571 Date Night
Atlas didn't bother trying to stop the teasing about his upcoming date. It made the people around him see him as someone normal and not as the innovator of their changing future. He was still revered in their eyes; but, he also had normal needs just like them. He hadn't realized he needed that acceptance until he had it. Now that he did, he didn't want to lose it.
He left the underground complex wearing a normal and also fashionable outfit that caught the eye but didn't make him stand out. He drove a higher-end car out through one of the many hidden tunnels he had made all over the city and came out of an alleyway just down the street from the El Coyote bar, where he had agreed to meet Panam.
Atlas parked in an available spot and cast a slight notice-me-not around it, so the police wouldn't notice it was parked without paying the fee. He had thought about disabling the parking meter device and assumed it would cause an alert at whatever offices they had monitoring the things, so he left it alone. He did spoof the readings into registering the spot as empty, though.
He stood beside his car and wondered if he should wait outside for his date or if he should enter and settle down first. It wasn't really a difficult decision, because he didn't want to look like a gonk that hung around on the street in front of a popular bar while waiting for an input to arrive.
Atlas entered the bar and all conversation stopped. Nearly everyone inside turned their heads or their bodies to look at him and many assessing eyes took him in from head to toe. He stood there with confidence and let them. After a moment or two, they all went back to their business and started talking again, as if they hadn't just been interrupted mid-sentence.
He held in his laugh at that and only smiled, to show those still looking that he was amused at the scrutiny and not annoyed like a lot of people felt when subjected to the same thing. He walked over to the bar and an older woman was there behind it serving drinks. She gave him the same assessing look as he approached, so he needed to convince her he wasn't there to cause trouble.
“Has Panam shown up yet?” Atlas asked and she shook her head, so he sat down at the bar. “Give me a screwdriver, heavy on the screw. Use real juice if you've got it. If not, use a much bigger glass.”
Mama Welles barked a laugh and quickly did up the requested drink and it was in a bigger glass than a normal drink. Atlas sipped it and nodded, then handed over a small bundle of eddies in cash. She accepted it without a word and made up another drink, placed it on the bar, and whispered she'd keep them coming until the money ran out.
Atlas nodded back and turned partway around to scan the entirety of the bar. He wasn't going to waste the chance to see who was there and to find out if there was anyone he was looking for. Almost as if summoned, a quite short young woman with long green hair in pigtails and red eyes came out of the crowd and trounced over to the bar.
“We need another round.” She said and had a mix of cash and a chip with eddies on it.
Mama Welles took the cash without question and gave the chip a small glare. “Your brother's not welching again, is he Rebecca?”
The young woman named Rebecca sighed. “No, he just didn't have the cash, so it's a transfer.”
Mama Welles started to frown at it.
“May I?” Atlas asked and plucked up the chip and stuck it into the fake port in his neck.
“HEY!” Rebecca gasped and reached for it with surprising speed, only to have her hand caught by Atlas.
“I'm just checking the integrity and making sure Mama Welles doesn't get any backdoor hacks or malware in her system.” Atlas said and Rebecca pouted. When she pulled on her hand, he let it go, just so she wouldn't try to fight him.
“I appreciate that.” Mama Welles said and she genuinely was.
Atlas pulled the chip out and handed it to her. “It was mostly clean.” He said and the young woman next to him let out a huff. “There were only some extra stray bits and nothing harmful. I cleaned it up and only the eddies are on it now.”
“Thank you.” Mama Welles said and plugged it in, nodded and pulled it back out and handed it to Rebecca. “Give me a minute to get a tray ready.”
Rebecca nodded and hopped up to sit on the bar stool next to Atlas. “So, what brings a handsome guy like you to a dive like this?”
“Excuse me?” Mama Welles asked, her voice deadly.
“This ain't the Afterlife or the Clouds.” Rebecca answered and gave Atlas a teasing smile and picked up his second drink and sipped it. She gave him a look of approval and took another. “I've never seen you before, so you're either new in town or you've never been here before.”
“It's a bit of both, actually.” Atlas said and finished off his first drink and gave his second one a glance, then nodded at Mama Welles, whom quickly made him another and handed it over. “I've been a bit too busy for socializing until recently and I'm here waiting for a date.”
“Oh? Who's the lucky input?” Rebecca asked and swallowed half of the tall drink as if it was nothing. She licked her lips and smiled at the warm feeling that slid down her throat and settled in her stomach. “What's this drink called? It's going to be my new favorite from now on.”
“It's a double screwdriver.” Mama Welles said and set a tray of drinks on the bar. “And the lucky input just came in through the door.”
Rebecca turned away from Atlas and let out a curse when she saw a nicely dressed Panam standing there. Instead of her usual beige jacket, brown top, and tight jeans, she wore a sleek black dress that showed off a little cleavage and stopped at mid-thigh. She had even let her hair down and had it styled in waves that really made her usually pretty face stand out even more.
Her entrance had gained a lot of attention, most of it positive. Quite a few people let out whistles of appreciation, there were a lot of comments about the changes in her appearance, and then there were a couple shouted inappropriate offers.
“Fuck off, all of you.” Panam growled at them.
After a round of laughter and more shouted offers, she saw Atlas sitting at the bar and walked over to him. When he smiled warmly at her, Panam couldn't stop a blush from showing on her face. She wasn't sure why she was so affected by him, only that she felt like she did when she was barely a teenager and had gone out on her very first date with a much older and more experienced man.
Unlike back then, she knew the sex wasn't going to be disappointing or that it was the only thing he had wanted from her. Atlas did want a repeat performance, except he also wanted the other things she normally didn't associate with that kind of a relationship.
Panam had expected a friends with benefits thing to develop and Atlas made it clear that he wanted a lot more than that, which was such a novel idea that she was a bit nervous about how to handle it, having never experienced it before. This was new territory for her and she just hoped he wasn't disappointed.
“Drek, I'm outta here.” Rebecca said, put the half drunk drink she took from Atlas on the tray as well, and sauntered off into the crowd with the tray of drinks.
Panam barely noticed her, because Atlas had stood up and his well dressed form was almost a foot taller than her and she felt a shiver of pleasure at how good he had made her feel the last time he had been above her.
“Are we staying at the bar or would you like a more private space to...”
“Private.” Panam said and glanced behind him to look at Mama Welles. “Are they any booths free in the back?”
“No, we're booked up.” Mama Welles said, a bit proudly. Business has never been better. “You'll have to take your chances at the spaces around here.”
“We can do some mingling.” Atlas offered and Panam looked back up at him. “I'm sure you have a few friends around here that you can show me off to...” He paused and then smirked. “...and maybe a couple of rivals to rub it in their faces?”
Panam let out a little laugh and grinned at him. “Let's do that.”
Atlas reached back to the bar and picked up a fresh drink to hand to her and picked up his partially drunk one. He took her hand with his free one and motioned at her with his drink. “Lead the way.”
Panam sipped the drink, made a sound of approval, and moved off into the crowd to show him off. She actually did introduce him around to the people she knew and could find and a waitress showed up whenever their drinks were empty and delivered more.
The best reactions Panam and Atlas received were when they reached the table with Maine and his crew. She knew a lot of them didn't approve of her and her background, with them looking down on her for not being a true mercenary in their eyes, so she thoroughly enjoyed rubbing it in their faces that she had Atlas himself as a boyfriend.
When she said his name, half of them stiffened in surprise, mostly the men, and most of the women gave him looks of greed. The only ones that didn't were Rebecca, Dorio, and a redhead, with Rebecca trying to hide her embarrassment for trying to hit on someone else's boyfriend, Dorio because she only had eyes for Maine, and the redhead because she was with Falco.
“It's nice to meet you all.” Atlas said and reached a hand out for Maine to shake, since he was the boss. “I've heard about a few of the operations you've been involved in lately. The last one at Biotechnica was good work.”
Maine gave him a huge grin and clasped his hand to shake it. “It was a smack in the face the company needed and we sure did show them the error of their ways.”
Everyone at the table knew their boss was going to try and crush the new guy's hand and hid their winces as Maine's hand let out a whine of gears and hydraulics struggling. Unlike what they expected, Atlas only smiled and flexed his fingers. A loud crack sounded and was muffled by the loud music and everyone else talking loudly.
Maine looked shocked when his hand was let go and it was inoperable. In his scans, it was completely red and all related systems were down.
“I see you went with a Dynalar Tech knockoff for your cyberarm implants. They are inherently weak to crushing forces at key points in the joints.” Atlas said and pulled a card out of his pocket. “Cyberdyne has a great line of cybernetics that handles both maintenance and implants, usually at a discounted rate when people come in wearing parts that can so easily break down.”
Maine didn't take the card and just stared at his broken hand. It had never happened to him before and he had no idea how to handle the situation. He was the biggest and strongest of his crew and some guy he didn't know had just crushed his reinforced and custom built hand like it was a plastic toy.
“Hey, it's okay. Performance issues happen to every man at some point.” Atlas joked and the other guys at the table groaned as the women let out laughs and giggles. He handed the business card to the muscular woman beside Maine. “It's open until late at night, because the clerk thinks the only sales we'll get are at night when no one can see people sneaking into the store.”
Dorio took the card and thought about tearing it up, then she felt his hand take hers and she looked up at his face. The gentleness and understanding she saw on his face made her reconsider his offer.
“He's going to be just fine, even if he doesn't come in.” Atlas reassured her and she nodded. He let her hand go and turned to the tall blonde with short hair wearing a half face mask. “It's nice to see you in person, Kiwi. That was some good hacking when you overrode those Militech armored vehicles.”
Kiwi nodded and took his hand to shake it. She caught her breath when she felt something change within her and her hand tightened when he tried to let her go. “What did you do to me?”
“I ran a diagnostic and it's wonderful that you actually caught me.” Atlas said with a genuine smile. “Have you ever considered having your lower mask replaced? I've had extensive experience with a ripperdoc and I design my own cybernetics. I'd like a chance to help you rebuild it and add a few features you should like.”
Kiwi accepted the business card and she wasn't sure why she felt like he meant something different than what he just said. If he had run a diagnostic on her, then he knew her mask was nothing of the sort. It didn't cover her chin, since she had none. It was to hide her shame at being so disfigured and she hated what she looked like without the lower mask in place.
Atlas turned to the next person and smiled at Lucy. “You're gaining quite the reputation yourself as a powerful netrunner, Lucy.”
Lucy accepted the held out hand and shook it as she tilted her head slightly.
Atlas let out a soft chuckle. “You're waiting for it, I assume?”
“Yes, I want to know if...” Lucy caught her breath as he did what he did to Kiwi and she assumed he had done the same thing to both Maine and Dorio. She had never felt programming touch her like that before and it was a huge turn on for her. “Ohhh.”
Kiwi gave her a pointed look and Lucy blushed.
“S-sorry, it was just...” Lucy stopped talking and let his hand go. “How can you generate something like that? Is it a set program? Why does the feedback cause...”
“That's enough.” Kiwi said and put a hand on hers. “This is not the place to discuss that.”
“Yes, you're right. I apologize.” Lucy said and looked at Atlas. “I would appreciate an appointment to talk about this in a much better and secured setting.”
Atlas handed her a business card. “There's no need for an appointment. If I'm not there when you show up, the clerk can call me.”
Lucy took it and slipped it inside her outfit and out of sight.
Atlas turned to Rebecca and she pouted at him. “We didn't introduce ourselves, did we?”
“No, we didn't. I'm Rebecca and I'm one of the crew's heavy hitters.” Rebecca said and held a hand out for him to shake. “I might not have taken a shot at you if I knew who you were.”
Atlas laughed and shook her hand. She let out a soft gasp when she felt him send that diagnostic thing at her and she glared at him. He winked at her and let her hand go, then he held the hand out to her brother Pilar. He gave it a look and didn't reach out to shake it.
“Your arms and hands are fake, you gonk. What's he going to do?” Rebecca teased him.
“He crushed Maine's hand.” Pilar said and pouted in a similar manner as she had before.
“You didn't cheap out like he did.” Rebecca said and grinned. “Or are you a chicken? BOCK BOCK BOCK BOOOCK!”
The others at the table chuckled at her egging him on.
“If he crushes my hand, you're paying to replace it.” Pilar said and shook the offered hand, and felt nothing.
“High quality construction, a strong mix of alloys, and they did good work with the connections.” Atlas said and let his hand go. “I have no complaints. Whomever did it, you definitely got your money's worth.”
Pilar smiled widely and almost beamed happily at the praise. He did not notice a few of the programs had been fixed and streamlined to enhance their versatility and performance.
“I'm just the driver.” Falco said and shook the offered hand.
Atlas chuckled and let his hand go. “A good friend of mine is Delamain and he's just a driver, too.”
Falco chuckled as well and didn't tell anyone that he actually felt better after Atlas has scanned him. He suspected he did a little more than only a scan and kept it to himself. Why? Because Atlas was secretly helping the crew right under their noses and Falco wouldn't mention it until someone else did.
“And what's your role in the crew? I didn't hear any mention of you.” Atlas asked the redheaded woman that sat beside Falco.
“I'm not on the crew, despite their need for an EMT most times.” The redhead said and shook the offered hand. “I'm Gloria.”
Atlas looked from her to Falco and the man slightly nodded. He let her hand go and put his other arm around Panam's shoulder. “There's not a lot of room for dancing here tonight. Do you want to head out to somewhere else or is there anyone else here you want to hang out with?”
Panam looked conflicted, then she pulled him down to her height and kissed him. He turned to embrace her and the pair became a spectacle that anyone nearby quickly noticed and paid attention to. Panam broke the kiss and gave him a look that said he better take her soon.
“Right, my car's just outside.” Atlas said and kept one arm around her and quickly walked them through the crowds and out of the bar. A lot of envious eyes followed them, from both men and women.
They reached the car and Panam made an approved sound at the car and she blushed slightly when he opened her door for her and helped her inside. It was a bit controlling and she didn't mind it, because he was taking care of her and it touched something inside her that she didn't know needed to be touched.
He drove them down the street and entered the alleyway, then entered the hidden tunnel. He drove on and on, seemingly for a lot longer than she thought it should have taken to reach the underground complex, then they came out of the tunnel and it was on the other side of the city near the Coronado Dam.
Panam gasped when she saw the gaping hole where the PetroChem logo used to be and the gushing water flowing out into a channel. She watched it as the car drove around the access highway and then she gasped again when they reached the top and she saw the entire dump site between the two dams had been filled to three-quarters full of crystal clear water.
The car drove all the way to the other dam and came to a stop on the top, where Panam leapt out and ran over to the railing to look. She could easily see down into the previous Laguna Bend Reservoir and a large wrecked highway overpass was just jutting out of the water in the distance and the town below that had been flooded for years was almost visible through the surface of the dropping water level.
“I figure another three days of constant pumping should get the majority of the water out of the basin and the heat should take care of the rest.” Atlas told her as he stood beside her.
Panam turned to look at him with adoration as she grabbed him in a hug. “How? When? Why?”
Atlas chuckled. “How did I do it? I built a decontamination station on the other side of the dam, built a pumping station up here, and cleaned out the middle dumping ground after removing all of the contaminated dirt and debris, as well as all the garbage.”
Panam looked over at the large installation and back at him.
“When was yesterday, when I found out PetroChem wanted to set up the Wraiths to take the blame for attacking me when I was working on the pumping station.” Atlas said and Panam frowned. “As for the why, I spent a lot of time flying over the city and saw all those canals and dried up water places. I couldn't let all this water, as useless as it was, to just sit here for no reason. I could do something about it, so I did.”
Panam wasn't sure what to say to all of that, so she pulled him down into another kiss and made him hard. She let out a cute sound when she felt his hardness press against her and she broke the kiss and dragged him over to the car.
She shoved him inside and reclined the passenger seat, told him to plug into the advanced car, and then she plugged in as well to join with him, both mentally and physically. She soon fell into a haze of pleasure that had both her mind and her body singing his praises as she came, and came, and came again.
Panam eventually decided this was the best first date she had ever had and she couldn't wait to have another one. Maybe tomorrow night? No, too soon and she would look too eager and greedy. Two days was long enough to wait before calling to see him again, wasn't it?
She could force herself to wait that long, especially after she relayed to Atlas the massive food order from the Aldecaldos Clan. Well, she would eventually tell him about it when she was finished and remembered to do so. After sex bliss was not the best time for heavy thinking, apparently.