Both more and less than he thought.

After finishing cleaning ourselves up, I walked up to my clothes, channeled some of my technopathy through them, since technically they're created from one of my cybernetic implants, specifically, my omnitool combined with my engineering nano-swarm to craft memory metal clothes out of some of said nano-swarm that can completely be changed based on my own desires to whatever form I desire. After cleaning them(or rather, having them disassemble them reassemble back into the clothes they were before), I put them on and proceeded to alter my t-shirt to say 'These hands make both tires and girls squeal'. Evelyn blushes at it while Theresa snorts at my choice as a grin splits my face. After getting dressed, the three of us started lunch, since we completely missed breakfast. Apparently, the two of them are going to be closed for business today too.

Apparently, as a techo-organic construct who is still half-human, I can replenish energy through eating, though my half-Cybertronian nature means I don't need to eat as much to keep functioning unless I use up a hell of a lot of my energy to recharge it faster. Though given my own ridiculous NRG stat's reserves, it would take some seriously intense power usage for me to even begin feeling drained, That fuck for small mercies. I do still enjoy eating some things, like cheeseburgers for one. Shaking that errant line of thought, I begin to focus as Theresa and Evelyn finish their own portions. I need information.

I already shared some of what I've already learned and experienced with them last night, like what happened to me, where I've been for the last six and a half years, and some of the details of my new body. Some details, though, like the Video Game powers and literal Divine Intervention, I kept to myself for now. I'll tell them later on sometime, but not right now so they don't think I've gone cyber-psycho on them. As the two finish up, I clear my throat a bit to get their attention. As they swallow their last bites of food, I look at Evelyn and Theresa as I make sure I get their attention as they notice my serious mood.

"So, I told you two last night the majority of what went down with me these last six and a half years..." I give them both a serious look as I make it clear to them as Evelyn figits a bit in place while Theresa gives an equally serious look as she enters her 'business mode'. "...but I need to know what changes have occurred while I was out of it. Specifically, I have a big question I need to know."

"...""..."

Theresa and Evelyn both share a knowing look of resigned acceptance, as if knowing and wanting to hold off on this talk, but knew they couldn't delay it any further. Evelyn looked towards me, with a sad look as she spoke up. "We can pretty much guess what it is you want to know, Novak." Evelyn reaches over and takes Theresa's offered hand in comforting solidarity, as if this subject was going to be painful. Receiving a nod in gratitude, Theresa continues while locking her pink eyes at my own bright blue ones.

"This is about D-ray, isn't it."

Theresa didn't ask it as a question. Her tone made it clear it was a statement. And seeing the way Evelyn seemed to be on the verge of crying, my worst fears only came true. I knew these two for nearly four years when I entered college as a 16 almost 17 year old with D-ray joining me there as a freshman due to being two, almost three, years my senior, but still being a good guy and the best friend and brother in all but blood in name you could ever ask for. With a heavy heart, I asked the one question that mattered now, not the one these two indirectly confirmed with their response and clear hesitance to speak.

"...yeah. How did he die." I sighed out as I asked the big question I needed to know. The other things I can ask afterwards, but this was something that needed to be discussed. D-ray was not someone who could be so easily dismissed. His family was not something whose influence you could just dismiss so easily, and he could take care of himself in a fight if he had to. Even if he couldn't defeat his attackers on his own, he should have been able to at the very least hold them off long enough for any help to come to save him. So him getting killed did not make the slightest lick of sense to me. He wasn't some stupidly arrogant young master that let his pride dictate what he did or an incompetently useless rich kid who couldn't do anything on his own. He earned both his scars and place without over-relying on his family name or fortune.

I had to know.

"...that's just it, Novie. We don't know."

My eyes widened as Evelyn spoke up in teary-eyed sadness as Theresa squeezed her hand in a comforting show of support. I myself reached a hand out to take her other hand as confusion took hold within my mind. They don't know? Okay, time to try a new angle then...

"...let me rephrase the question then. How was he found dead, and by who?"

"It was the NDPD who found his body. It was five years ago, about 18 months after you went missing. D-ray saw on the news how Isaac Dickens had founded a new company...and how they were using your designs, claiming the credit for their creation. D-ray was absolutely pissed when he saw the announcement. He wanted to confront Isaac, find out where he got them and where you were, since D-ray knew you would never hand them over while you were still alive." The grim nod I gave pretty much confirmed that statement, especially when I told them that Isaac had tried and had actually succeeded in murdering me. Had I not got ridiculously lucky, I would still be dead right now.

"They were launching a raid on the Chrome-Bloods after the chrome-sniffing tweakers had a rather violent change in leadership." That got my brows to raise in surprise at that particular revelation. The Chrome-Bloods were a bunch of cyber-psychos waiting to happen, but the leader back then was at least a business-savvy man. Did he deal in some shady-ass illegal shit? Hell yes he did. Was he a chrome-skulled, tough-as-nails gang leader? You bet your fucking ass he was. But was he unreasonable in his dealings? Hell to the naw. Surprisingly enough, he was actually something of a stabilizing element for the Chrome-Bloods. At least, he was before my little years-long nap...

"The leader who got flatlined...was it Royce-Roid?" I asked.

"It was." Theresa confirmed my concerns.

"...fuck. Who took over? Iron Wolf? Glitter-Bug?"

The two shook their heads in denial. They were his two most trusted lieutenants. If not them, then who? Theresa's answer to my unasked question completely made me blue-screen for a few seconds.

"Brick-House. He killed him and all his loyal lieutenants by shoving them into an industrial dryer...while they were still alive."

"Say what?! Please tell me it was an automobile one and not a food processing one."

I begged for at least that small mercy in a vain, fragile hope that maybe for once, by some small miracle, that Brick-House was merciful for once-

"He killed them in the old canned food factory."

-and Theresa shattered that fragile hope for a small mercy like a sledgehammer to a glass house. Fucking hell in a hand-basket.

To say I was shocked would be an understatement. Brick-House?! That fucking mad dog!? The crazy son of a bitch makes cyber-psychos look like goddamned boy scouts in comparison to most of the insane shit he pulls! Hell, that bat-shit insane bastard is fucking creative when he kills his victims! I once heard about how the guy killed a bunch of his own guys by leaving out a bit of snacks and beer for them, supposedly for a celebration. An hour later, they were flat-lined and had their Cyberware and organs harvested to sell off. It was later discovered the food and drink was poisoned when several black market organs started killing people after testing their toxicity levels. The excuse used by Brick-House at the time? They touched his food and drinks without permission. He gave them that tainted food, then used it as their last meal!

Thinking back to those Chrome-Bloods I killed yesterday after landing back at the very place I 'died', I suddenly realized the lot of them were way too weak and their chrome was utter shit-tier. I thought they were just bottom-feeders at the very lowest of the gang's hierarchy. After all, shit-quality illegally modified civilian Cyberware and the odd bit of Bioware every now and then was the most common chrome used in the grunts with their cannon-fodder using shit-tier implants. When Royce-Roid was still in charge, the good shit, the military-grade implants, were reserved exclusively for the high-ranking lieutenants and leaders of the gang. But if Brick-House took over...well...it wouldn't surprise me if that selfish chrome-coated little prick kept and hoarded all the good shit for himself and nobody else. Suddenly, that 'big' chunk of EXP still sitting in my status window waiting for me to invest it doesn't seem so big anymore, given the shit quality of what they were probably working with.

If anything, I suddenly started to almost feel bad about bullying somebody weaker than I was. Almost. Until I remembered they were planning to harvest me like a damn top-grade cow in a butcher shop. Then whatever guilt I felt dried up and turned into pity for their shit-luck picking a fight with me.

"...fucking hell...and how the hell did D-ray's body end up in one of their chop-shops, never mind the very one the NDPD raided?"

"That's the thing. No one knows..."

Evelyn's teary-eyed response made me stop short as a very disturbing thought occurred to me.

"...you mean 'as far as anyone claims'...don't you..." A teary-eyed sniffle and grim nod from Evelyn and Theresa respectively were all the answers I need to confirm my growing suspicion. "Did you or anyone else try directing the investigation towards Isaac?" Theresa looked at me like I was asking a very dumb question.

"Yes, we did. But when they asked Isaac, he and his company claimed they never saw him prior to his death. At least not since they graduated from college. Despite the fact that several cameras and people saw him not too far from their company's office building three days before he was found dead. What's more, the time of death was right around the same time, just a little before. But it was deemed circumstantial evidence at the time, at best, and no additional evidence could be found that pointed to the lying bastard or anyone else under his command. Whether directly or indirectly."

I frowned at that as a sneaking suspicion got into my head as I began to think on this before I had an epiphany. The more I thought about it, the more this line of thinking made sense and the series of events lined up cleanly with the known evidence. And the worst part? It could be seen as the perfect crime, since no hard evidence could or would be found to corroborate it as anything less than a mere hypothetical scenario, much less a 'circumstantial evidence' case. Turning to look at the two, they see my face and know I figured something out.

"What? What is it?"

"...it's only circumstantial, nothing concrete...but...it fits perfectly with the evidence and known facts...even if it's nothing more than a 'hypothetical' since it can't be proven."

"What do you mean?" Evelyn's teary eyes look to me as she asks that question. I kept my eyes on the table, not out of shame, but out of growing realization of something that may explain the escalation to cold-blooded murder Isaac and them resorted to as a mean to ensure my silence. Realization...and dawning frustration.

"...you two probably don't know this, but back in middle and high schools, Isaac, Vladmir, Shaw, Leonardo, and Johanne were my primary tormentors as well. You both knew that I had history with the five of them, but not the full extent of it. You never asked, and I never told you girls. D-ray wasn't even fully aware of it, either. But..."

"...but what?" Theresa asked in a pointed manner of finding out something I knew and didn't tell them.

"...but the real reason why Isaac and his four stooges singled me out to make it their life's mission to make my life a living hell was because of what I caught them doing to get onto the sports teams and gain their college scholarships. All without getting caught." I lifted my gaze to look at them both before I continued. "I caught the five of them juicing up in an empty bathroom. Not neo-steroids. But growth hormones and biochemical physical enhancers."

The sudden realization from my admission got the both of them to widen their eyes in the same dawning realization I had at the thought. So I continued the line of reasoning. " Vladimir was the one who typically got them for the rest of them, as well as whatever other illicit or legally questionable goods or substances they 'acquired' in the past. Goods and substances that typically require having some not-so-legal connections with some legally questionable professions." The explanation and line of thinking suddenly made them realize where I was going as dawning horror and personal outrage grew with each additional train of thought this revelation gave the two beauties.

"Vladimir O'Reilley gave them illegal drugs to help them and aid in their respective vices, on top of his extortion and mugging operations. Johanne Kreuer would often use such substances for drugging girls who caught his fancy so he could have his way with them uninterrupted or without resistance on their part. Shaw McCarthy was their little thief and forger, infiltrating different social circles then stealing their work for his own, usually after twisting some things around just to avoid looking like he completely copy-and-pasted it with his name replacing theirs on the work. And Leonardo Dantellion is their brutish thug and in-house muscle."

I turn my gaze between the two ladies sitting across from me, before I deliver the coup-de-grace for my little theory for their respective roles with this new piece to the puzzle they hadn't known before now. "And Isaac Dickens is their ringleader. The one who directs their little shady activities and covers it up using the other's expertise in their respective illicit skill-sets in conjunction with his own influence and status. The brains of their little illegal operation, now graduated into a full-fledged criminal empire." The increasingly pale face Evelyn shows is matched by Theresa's horrified outrage at the implication of this theory and her frustration at not being able to prove it.

"...no..." Evelyn gasped in a soft whisper, not wanting to think it was true.

"You had better be joking." Theresa warned in a tone saying everything her words didn't and more.

"...D-ray went to confront Isaac at his own company about my designs, how he got them, and how he had somehow stolen them and knew something about my disappearance. Something more than he admitted to when I vanished. He was seen walking in the same direction as his company, but officially, no one knows what became of him between that last sighting and his corpse being found in that chop-shop. But unofficially? When he confronted them, they surprised him from his blind-spot, drugged him with untraceable date-rape drugs, forged the video files of their immediate surroundings of the office building to cover their tracks, altered their entrance and exit records, then used their respective connections and skill-sets to cover it up by dumping him somewhere where the Chrome-Bloods nabbed him. All while covering their tracks. Then during Brick-House's hostile takeover of the gang, he gets ripped apart as they stripped him of his organs, Cyberware, and his life. An insurrection they could only know and profit from if they had ties and connections within the gang giving them insider knowledge through Vladmir's illicit connections, which wouldn't be too surprising either, since the Chrome-Bloods are involved in practically every illegal black market trade that exists. Including illegal biochemical exodrugs that can fool the standard drug tests."

The looks of growing horror on Evelyn's face and barely-suppressed outrage on Theresa's make the fact what I'm implying would suggest a level of conspiracy and coordination to keep their crimes from coming to light going back years, if not decades, of continuous practice. Which means they've had just as long to cement their criminal empire's rise to power through legitimate fronts so convincing, no one would know any better. Those in a position to do something about it legally would not be able to find a smoking gun, while those who would find out would be deliberately kept out of any means of contacting those who could do something about it.

"It's practically the perfect crime. Legally speaking, there's nothing one can do to bring them down, as there's no concrete evidence to actually support it. No witnesses with a solid enough credibility to report their crimes, as they silence them all socially, politically, or in the event they can't discredit them...permanently."

The weight of the implications of what I just revealed made the stakes of exposing them all the more dangerous. If we screw this up, at least one of us could die. Just like D-ray did. Just like I was. Evelyn was a picture of shocked disbelief something so horrible could be happening like this and nobody noticed until now. As for Theresa..well...

"...are you fucking kidding me, Novak. Are you seriously saying there's abso-fucking-lutely nothing we can do to see them punished for their crimes!?"

I then turned to Theresa as I spoke in a cold, eerily calm tone. A tone both ladies recognized. A tone that got them both a little nervous. A tone I only used when I am planning to absolutely ruin somebody's life in a manner they will never recover from no matter what they try to salvage or restore their destroyed livlihood.

"That depends, girls."

In an understandably very nervous tone, Evelyn shared a worried glance with Theresa before she asked what they were both thinking.

"Depends on what, Novak?"