The Dimensional Workshop - Chapter 9

The Dimensional Workshop - Chapter 9

It was surprisingly easy to end the Maelstrom.

Not from a physical standpoint, no, the Bladekisser suit was the pinnacle of enhancement technology taken from Metal Gear, taken up a hundred notches by the exotic space-age materials I’d made it out of. 

No, it was surprisingly easy on a mental level. Sure, I was a country boy. I’d sat in deer stands all morning to shoot deer before, but this was somehow easier than that too.

I attributed that to two things. The first was simple. They were more machines than humans. The Maelstrom were so augmented, so doped on immuno-supressants, and so bestial that it was easier to see them as lumbering metal beasts rather than men. Beasts that would have killed me if I hadn’t returned their aggression in kind.

The second, and more important one was the fact that they’d threatened my people. There was no mercy. Being a man meant sticking to your principles, and I’d done just that, in the most bloody, direct way.

And now here I was, walking into the Realfoods headquarters, Lucy on my left, a smug smile on her face, and dragging the alive but barely lucid body of Endrick, the leader of the offshoot group of Maelstrom, by his leg, his metal cranium scraping against the marble flooring of the reception.

The fact that we were greeted by an absolutely terrified, yet unhurt receptionist, surrounded by dead bodies of three security guards meant that Pilar and Rebecca had performed their duties admirably.

I walked up to the reception desk, unknowingly bashing Endrick’s body into the ground as I let go of his leg and rested both my armored hands on the desk. The disembodied groan of pain he made was almost cathartic.

“I believe we have an appointment?” I asked. 

The poor little thing behind the desk was doing her best to stay standing. I could see her knees shaking, her clenched fists, and even her elevated heart rate was visible thanks to the advanced optic array in my helmet.

I couldn’t blame her. I definitely struck a terrifying figure. All black, stylized demon skull on my helmet, and glowing red eyes. That, and the fact that she was standing alone in a room full of corpses.

I kinda felt bad for her, so as she did her best to point us over to the open elevator behind her, I dropped an eddie card on her desk.

“Thank you for co-operating”, I said to her, my voice as calming as I could make it through the distortion of the helmet’s vocalisers. I even smiled, not that she could see that through the visor. 

It didn’t matter, as I hauled Endrick’s leg back up and started following Lucy into the elevator. The chip I’d left on her desk would be enough to cover for a modest retirement, something Lucy was acutely aware of.

“You didn’t have to do that, you know?” She commented as the doors closed behind us. Her tone was chastising, but the smile on her face betrayed her real emotions.

“It’s only proper. If not for her losing her job, then for the therapy.” I replied, moving Endrick’s body to the corner of the rather spacious lift.

“I honestly didn’t expect you to be so…” Lucy hesitated, a finger on her chin, locked in thought. 

“So much of an idiot?” I playfully replied.

“Well, partly, yes.” She agreed, the playful smirk everpresent on her face. “But no. You… you just don’t fit in the narrative of Night City.”

“I’m not here to make it big or die trying, you mean?” I replied.

“No, you’re definitely going to make it big. I’ve seen what you can do, and I don’t feel like I’ve seen all you can do. I don’t think anyone has.” She commented, and was absolutely correct. I hadn’t so much as needed to push the armor to its limits. I hadn’t even needed to use the runes I’d implanted all over the set.

And I hadn’t needed to cast a single spell.

“It’s more like… you don’t want it. You don’t seem to want to do wrong by anyone. The only reason Night City is going to learn about you is because they poked you. They fucked up.” She finished. “Makes me almost want to trust you, you know?”

“Yet you can’t, because your paranoia won’t let you.” I commented. “I don’t blame you. I’d be in the same headspace if I was in your shoes.”

That took the smirk off her face instantly. A moment of hesitation, of uncertainty followed as she looked up at my mask, paranoia etched on her face. There was no way I could explain to her that I come from a different world. Her world-view would not allow for such an explanation. So, I simplified it.

“I know some of what you’ve been through. I know your goal.” I spoke, relaxing my body language and switching off my voice modulator, trying to act as non-threatening as I could. “I just hope that if you ever find yourself way too deep, you’ll at least consider asking me for help.”

“And you’d fight Arasaka if it comes down to it?” She asked, raising an eyebrow, frustrated.

“Why wouldn’t I?” I shot back, “If I’m willing to go this far for Sasha, why wouldn’t I do the same for you?”

“Oh don’t kid yourself.” She snapped back. “It’s fucking Arasaka, not a subsidiary of Biotechnica. They have a standing army, not a small group of Maelstrom gonks.” 

“And?” I replied. “Do you really think I’ve shown you everything I can do?”

“You are no army, Ryan.” She sighed. “I don’t want any of you to die on my account if I can help it.”

“They won’t.” I replied. “Again, let’s not talk about this now. All I’m asking is that you keep an open mind about asking for help.”

She didn’t respond, choosing instead to level me with a thoughtful gaze before breaking eye contact. I hadn’t expected much to be honest, but at least this was better than her attacking me.

As the elevator dinged open, all I could hope was that my sincerity got through to her. I’d be failing David if it didn’t.

A funny thought, because I hadn’t even met the guy yet.

LB

Gloria POV

It was Ryan’s entry that changed the entire dynamic in the room.

One whole hour we had spent negotiating with the Biotechnica exec who ran Realfoods. One hour of posturing, accusations, and endless posturing. The man’s ego knew no bounds. Even after Rebecca and Pilar had decimated all resistance in their office, he sat there with a smug smile on his face, likely expecting some sort of rescue, some sort of way out. 

A complete unwillingness to compromise, the Corpo attitude I’d always loathed. That condescending smirk, like the gonk knew something I didn’t.

It all disappeared the moment Ryan walked in, dragging the half-dead body of what was presumably the exec’s final get out of jail card. Ryan casually tossed the borg at the marble table the corpo sat behind, as if the man didn’t weigh hundreds of pounds.

The borg’s head hit the desk with a sickening crunch of rock, metal, and bone colliding, and that was that. The way the exec’s expression morphed from superiority to abject fear.

“Not a fan of what I bring to the table, I presume?” Ryan spoke. His calm, deep voice sounded demonic behind that helmet of his. Unnerving even for me. To the exec? It was like a nightmare come to life.

“N-no! Not at all!” The Exec scrambled to regain control, but his facade had been shaken.

“Then should we move forward with our proposition?” I chimed in, pushing the dataslate over to him. We’d already sniped most of their contracts. Better fresh for cheaper, of course we’d win over clients. That was only the facade, though, as the data slate contained a well-formatted copy of each and every fucked up thing that Biotechnica had tried to bury over the course of its existence.

The threat that all of this information could be released on the net was our sword, and the video of Ryan dismantling their well-paid gangbangers without taking so much as a scratch was our shield. 

“It’s not something I can decide, ma’am.” He commented, but his eyes never met mine. I didn’t blame him. Looking away from Ryan’s terrifying visage was hard. 

Personally? I preferred him in his shopkeeper fit. Always loved a man in uniform.

“Then forward it to someone who can.” Ryan commented, sitting down on the chair next to me. The way Lucy moved to stand by his side was a showcase of control. A united front, all of our heavy hitters in one place, with two of our netrunners keeping us company via the net, all anchored by Ryan.

“That would be bypassing protocol. It would take time.” The man was trying to delay, trying to find a way to get out of this. I wasn’t having any of it. I tried to speak up, make a threat about releasing the information, but Ryan beat me to it.

“It would take me ten minutes to dislocate every single joint in your body.” He commented. “Which - coincidentally - is the same amount of time it’s going to take Lucy here to isolate you from the net. No trauma team for you.”

“So, for your own sake, I hope you can get a favorable response before you disconnect.” He finished, clicking his fingers together for emphasis.

The way the man sprang to action, making calls to anyone above him in the chain of command, was cathartic to me. 

So was my knowledge that he was wearing a satisfied smirk under that helmet of his.

LB

Ryan POV

Things moved fast after I threatened the man with physical violence.

Calls were made, data forwarded, back and forths between Gloria and C-suite executives followed, and over the course of the next two hours, we had everything we wanted and then some.

Realfoods would be pulling out of Night City. They had no clients, no way to expand that didn’t put them at odds with us, and no way to compete with our product. That was a good start, yet it was to be expected. 

They’d attacked us, they’d put Sasha in mortal danger. The only blood that had been spilled on their side was a few guards. The maelstrom were - after all - their own organisation. One I’d have to deal with in time.

No, we demanded reparations. Not in blood, but in capital. Their building was our building now. Their logistics and equipment? Ours. Their warehouse and the sub-par fresh they had stocked? Also ours.

More importantly, their rooftop greenhouse, the heart of their operation. Something I could use much better than they could. Something that could allow me to expand what I could do in this world.

Why were they being this generous? Two simple reasons. The evidence we had against them was incriminating beyond measure, and they couldn’t just ambush us and try to steal it as long as I existed.

And even if they did, what could they do when I came for them? They weren’t Arasaka. They didn’t have Adam Smasher on call. They weren’t Militech. They were the middle child, and that too barely. 

Even then, I needed pre-emptive defense. I needed someone in my court who hated the corporations as much as I hated them. Someone who could be my eyes and ears everywhere. 

It was the search for that person that made me take a rain check on Maine’s crew’s celebrations. While they headed to the Afterlife, I found myself wading knee-deep in trash, looking for a cryo freezer in the landfill near the Red Sands.

Even with my enhanced optics and sensors, it took me the better of three hours of wading through trash till I found it. The unmarked freezer that would have been so readily visible when V would pass by this landfill.

It definitely looked like it’d seen better days, and so did the corpse inside it.

I wasn’t here for the corpse anyways. I disconnected his cyber deck. It was interesting that even though the body had been stripped off every personal effect, even cleaned and preserved before the owner stopped paying for the cryo freezer, the deck was still there.

Perhaps it was because of the defenses on it, perhaps it was a sign of respect, I didn’t particularly care either way. The deck was useless to anyone who did end up finding it. Trapped beyond all measure, any runner stupid enough to use it wouldn’t live to tell the tale.

I was no runner, and while I wasn’t the smartest person ever, I understood the value of this deck, of what only I could do with it.

“Guess I’ll be the first to say this to you.” I chuckled, looking at the cyberdeck in my hands. A piece of trash that was nothing more than a trap for would-be grave robbers.

“Time to wake up, Rache Bartmoss.”

LB

“Have you been dumpster diving?” 

I’d been warned that my shop had a visitor while I was on my way back home. I had a few guesses as I walked in. Naruko and Kakashi were due a visit, as was Laxus. His mission should have ended by now, considering the difference in time between worlds.

Sasha was definitely not the person I’d expected to be in my shop. I’d expected her to be at the celebration. It was a big win for her, the culmination of her life’s goal. 

Yet here she was. No alcohol in sight, just a small, tired smile on her face, sitting on my countertop.

“How could you tell?” I asked as I put away Bartmoss’ deck. For all intents and purposes, she shouldn’t have been able to. The Armor had a self-cleaning feature that activated every three minutes. It should have removed any smell from the landfill ten times over in the time it took me to get back to the shop.

“You’ve always smelled different.” She commented, getting off the countertop and sauntering over to me. “Too clean for Night City. Too clean for the world me and mine live in.”

“Today? You smell just like us.” She finished, standing too close for comfort. “You smell like home.”

“Not quite sure how to react to that.” I responded sheepishly, removing my helmet and taking a deep breath. As good as the air filtration system in the helmet was, it still got stuffy as hell in there.

“Then don’t. We’ve done enough reacting today for the entire year, I’d say.” She spoke with a chuckle. 

“That we have.” I spoke, walking away from her as the armor slowly started to fall off me, one pneumatic hiss at a time. “God, I’m going to have to figure out a more elegant way to get out of that.”

“There’s a certain cinema to it.” Sasha commented. “Like a strip dance, minus the dance, or the ceremony.”

“Someone’s feeling chatty today, huh?” I shot back, turning to face her, only to feel her arms snake around my torso, wrapping me in a tender hug.

“Not that I’m complaining, but what’s this for?” I joked.

“Do you really have to ask?” She shot back. “In one day, not only did you save my life, but helped me accomplish something that would’ve killed me anyways.”

“Given time, I think you would have managed it all by yourself.” I commented, giving her head a little pat. I didn’t contest the part about her dying. I didn’t want to lie to her.

“Maybe, but let’s be honest, choom, it wouldn’t have been this clean, nor this pretty.” She commented as I felt her hands move up to my face.

“I know you’re trying to get into Gloria’s pants, guess I’ll have to apologise to her about this later.” 

She caught me completely off guard. Before I could process what was happening, she was pulling me down, rising onto her tip-toes, and her lips found mine. This wasn't a fleeting kiss; she immediately deepened it, our tongues entwining. I had the freedom to resist, the opportunity to push her away, but the impulse never came.

I couldn't withdraw. She mattered.

She broke apart first, gasping for breath, but with a victorious grin on her face. “Guess I was right all along.”

“Pardon?” I asked.

"I figured you were a bit of a horndog," she remarked, her fingers intertwined at the nape of my neck, compelling my focus entirely onto her. "The moment we met, I watched you check me out, even with Gloria standing right there."

"Honestly, it's impossible to not look at you," I confessed. "You're stunning, but you're well aware of that, aren't you?"

"I know it well, choom," she affirmed, drawing me nearer. "Honestly, I'm glad this doesn't feel... untoward."

"So how about we move this to your bedroom, then?"

Now I wasn’t going to say no to that, was I?

LB

The moment we stepped into my small bedroom, the weight of the day seemed to collapse into an urgent, electric need. I didn't get a chance to even look around; Sasha was already pushing me against the wall, her hands busy with the suttons on my shirt.

"No more talking," she breathed against my neck, her voice rough, laced with the excitement that had been bubbling beneath the surface all day.

"Agreed," I managed, my own hands finding the hem of her jacket, eager to shed the layers between us. The 'strip dance minus the ceremony' she'd joked about was happening now, fast and messy, driven by instinct. 

Her clothes were a beautiful wreckage on the floor in seconds, followed by mine.

She was all muscle and fire, her body a testament to the hard, unforgiving life she lived. There were scars I traced with my fingers. Faint lines of old chrome replacements, the ghost of a bullet graze, but they only made her more real, more desirable.

Sasha didn't wait. She maneuvered us toward my bed, a small, functional thing tucked into the corner, and pushed me onto the mattress. She wasn't asking; she was taking, and the sheer force of her desire was intoxicating. 

She was on top of me instantly, her weight grounding me, her short dark hair spilling over her shoulders as she bent down, reconnecting our mouths in a fierce, demanding kiss.

The noise I made was involuntary, a primal groan of pleasure and anticipation. I wrapped my hands around her hips, feeling the taut strength of her core, pulling her down.

When she finally slid onto me, her gasp echoed mine, a mutual release of tension that had been building since I’d put on my armor. She started moving with a frantic energy, leaning into the rhythm, her eyes squeezed shut, focused entirely on the sensation.

She was inexperienced, but motivated. I was experienced in theory, memetic knowledge from my augmentation. In the far, far future of humanity, the art of lovemaking had been perfected to a science. It was this knowledge I drew on as I pulled her down on to the bed, reversing our roles and taking the lead.

It was only right, after all.

"Look at me," I commanded softly, my hand lifting to cup her cheek, thumb finding its way into her open mouth. Mesmerised by the expression of sheer bliss on her face as I proceeded to fuck her brains out, I almost overdid it, suddenly finding it hard to hold back the urge to go harder. 

This body could break her, even with her own augmentations. What held my instinct back was care. No matter my impulse, I could never bring myself to hurt her.

Her eyes snapped open, blazing bright, pupils wide, a stunning mix of exposed vulnerability and fierce willpower. The instant our gazes locked, the frantic energy between us didn't vanish. It sharpened, slowing into a deliberate, powerful connection. This wasn't just physical desire; it was deeper, a shared sanctuary, a moment of profound relief in the face of a hostile world.

She shook like a leaf in a storm, writhing on the bed, her hands clinging to my back for dear life. Her sharp nails cut deep into my skin, yet I didn’t even notice, didn’t even care. My sole focus was to fuck her into submission, to make even the possibility of walking away from this bed feel impossible.

The connection was dizzying, a deep, satisfying pressure that obliterated all thought of chrome, Arasaka, and corporate espionage. There was only Sasha, the heat of her skin against mine, the sound of her breath catching in her throat, and the world dissolving into a singular, intense focus.

She relinquished the tight control she usually maintained. What she desired, she was still taking, our intertwined, perspiring bodies functioning as one machine hurtling toward a shared, climactic release.

Her voice, a heavenly symphony of moans meant only for me, cried out, "I'm coming!" I'd never experienced her so completely uninhibited, so uncontrolled, so utterly joyous.

It was like an aphrodisiac for me. I shut her mouth with my own. Kissing her gently while deep-dicking her with a vengeance. Enjoying the convulsions of her body as she orgasmed, and I wasn’t too far behind.

When it came, it was a blinding, total release, a wave of sensation that left her crying out, collapsing on her back, her sweat-slicked skin cooling against mine as I slowly pulled out and lay next to her.

I held her tight, feeling her heart pound a frantic rhythm against my ribs. We didn't move for a long time, just breathed together, the silence of the aftermath broken only by our labored gasps.

"Goddammit, Ryan," she finally murmured, her voice husky, her lips brushing my neck. "You really are something else."

"I could say the same about you, Sasha." I returned the sentiment, running my hand through her damp hair, feeling the solid, comforting weight of her body against mine.

"Up for round two, then?" she asked, a playful, catlike smirk returning. This time, however, the pretense was gone; no playful twinkle remained in her eye. Only a loving gaze, pure and full of happiness.

Something worth protecting.

I gave her a smile as I slowly pulled her face closer to mine, taking her lips in a chaste kiss.

“I thought you’d never ask.” I smirked, lining up my rapidly hardening member with her pussy once again.

It was a good night. Shame I didn’t get my six hours of sleep, but a dozen rounds to heaven and back definitely made up for it

LB

She’d left come daybreak.

Well, that was a lie. She stayed for breakfast. Couldn’t say no to my cooking after all. Neither could she say no to the surprisingly amazing atmosphere that we’d subconsciously created. 

There was no unresolved baggage. She’d wanted me, I’d wanted her, we’d fucked, and we were open to fuck more. No strings attached, not because there was no commitment, but because we already trusted each other. 

Friends with benefits. Simple, uncomplicated, and fun.

"As much as I wanted to keep you all to myself, I know a few people who’d hate me if I did." I interpreted her words as a compliment, just as I did the way she stumbled unsteadily out of my shop, something of a reminder of our amazing night together, and a warning to bring her A-game whenever she wanted a repeat.

With her gone, I was finally able to get to the notification that had been bugging me all morning.

Milestone Completed

Karmik Initiate - Earn a total of 100,000 KP

Workshop will be expanded

Helping Maine’s crew take over Realfoods had given me a good amount of KP. Helping Sasha get closure had gotten me far more. 

Fucking the life out of Sasha, meanwhile, had given me almost ten thousand KP all by itself.

New Constellations Are Available

Training Arena Has Been Added

Warehourse Has Been added

The shop had expanded the moment I’d closed the milestone notification. The shop had physically grown. More space on the floor, new rooms, the works.

Hell, the old storage room was now a warehouse that could house more materials than I could imagine ever needing.

Yet, those weren’t even the biggest upgrades. That honor belonged to the last, innocuous-looking upgrade I’d gotten.

Portable Shop Is Now Available

I could operate the workshop remotely now, and have my outputs be delivered to me wherever I went. One tiny change had instantly changed the ideal growth strategy for the shop. 

It was time for me to start stepping out into the world, it seemed.

LB

Arc 1 is over! Now we move into the next part of this story!

Also, first time writing a lemon! Hope I did it justice.