Danmachi: the Great Devourer

C177: Biotechnica

Alt Title Teaser: Choices

Overall Word count = 3029 on 1/13/2025.

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A few months had passed since the previous gig, the first thing of note is that Axel had to defend his title of world best, there were 2 uproars due to his actions, the first was about him finally getting augmented. The second was that of him dealing with the fight within 10 seconds of it starting. 

From the start of the match, Axel had purely been walking towards his opponent who was strangely scared of Axel's casual steps and believed there was some sort of new technique or something that he had. Or it was a trap for him, as such he kept backing away whilst trying to figure out what was going on. 

Axel sighed in annoyance before rushing forward, his fist poised up for a high punch. His opponent, thinking Axel canceled his plans, decides to deliver a blow with his right hand but Axel simply speeds up, dodging the blow and landing a slap on his opponent's face that causes them to simply flop over unconscious. 

The shock of the situation overturned many expectations as Axel simply walked away without talking to the reporters like he usually did. He simply made his way back home after talking to his coach who was quite happy with the result, especially after being shown a BD of Axel crushing one of the advanced strength testing dummies they had. There was a sense of detachment from Axel's actual senses so the coach's brain didn't melt from the overwhelming sensation of power Axel naturally has at all times. 

Back at the safe house with the crew. Axel was nearly drowned to death by Rebecca as she had tears in her eyes. Axel had naturally warned the Maine crew members about his strength but didn't demonstrate it like he did for the coach, as a result only Rebecca had bet on him through an underground betting lobby. For this lobby, she had to be there in person and seeing the 10 second match filled her with glee, especially since she had to open the lobby for a 1 minute or less fight. 

Part of her tears were the fact that she is now a millionaire, and the other part is her mourning the fact that she didn't try to take bigger risks and become a multi-millionaire. The others regretted their doubt but also were afraid. Afterall, knowing that Axel had just slapped a man with quarter a ton of force (520 lbs- did research) and left his skull cracked.

Then their paranoia escalated when Axel decided to finally share the video of that dummy he broke. It's a specialized dummy used against Gorilla arm users to test the limits of their strength. An average user could exert a bit less than 1 ton of force if they took a fully destructive route but since there are natural inhibitors against that. They would be lucky to even get 100 lb of force. As such, the dummy, which was crumpled inward at the belly, with a score description of 3k lbs of force was an obvious declaration. 

It has to be noted that the original version of the gorilla arms were made in favor of the now extinct Silverback Gorilla which had 1300 to 2700 lbs of force (bit more than half ton to 1.3 tons of force). Yet due to grievous production cost and the necessity to create new artificial muscles or somehow strengthen the bones. To mitigate these costs and still produce a viable result that would superimpose on human limits. The current version of the Gorilla arms was thus made, with 100 or less pounds of force in every punch. It's a type of equipment that centralizes the potential energy from any attack into the fist itself. Then at moment of impact, the fist detaches momentarily when it impacts something or someone, then a bit of monowire pulls the detached hand back with it seeming like all a single arm and no disconnection at all due to the short window for the wire to pull back.

Sasha and Lucy looked on the net for a while and learned that if enough force is applied to those dummies that the sensor for them broke then it just automatically lists any and all results as 3k lbs of force. Yet since the sensors are highly durable with various monowire level cables and corpo expensive components, to say that Axel is close enough to 3k lbs is not an unfair assessment. 

Lucy continued running simulations of how much actual force was in the single punch and believing the machine was completely new and properly handled. Simulation after simulation shows a copy of Axel's body punching the dummy machine. From the format she was using, even an exact 3k lbs of force would not actually crumple the machine like Axel actually did. With no quick results found, she decided to at least find a number that is linked to overdoing the destruction of the dummy, so she skipped straight to 4k lbs of force (2 euro tons). Seeing the machine crumble somewhat similarly to the actual result. She decides to keep her mouth shut about this and simply informs the others that she found the force was around 3.5k lbs of force. 

Hearing this result and not thinking she would be lied to, she is about to share the information with Maine when he speaks up, "Um Axel, choom, how long have you been able to do this? Didn't you only recently get the cyberware?"

"Oh Maine, you silly goose, don't you know, i was just holding back" Axel says with a tone of finality back to the leader who somehow emitted a gulp sound to him even though they don't actually need to speak out loud for such phone calls. People only talk outloud out of habit and to help formulate words better since speaking through their internal systems could be considered 'mentally speaking'. As such, there is a chance that unnecessary words or thoughts might leak through and so people prefer to still talk physically even when they don't have to.

Lucy is still doing precise checks on the punch force but this time it's effect on Axel himself. She quickly learned that with his current physique, even a safe estimate of a single ton of punch force should be ripping his muscles apart or shattering bones, and that's the safe estimate. To accomplish the feat of breaking the dummy, that would instead break his own body in equal value. Lucy can't help but start to believe that Axel might be a hidden operative to capture her for Arasaka or Netwatch maybe. 

"Ha ha, good joke, but seriously, what would be the point of holding back that much, didn't you get bored from the 8 hour matches you had to do then?" Maine tries to shake off his nervousness as Sasha and Lucy are broadcasting the call to the others to overhear.

"I don't have a lot of time in this world Maine, Don't plan to stay here forever, just wish to enjoy all that I have." His words while stoic and formal spark a sense of uncertainty and confusion in the group as Maine can't help but ask.

"....Are you dying?" He was hesitant to ask but collected his thoughts and asked anyway.

"Not really but also yes." Axel answers nonchalantly as he figures out the best way to explain to his friends here that he will leave in a year or 2.

"What does that fucking mean?" 

"It means that my dna is fucked to hell and back. I'm stuck as a child even though I'm actually 18. Thankfully with no actual public records, nobody actually knew so i played the part of a 10 year old and having super strength is a cool feature too.. The off the book doctors I had visited said I only have a few years left here in Night City before I have to get long term treatment. " He decides to give a variation of what V went through during the Arasaka ending as an explanation for his own disappearance. 

Maine is shocked by all the information that even Sasha who was technically listening in on this whole conversation rudely spoke up, "What the fuck is wrong with you, why are you only telling us now about this?" She yells at him and Maine has to nearly cut the call since his ear now hurts from her yell. 

"Aw, falling for me already now that you know i'm not a child, it soothes my heart." he continues acting nonchalantly which seems to have triggered something in sasha as she continues ranting at him for the entirety of the drive until Axel got to the base and event then continued to berate him for not telling anyone. 

Naturally with his arrival, the previously mentioned tears flowing from Rebecca finally make their way over to drown him. She is both extremely happy at not being poor and saddened that Axel might have to leave sometime soon. "It's fine chica, I got until late 2077 till my time is up here in Night City, maybe i'll be able to come back once I'm nice and healthy."He reassures her and that seems to only send her into frenzy as the group parties for the rest of the day, everyone passed out everywhere with music playing for the whole night. 

Just like that 3 months passed as the Maine Crew got a few jobs all at once but also one big espionage job. To complete all the jobs in one fell swoop, the crew splits into a few teams to handle all the jobs. Pilar and Rebecca went to retrieve a specific shard from the hands of some small-time Scav group in Watson (Far north of Night City). She was very happy as during this time, she had gotten some small scale enhancements to improve her base performance, as a reward for her patient. Axel provided her with her own iconic blue pink pair of shotguns, the Guts. Seeing the pair of shotguns and seeing one of them even had a sub tube for grenades had sent her into a horny streak as she dragged away Axel since he is now 'legal'. 

Lucy and Dorio took Falco and went to do some hacking work in Little China (north of City center, opposite of Heywood where Padre is). Meanwhile Axel, Maine and Sasha took the big job. They were informed of a special building that acts as a data warehouse for Biotechnica. Maine used his private car to bring the three of them close to the warehouse. 

Axel's job was to support Sasha in hacking while Maine acted as the muscle, looking tough so nobody bothered them. Axel did the main job of taking over the nearby cameras and security systems so nobody can identify Sasha as she uses the cameras to find how to get inside. From the data they had received for the job, an experienced hacker/netrunner would have to link up with the computers inside to find the necessary files. After getting the necessary information as well as a few emps to stall the alert system alongside the jammer. This part was mostly Axel's suggestion for the building but he had snuck one more into Sasha's gear sack. 

Axel is still uncertain of the path forward but as it stands, he is only really close to Rebecca thus far with their relationship being quite casual. He already sorted out how he planned to explain to her about himself but he is not sure if he should bring Falco along to his village. He already sorted out the future goddess of Explosions but should he take along a goddess of Technology? 

He has two plausible candidates available to him right now. Sasha and Lucy. He wouldn't mind either of them. Lucy for the fanboying he has internally from the memories he chose to keep from a few of the more informative soul fragments. While Sasha is his own personal connection, he has known her for almost a full year now but it was all built up on the premise of a lie, him being 10 years old.

So while he got to know Sasha better, she never got a chance to properly get close to him except through their little banter. Yet it has only been recently that he has been a bit more forward with himself and his strength but she remains in the dark about anything actually special to him. Granted he is not a very interesting person as a whole, so with the exception of such simple banter they would struggle to get to know each other better. 

As for Lucy, she is in the full belief that he might be a spy or agent to capture her and is just taking his time. It's almost comical when he sees her shuffling away from him for any reason. Their conversations were relegated to simply murmurs across the room. Axel did think of getting her a microphone just for this but then he might have somehow given her the idea that he was trying to steal her voice or send her voice to the team her own mother is part of that is tracking her in Europe. 

The end result was that both ladies who are candidates either don't know or trust him very well which makes potential recruitment hard. 

While he was deep in thought, the trio of him, Maine and Sasha had again arrived at the warehouse Office building that belongs to Biotechnica. They eventually shake Axel out of his thoughts and both he and Sasha get to work again to secure the cameras before Sasha grabs her bag and makes her way towards it. She does evade and sneak past some of the guarding robots (real robots and not cyborgs or androids) of the facility. 

She connects to the door only for a moment before making her way inside. As planned, Maine drives to another nearby location and sets up the emp and jammer while they return back to their spot. Axel continues acting as overwatch and connecting their comms to get consistent reports but as the jammer goes off attracting the robots to investigate. 

Sasha herself arrives at the top floor after some time, the robots are beginning to make their way back after finding the bag the jammer was in but upon opening the other emp also activates which stuns all the robots. It's a temporary solution to buy more time for Sasha. The robots would eventually wake up and pick up where they left off. They would pass it off to their superiors and human guards who would investigate in greater detail. 

Sasha sits in the office chair and connects to the laptop, putting on her netrunning visor that makes her only look more cat-like. Within the virtual space, she gets to work on the hack and has the file the crew needed found, sent to maine or rather their boss through a secure line but the very transfer had alerted the robots and they begin to make their way inside while also the robots on standby inside the building also activate. As Sasha is about to deactivate the hack, she finds a hint to a file, Securicine. 

The medicine her mother had taken many years ago when she too was nothing but a child, watching her mother pass away from a heavy illness that the Securicine should have cured her off. Seeing the higher grade defenses on the file, she eventually resolves herself to hack it. Axel who had been tracking her progress and playing a song in the car by the title of :Let You Down by Dawid Podsiadło. 

Axel sighs as he can see, clear as day, Sasha's sleeping face in the chair, then through his screen, he is connected to the same cyberspace that Sasha is currently trying to hack the file in. The song makes him melancholic as his thoughts accelerate about Sasha's fate and that of her younger sister who would be left all alone if Sasha died. These emotions and sensations that he can afford to give with him living such a peaceful life. 

As Sasha had already triggered the alarm and robots are banging on the door, she is barely a quarter of the way through the download and transfer of the file when she hears banging on the doors, the robots trying to get in. She is about to unplug when suddenly her vision halts. A massive digital finger taps on the progress bar and just slides it to the end. As she unplugs, she sees the very clear words of:

TRANSFER COMPLETE. 

With the subtext of the recipient news station. She quickly turns off the computer and any data linking her here or what was done but she was not able to get all the traces as she brings out her unique Wolverine Claws to slash the office glass and jump out. She makes her jump as the door is broken open and shots are fired at her leaping body. But not before the emp that was hidden in her bag goes off to fry the robots so she remains unharmed. 

Numerous thoughts pass through Sasha's mind. The first is her relief in getting the file out and the truth being revealed about her mothers death. Her second thought was sadness at leaving her sister behind. The third, a tugging feeling as she cant help her curiosity on who or what was the giant finger avatar that helped her. She was resolute to die but now she actually has hope. Yet the digital world is far away from the real world as she falls onto a car.

"SASHA!!!!" Maine calls out but it was all for naught as she crashes.

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Alt Title: Future Path, change of destiny or Natural Fate?

Drop a comment if you wanna judge my writing or the story. I'll try to respond, especially if you're confused or anything.