went for the tickle and it quickly went from dancing to a free for all. I don't know who threw the first bit of food, but soon it was every person for themselves, with Mith dashing around to snatch up what he could.

  Once things had calmed down again, Maine told me he'd dropped off the truck in the designated pce, and the rest of the Eddies would be wired soon. Which was the real reason we were all still here instead of their normal hangout by Turbo's.

  "We just gotta wait for the call." He rumbled. "It gets on my nerves though. Every time I wonder if they're going to try and fuck us over. No matter how much I work with a fixer, that feeling never goes away."

  Left unsaid, was that we might have to roll out to find Faraday's little errand boy and zero him.

  The night stretched on, and we all settled down from a more party mood to a more somber one. But finally the money rolled in to Maine. He in turn transferred a cool hundred grand for everyone. That perked the crew right back up. On one hand, not bad for a day's work, and some scrapped together junkers lost.

  On the other, no where near enough to face Smasher. I hadn't brought it up, David and the girls seemed to be avoiding the topic too. I don't think they wanted to believe it, Smasher was a boogey man, why would he have ever been there? It must have been someone else. How'd I survived if it had been Smasher? See, that was proof it was someone else. I could see all of that in their faces.

  I tended to agree. More games were being pyed in the shadows, I needed more friendly eyes on the lookout for things like this.

  With the money finally in our accounts, the team scattered. The pn was to y low for a few days, then we'd all meet up ter this week to compare notes and make sure there wasn't any heat still on us over this little heist.

  I had some moves of my own to make.