Cyberpunk Edgerunners: The Rebel Path
by Auxmas 365 is a crossover/Elsewhere Fic featuring various characters and elements from across the Cyberpunk franchise, primarily Cyberpunk 2077 and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
Adrian Walker isn't special. And he's perfectly okay with that.
Despite living in the urban cesspool that is Night City while being a high-school dropout and (somehow) ex-gang member, Adrian and his sister Maya have been able to lead relatively normal lives thanks to the efforts of their hardworking delivery-driver mom Willow — sure, things might be tough, and eddies are always tight, but they've got each other: a lot more than many have in this rotten city.
But then, Willow brings home the gun. Not one of the mass-produced firearms carried by every gangoon with more than two brain cells to rub together, but a Malorian Arms 3516: a truly legendary piece of iron, and something that raises an awful lot of questions about where, and how, a seemingly-ordinary woman was able to find such a thing. And before these questions can even begin to be answered, Faraday, a slimy, sinister suit with four eyes, arrives to destroy everything Adrian has ever known.
Escaping with Maya by the skin of his teeth, Adrian is left with a missing arm and eye, his home burned, and his mother dead. Then, the siblings are rescued by a mysterious figure from Willow's past: a grizzled, older man fitted with a distinctive black cyberarm. He presents Adrian with a simple choice: accept a stack of cash for the pistol, and go on to live a quiet life in the margins of the Dark Future; or learn from him how to run on the Edge, and become the newest merc looking to make it in the City of Dreams, taking up the lost weapon and wreaking bloody revenge on the Corpo-rats who upended his peaceful existence.
You can probably guess what he chose.
This work provides examples of:
- Ace Custom: M's preferred weapon is the Malorian Assault Cannon — a devastating one-of-a-kind Super Prototype assault rifle that fires miniature homing rockets, noted as a precursor to Cyberpunk 2077's Smart Weapons. Of course, like his cyberarm and other equipment, it's a sleek matte black.
- Affectionate Nickname: Rebecca refers to Kiwi as "Birdie" on a couple of occasions. She's not so keen on it.
- Alliterative Name: Rebecca's last name is Reynolds, which she considers "a shitty last name that makes me sound like some comic-book bimbo".
- Asshole Victim: Adrian's gigs and quest for revenge leads him to flatlining a lot of rather unpleasant people.
- Dealing with Scavs is considered closer to performing a public service than it is to murder. And for good reason.
- Jotaro Shobo, the Tyger Claws boss and "Devil of Kabuki" featured in Cyberpunk 2077 as an assassination target, is encountered by Adrian while performing a gig for Kiwi. After completing his task, he accepts Regina's bounty on the murderous rapist, then patiently waits outside the building in order to blow his head off with a Sniper Rifle.
- One of Adrian's revenge targets, a Corpo-brat named Shinji Takeda, also turns out to be a paedophile and rapist who was keeping images of his twisted tastes locked in a safe in his apartment. He doesn't last long.
- Awesome, yet Impractical:
- The fic goes into quite a lot of detail to explain why the ridiculously overpowered Hand Cannon that is the Malorian has a serious set of drawbacks. For one, it cannot be fired without cybernetics, and completely shatters Adrian's arm when he tries doing so. It requires Abnormal Ammo which is expensive and can be procured only from specialists, and, most importantly, it attracts attention. If word gets round about a Malorian, it will cause thieves and/or Glory Hound mercs to hunt down Adrian for a chance at obtaining it for themselves.
- Adrian's Super Prototype cyberware, the Dead-Eye Combat Analysis Regulation & Assistance Device, is also this, to an extent. It provides its user with a limited form of Bullet Time and data with which to gain the upper hand over an opponent, but can only be used for limited periods, otherwise it will overheat and fry the user's brain.
- Berserk Button:
- A horribly, horribly unfortunate Maelstrom gangoon makes the fatal mistake of calling Rebecca a "loli". Everyone else steps back in horror, and Becca swiftly kills him via a vicious No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
- M has two. The first is bringing up a certain failed job that seemingly went bad so catastrophically that he doesn't even want to think about it. The second is using Soulkiller. When President Elizabeth Kress, who he had served loyally for many years, proposes using it on his protegé Wendy (Willow), he, without hesitation, helps her flee and contacts a Netrunner friend (implied to be Spider Murphy or even Alt herself) to purge every trace of the deadly algorithm from NUSA servers.
- Brooklyn Rage: M, as in Cyberpunk canon, originates from Brooklyn, and still has the accent.
- Cool Old Lady: At one point, Adrian and Rebecca go for a date in Japantown at a cafe whose rather formidable proprietor has strenuously resisted contributing to the Tyger Claws' Protection Racket, and threatens some of their gangoons with a shotgun when they try and menace her.
- Does Not Like Guns: Willow, who, despite the dangerous nature of Night City, seemingly never carried a gun or tolerated them around the house, which is another reason her bringing back the Malorian is such a shock to Adrian.
- Dramatic Irony: As the (probable) grandson of Santiago Aldercaldo, Adrian is also the (probable) grandson of Rogue, which explains why the "Queen of the Afterlife" seems to have an unusual amount of time for him.
- Enemy Mine: Adrian's first job for Meredith Stout is to recover some lost Militech data from a well-fortified Sixth Street hideout. To even the odds, he's able to recruit some of their deadly rivals the Valentinos to help him out by bribing them with the prospective loot.
- From Hero to Mentor: Adrian's teacher "M" is none other than the Living Legend Edgerunner Morgan Blackhand, who is passing on his skills to the young man (and acting as an occasional Parental Substitute) due to some as-yet-unknown connection he had to Willow. He notes that he's trained up several other students previously, however, including Willow herself.
- Gotta Kill Them All: Played with. After a chance encounter with one of the Arasaka goons who helped kill his mother, Adrian obtains the names of the other Mooks and plans to track down each and every one. However, if, like this first victim, they genuinely regret what they've done, they can live: otherwise, their skull is destined to become Pink Mist courtesy of the Malorian.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Played with. Technically, an Arasaka executive named Williams is actually responsible for everything that happened to Adrian and his family, having dispatched Faraday to recover the Malorian which Willow (presumably) stole from him. However, it's Faraday who decides to 'cut corners' and destroy the Walkers and their home rather than bother conducting a proper search for the weapon.
- The Gunslinger: Adrian's primary shtick as an Edgerunner. Thanks to Dead-Eye and M's instruction, he is a lethal shot with almost any firearm you care name, but is generally weaker, although by no means hopeless, in close-quarters combat.
- In Love with Your Carnage: Adrian Has a Type, and it's "women that could kick his ass". Especially prominent with his primary Love Interest Rebecca, given her love of violence, and in her case the feeling's mutual as well.
- In Which a Trope Is Described: Each chapter is preceded by a brief headnote to this effect.
- It Began with a Twist of Fate: David Martinez's story is irreversibly altered when he gets winged by a stray bullet during one of Adrian's Cyberpsycho takedowns, causing him to be brought to Vik's for treatment.
- Lethal Chef: In the first chapter, it's noted that Adrian tended to do all the cooking in his household: Maya simply couldn't be bothered to learn how to prepare anything other than instant noodles, while Willow was able to "burn water".
- Noodle Incident:
- When beginning firearms training with M, Adrian is incredulous at his mentor's claims that, in the right (or wrong) hands, a BB gun can make for a lethal weapon. M can only shudder and mutter something about "so much blood..."
- Rebecca apparently once played a 'prank' on the rest of Maine's crew using flashbang grenades. Her comrades visibly cringe at the memory of it.
- Finally, there's one example which is decidedly not Played for Laughs: when M is contacted by "Operator", she mentions a job of M's which seemingly turned into a colossal clusterfuck that he barely made it out of alive. He immediately warns her to never even think about bringing it up again. Considering that job left this impression on M, it must have been unimaginably bad.
- One-Letter Name: Adrian's mysterious rescuer and Edgerunner instructor goes by 'M'. That's because his real name is Morgan Blackhand, the undisputedly greatest Solo of all time, and he prefers that nobody calls him that to avoid attracting attention, especially that of a particular murderous full-Borg who will almost certainly cause trouble if word gets out that his nemesis is currently in Night City. This can lead to a minor case of
Continuity Lockout for anyone not familiar with the Cyberpunk backstory. - One-Man Army: Given his age and profession, M's status as such was essentially guaranteed, but Chapter 48 depicts him slaughtering over 200 Raffen Shiv marauders: his biggest concern during such was running out of ammo.
- Ordinary High-School Student: Adrian and Maya are both this at the start of the story, though more of an "Ordinary High-School Dropout" in Adrian's case.
- Parental Sexuality Squick: David is mortified when Gloria starts hitting on Adrian — who doesn't even notice, at least not initially.
- Press-Ganged: Adrian's competence as an Edgerunner eventually catches the attention of the Lazarus Group, who attempt to lure him into their ranks with the offer of Executive Excess. When that doesn't work, they resort to blocking him from getting any new gigs, and eventually plotting to kidnap Maya, at which point Adrian has to get M to scare them off at the cost of a favor.
- Retired Badass: It quickly becomes apparent that Willow was not always a delivery driver: for one, she manages to take out several of Faraday's goons when they attack the Walkers' apartment, and for another, she knows how to get in touch with, and has thus won the trust of, the fabled Solo Morgan Blackhand. How she managed this, exactly, has not yet been explained. It's eventually revealed in Chapter 49 that she was Morgan's protegé and surrogate daughter, an orphan he rescued from a Raffen Shiv raid who went on to serve with the NUSA's Black Ops alongside her mentor. She was forced to flee to Night City after she proved so effective that President Kress planned to use Soulkiller on her to help train new operatives for the FIA.
- Sink or Swim Mentor: Discussed. M has no small amount of contempt for people who use this method of "teaching".M: Whoever the fuck thought that was a good way to train people is an idiot of the highest caliber.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: At one point, Adrian is kidnapped and his car is stolen by Scavengers and is in the process of being gutted for parts by the time he's able to break free and turn the tables on his captors. He decides to have some modifications made to the vehicle while it is in the process of being repaired to make it faster and tougher. This takes a full month and a half — no instant repair-jobs here.
- Walking Armory: At any given point, Adrian will be carrying between three and six firearms depending on the job at hand. How he manages to do this, lacking any strength-enhancing chrome to boot, is somewhat of a mystery.
