Rancho Coronado

  November 6th

  2069

  Sophie hadn’t spent much time in Santo Domingo. It wasn’t a district that held much of her interest, nor did it have anything she’d ever needed before. Now, though, she found herself walking through its streets, searching for a gym she vaguely remembered. It hadn’t been a prominent location in the game, only being used for a mission or two, which meant her memories of its location weren’t particularly clear.

  Paired with her unfamiliarity with the district itself and she found herself wandering the streets aimlessly. On the positive side, she got to see a side of Night City she hadn’t really seen before.

  She swept through Arroyo quickly, considering it was filled with corporate industrial complexes. Sophie didn’t think there’d be a gym in that area, nor did she feel the need to explore it too deeply. She had no intention of tangling with the corps, considering the weird situation she was already in with Ophelia.

  Rancho Coronado on the other hand, was starkly different. It was a weird part of the city, where individual homes still stood, despite being rundown. The people, too, felt different. There were no corpos, nobody with fancy chrome. Everybody she saw had a rough, weary air about them, moving with the kind of purpose that came from simply trying to survive another day. It didn’t help that smog clung to the air, stifling and oppressive.

  As she wandered the streets of Rancho, she noticed the overwhelming presence of 6th Street. They were everywhere; groups of them loitered on street corners, leaned up against rusted-out cars, or strolled through the streets as if they owned the place. Most wore some mixture of military fatigues, from green jackets to camo pants and almost all of them sported visible cyberware. They laughed loudly, smoked, and occasionally exchanged quick words with passing civilians, their interactions ranging from friendly to outright aggressive.

  Admittedly, Sophie found herself a bit disappointed in the military-themed gang. They’d originally formed from disillusioned veterans hoping to protect their communities but looking at them now, she just saw another gang, no different from the rest.

  “Guess their glory days are long gone,” she muttered under her breath, watching as a pair of them harassed a street vendor. The old man behind the stall was clearly annoyed but didn’t argue as they took a few items without paying. Sophie didn’t stop to watch further, though she wired the old man a handful of eddies. He looked around wildly but his benefactor had already left.

  She passed through a quieter street, where the buildings were older, their walls stained with years of grime. A few bugs crawled the alleys, darting behind dumpsters and beneath broken-down cars. Somewhere in the distance, gunfire cracked the air, but no one reacted; it was just background noise in a place like this.

  A short while later, she passed by a run-down residential block, the windows covered with rusted metal shutters and secured by mangled locks. As she walked by, she caught the sound of something happening inside one of the houses. But muffled yelling, chairs scraping against the floor and something heavy hitting a wall were common enough in Night City, let alone in Rancho Coronado.

  Still, Sophie’s steps faltered. She turned her head slightly, listening.

  Then she kept walking.

  By midday, frustration had settled in. She had covered a lot of ground, but there was no sign of the gym she was searching for. Sophie wasn’t sure whether the place simply wasn’t around yet, considering she was almost a decade early. Or maybe she was remembering wrong. Either way, her patience was running thin.

  She had taken a break near an old convenience store, drinking from a bottle of water she had grabbed earlier. She was just about to call it quits and leave when she heard the sound of shouting in the distance.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Curious, she followed the noise, slipping through side streets and cutting through an empty lot filled with debris. Eventually, she found herself in a relatively isolated section of the district, where a medium-sized building stood tucked between two taller, crumbling structures.

  The building itself was visibly old, its concrete walls cracked with age and graffiti scrawled across one side. A row of broken windows near the roof let in what little light the overcast sky provided, casting long shadows over the entrance. The sound of grunts and heavy breathing echoed from within, along with other, heavy thuds.

  It was only as she got closer that she noticed the rusted, partially broken sign above the doorway.

  ‘Mendoza’s Gym’ . At least, that’s what she assumed it once said. Half the letters had long since fallen off, leaving only a few barely legible characters. The metal was bent, and what remained of the sign swayed slightly in the breeze. The entrance itself was a heavy steel door, dented in places, with a security camera bolted above it.

  Even from outside, Sophie could smell a mixture of blood and sweat wafting out of the slightly ajar door. Sophie stood at the entrance for a moment, debating whether she should go in. Inside, the shouting continued; coaches barking instructions, the slap of gloves against heavy bags and the occasional grunt of someone taking a hit.

  She glanced around once more. The gym was located in an area where foot traffic was low, probably the only reason it hadn’t been overrun or turned into another gang-controlled hangout. A few bikes were parked nearby, their frames all looking pristine and suggesting that at least some of the fighters inside took their training seriously. For some reason, the sight of the bikes triggered a memory, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

  Sophie shifted her weight slightly, exhaling before stepping forward, hoping they’d be willing to accept a stranger into their midst.

  She hauled open the hefty steel door and moved ahead…Except she didn’t. Instead, she ran straight into something that was both soft and hard. She rubbed her head, stepping back to look at whatever she’d run into.

  The first thing she saw, at eye level, was a pair of what appeared to be abs, continuing up what appeared to be a body. Her head craned back as far as it could and she saw a large pair of chest muscles. Jutting out above the chest muscles was a face, looking down at her in amusement.

  Holy shit! He’s fucking huge!

  With her own height of around 150 cm, due to somehow not going through a final growth spurt yet, she could tell the man in front of her was almost double her height. How do you even get that big!? She took a few steps further back, making it easier to take in the massive wall of muscle and chrome in front of her.

  His shirtless white torso looked like it had been polished in the afternoon light, with small metal braces running along his arms. Arms almost as big as her torso flexed slightly, briefly demonstrating the ridiculous amount of power contained in the limbs.

  Most of the man’s body was covered by various scars, all clearly from vicious attacks, though he also had a number of tattoos, all seeming to be inspired by bears. The choice confused her, though she didn’t let it show.

  Her eyes scanned further upwards, ignoring the man’s basic set of track pants. His face was rough, with evidence of previous cuts and damage especially around the nose and brows. Unfortunately, she couldn’t see much else considering he had a heavy, white beard covering the bottom half of his face.

  “Hmm, are you gonna keep standing there like that?” The man’s voice broke her out of her thoughts. It was incredibly deep, as though he’d inhaled the gas that forcibly makes it deeper.

  “Ah! Sorry about that…” she said. “It’s just, well…You’re uh, pretty big, y’know?” She struggled to find the words to describe him without coming across as insulting.

  “Hmm, no problem. Why were you just standing around outside though? You don’t want to come in?” He asked.

  “Oh, I wasn’t sure if I could. This place is pretty out of the way, didn’t seem like you and your… friends? Were keen on having random people join in.”

  “Hmm, it’s not a problem. Are you interested in learning how to fight?”

  “I guess? I already know how to fight but I want to improve my martial arts.”

  “Hmm. That’s what we do here. We’ll see whether you really know what you’re doing, but you’re welcome to join us. We won’t say no.”

  “Really? That’d be great,” Sophie replied. “Can we start now?”

  “Hmm. We’re nearly finished for the day. Why don’t you come back tomorrow? Then we can discuss things?”

  “Oh. Uh, yeah. Alright. Sounds good. Oh! I’m Sophie by the way.” She held out a hand. She thought about giving him a different name, like she did with Ricky but he didn’t give her the same weird vibe the gun store owner did. The man looked at it, then reached out one of his own. Her entire hand and most of her forearm were engulfed by his palm as he shook it. Sophie seemed to feel her bones rattle for a moment.

  “Hmm. I’m Ursa, leader of this pack.” He gestured behind him, through the gym’s door. Sophie peered past his massive frame, face twitching slightly as she realised the gym she’d found was run by a pack of Animals.

  “Well, Ursa. It was nice meeting you. I’ll be here tomorrow morning, if that’s alright?”

  “Hmm. That’s fine. Nice to meet you, Sophie. See you tomorrow.” The man lumbered away before stopping next to one of the parked bikes. She watched in fascination as he squeezed himself onto the vehicle, which seemed ready to collapse at any moment, before slowly riding away. She shook her head, walking away and summoning her own bike. She had to decide whether she wanted to return the next day. Dealing with the Animals was…an interesting idea, and she wanted some time to think before she made the commitment.