Now inside of the venue, I could see that this was indeed a fancy club. People were on the dancefloor and there were also people talking amongst themselves in booths near the back walls. I was a centauress. That was not a flexible or nimble enough body type for dancing the night away. There was a bar. I went there instead. Life was a hard thing to get through in this cyberpunk setting. People were drinking for all sorts of reasons. Some people in here wanted to remember the good times. Other people wanted to forget the bad times. I was there as an interloper. That was because I was a Player. I began people watching from the bar and drank in the atmosphere. It was actually pretty nice. Eventually, a pair of humans came up to me. That made me instantly suspicious of them. These 2 were clearly brothers. "Are you Brianne Terri?!" I just crossed my arms. "Who's asking!?" I scoffed. After what happened in the last place I stopped, I was not going to give out my information for free. It was then that one of them said "I'm Ramon Juarez. This is my brother Mateo. We know who you are."
Getting recognized was not good. It might mean that I would have to fight my way out of there. "Those body mods are one of a kind. No one has anything like yours on the continent." Mateo added. I rolled my eyes. "What the hell do you guys want with me!?" I asked. The brothers looked at each other. Something was up. Ramon looked directly at me and said "We've been edge running together for a while now. We want a big job. Something that pays a whole lot." I guessed he was the leader of this duo here. I snickered at them. "So, you guys want to get a giant payday. Maybe some excitement?" I asked. Both brothers nodded their heads. I needed to find my place in this part of the map. Rolling with them could not hurt all that much. I looked at them and said "Hey. You know any PEP units? That's where we begin." Both of their eyes went wide. They probably did not expect me to humor them this much. "Uh, do we know any 'borgs, huh? That's a good question." Ramon said as he rubbed his chin. My expectations were exceeded when Mateo said "Yeah we do! Gym bro Joe." He did.
For some reason, Ramon got really angry with him. "What the fuck!? You did not just say that." Mateo looked surprised and then confused. "Everyone knows that Joe's a real 'borg." he said. Ramon grabbed him by the collar. "I can't believe you. You know the fucking rules. No one talks about that shit!" I pinched the bridge of my nose. I just told them to calm down and tell me what was going on. "Gym bro Joe" was a PEP unit that did his best to blend in with the local neighborhood. His workout routine was obviously unnatural for a human. Even one with body mods would have a problem with that load. To make matters worse, he looked like a random scrawny guy. His charge port was on his ass. It was clear that everyone that went there that he was a PEP unit. It seemed to be a huge conspiracy of silence. Everyone knew that he was not human. Joe was pretty cool and kind to everyone. It was a toss up on whether or not Joe realized that other humans knew that he was a cyborg. Mateo had sold him out to a total stranger. That was a pretty bad showing in terms of loyalty on display.
