A Fox in the Shop

He needed some new iron, and he now knew where to get some.

Snow stumbled wearily through a door with a sign that promoted the use of cigarettes indoors, and forbid the drawing of firearms subsequently. Another sign advertised “ID free sales!” The doorway had been adorned with bright pink, blue, yellow, and grey chunks of plastic. A citizen from the past may not be privy to what they were, but the modern Night City resident would know at a glance they were non-functional polymer gun parts, likely disfigured and dented from cheap manufacturing - or use.

After his third run in with agents chasing him, he realized while his metallic body outclassed their cyberware, his weaponry did not. As he escaped time and time again from the clutches of the mercenaries sent after him - the seemingly infinite budget of the megacorp - Arasaka - equipped them with kinetic bullet resistance augments and pneumatic stabilizers. This is what led him to the Blackpowder Resort, a “less than legal” firearms dealer. He needed better firepower. His .48 calibre pistol no longer enough to support his actions throughout the city.

He pushed the door open, and it rang against a chime of bullet casing hanging from the hydraulic closing mechanism. The store was small, and cramped. The walls were alternating metallic grey and black, stained with ash. Firearm manufacturer advertising posters covering them, a mixture of duct and electrical tape holding up their ripped seams. Where posters didn’t cover the walls - rifles and marksman rifles. Pistols and shotguns. Shrapnel grenade launchers of some kind. Weapons of all sort filled the shelves. Red and blue holographic counters rapidly flicked through various prices, automatically changing every couple seconds to reflect the item price proportional to the stock price of the various manufacturers. Bullet casings that hadn’t been bothered to be swept up clouded the floor next to the displays, and old military-grade protective vests sat in heaps beneath the shelves. There were no bullet presses. It was far cheaper to just buy the bullets rather than reuse the casings. Small boxes of various rounds sat in piles, a grey plastic pallet sat packed with 9mm and tape next to the door.

The store was practically empty of customers. A man concealing some kind of metallic cyberware just beneath his face stood behind the counter. He polished something silver in his hand, presumably some gun component. His eyes did a scan of Snow as he walked in, then looked back down. Snow was used to being stared at on the street. While it wasn’t out of the ordinary to see androids such as himself around, it was uncommon to see one as ratty as him. Usually they were flanked by other Arasaka agents or soldiers, clean, and generally don’t look like they crawled out of a dumpster… the quiet of the store, and the brief glance only was a welcome change.

The man behind the counter wasn’t the only one in the store however; and he wasn’t what caught Snow’s eye. Another figure stood in the corner examining a weapon on display. Some kind of shock taser - Snow couldn’t tell. The figure had an unusually large cloak over their body - with what Snow presumed to be antennas poking up from under the hood. Curious to keep them concealed. They had a backpack slung over their shoulder, patches and nylon holding together a mess of black wires, and slim antennas poking out of a half-zippered gap. They were darkly dressed, in contrast to the many bright signs and buildings of the city. Snow felt as if the figure could feel him watching.

With no further mind, he wandered the narrow streets of the store. After mulling it over in a rented motel he had been staying at, he decided that a short range weapon would service him best. Some kind of submachine gun. Though he would’ve like a longer range rifle, he wasn’t particularly skillful with one (according to his status report). In an ambush, something concealable with a lot of bullets would be highly effective.

As he looked over the models on display, he picked up a presence near him. Someone was standing nearby. Snow turned and- oh. The cloaked figure stood next to him. Taller than he had initially realized. The cloak hung off their shoulders, and Snow could see a lean body. However, this wasn’t what stunned him the most.

The figure was a fox. Or- something of the sort? It stared at him with piercing yellow eyes; organic, biological eyes. Black and grey fibers - no - real fur stood next to them, sensitive and alert, with slight hints of orange. It looked rough, like an alley dog. A maw with the same dark collection of fur stuck out towards him, teeth bared and- was that a smirk? Couldn’t be. The fur was bunched up at the rear of the thing’s head, tied with some kind of rope or wire. It’s whiskers twitched in anticipation.

He stood - locked in place, locked in time, as the entity stared at him. Snow, by reflex, attempted to scan it but no recognized signature appeared in his database. This was something else entirely - something completely unrecognizable to him. He was wildly uncomfortable. He felt as if the being was trying to scan him; but no digital components had been identified by him to even give it that capability. Was this what being intimidated felt like? Snow had never experienced such a feeling. All he had ever fought were entities he knew. Arasaka, a couple of chem junkies, maybe a gang or two. This was unknown, and he didn’t like the unknown. He was frightened.

“What are you looking for?” Words escaped the thing’s maw. Snow, still frozen, did not reply. It was built surprisingly lean. Perhaps even thinner without the length of fur that seemed to cover its body. Snow’s bright blue glowing eyes shifted across his visor and over the body of the creature, slowly. The creature - extremely aware of this it seemed - stepped closer. Snow reflexively stepped back, his tail bumping the barrel of a gun propped up vertically against a display case. It fell to the floor with a loud polymer thud.

“I- uh. Shit,” Snow bleated out as his paw found footing behind him, his digigrade legs moving to support him. His clawed hand missed, then grabbed the display case to support him as he looked up at the creature. It was almost as if it was salivating just staring at him. He was imagining it. It was hard to speak. He was feeling painfully aware at how tiny the store seemed to feel. He needed to gain control of the situation now. “Step back from me,” Snow squeaked. Fuck. If this thing hadn’t realized he wasn’t a normal android by now, it sure did now. It smirked at him. “Try the Duster-45.” It said. It took him a second before realizing it was talking about the weapons on display.

With caution, Snow turned around to look for the suggested weapon. It was nearby, on the rack behind him. He reached out and carefully removed it from the display. His cybernetic retinas washed over the amalgamation of plastic and metal, deciphering it from some kind of tool into the item of destruction it was. Open bolt, 40. with a folding stock and Kiroshi optical display link. Not a bad suggestion.

Snow looked back up at the creature. It was still looking at him, less mockingly and more… curious. Snow felt as if they had met before at some point, but he couldn’t remember where.

“I know why you’re here,” it said. Snow tilted his head in response, trying to understand. “There’s a power transformer array a couple blocks from here,” it explained. “Inside, there’s a terminal you can uplink to. It’s connected directly to Arasaka tower to provide energy usage data.” The fox turned it’s head slightly away from Snow, instead choosing to look at another firearm on the rack. “It’s not going to have any security access to the tower on it’s own, you’ll have to privilege escalate if you want anything useful, but-“ the fox stopped. It’s eyes darted over to Snow again. “You seem capable of such a thing.”

Snow felt his central heatsink grow warmer than usual. This was odd. He wasn’t in combat, so why did he feel like he was? Was he overclocked? The fox’s eyes narrowed at Snow and the slight smirk reappeared on it’s face. Snow had to stop himself from bringing his paw to his visor to check if his display was working correctly.

“How do you know any of this?” Snow asked, trying to regain composure. “You’re blushing,” the fox said simply. “WHAT? No I’m not! That’s not even a function I have in my library! I’m a Duosight-13! It’s not even possible! It’s a military android, why the hell would they program that into the system? I’m not some android off Jig Jig street. This is ridicu-“ the fox rolled its eyes as Snow frantically motioned to his face. It stopped him by grabbing the front of his visor, and snapping his mouth closed. “My name is Eris by the way,” it interrupted. Snow shoved the paw off his face. “Snow.” he said grumpily. “Anyways, the transformer array,” Eris motioned to the door, “are you in?” “You’re the only lead I got. Fine.”