Afterlife – Back Room
Maine leaned back in his seat, arms crossed, cyberarms humming with low, mechanical growls. Bee sat across from him, quiet as ever but impossible to ignore his glowing blue optics scanning every surface.
Lucy leaned on the bar, finishing her drink like she meant it.
"Heard what you did to that chrome psycho in Japantown," Maine said, smirking. "Lit him up like a Christmas tree in a lightning storm. Not bad."
Bee nodded once.
🎥 [Soundbite: "I aim to please."]
Maine raised a brow. "Don't talk much, do you?"
Lucy chuckled. "Not with words, anyway."
"We got a convoy in the Badlands. Militech tech hauler. Needs a little… detour." He dropped a shard on the table. "You and your chrome boy here in?"
"Depends on the cut," Lucy said, cool as ice.
"You'll like it."
Outside Afterlife – Just Before the Job
Lucy and Bee stepped out into the night air, the glow of Night City washing over them. As they approached the lot where Maine's vehicle was parked, they passed a young man in a school uniform lean, athletic, chrome peeking from beneath his collar.
He was leaning on a rail, listening to music through scratched-up earbuds, watching the Afterlife entrance with interest.
Lucy glanced at him as they walked by.
"Kid's too fresh to be this close to the Afterlife," she muttered.
Bee gave the guy a quick scan no threats detected, but there was a strange tension to him. Like he was caught between two lives.
The kid glanced back as they passed. For a second, their eyes met.
Bee gave him a subtle nod.
The kid nodded back.
And then Lucy and Bee were gone, slipping into the shadows.
The Upgrade – Kabuki Back-Alley Ripper
Back at a hidden garage run by an ex-Militech techie named Sprocket, Bee sat still as machinery buzzed and whirred around him.
"You got structural morphing nanoweb in here," Sprocket muttered. "Can't believe I'm saying this, but you could fold into something like a hell, a bike. Not fully-transform… but damn close."
Lucy raised an eyebrow. "You serious?"
Sprocket smirked. "Dead serious. I can build a bike-mode mimic. Fast, sleek, responsive. With thrusters."
Bee tapped his wrist in approval.
🎥 [Soundbite: "Born to ride."]
Two hours later, Bee stood now equipped with collapsible leg armor, magnetic wheel stabilizers, and a back-thruster array. His mimic mode looked like a futuristic street bike wrapped in armor.
Lucy looked him over. "You better let me drive sometime."
Bee crossed his arms.
🎥 [Soundbite: "Not a chance."]
Badlands – The Convoy Hit
The desert night was quiet.
Then came the thunder.
Maine's team hit the Militech convoy like a hammer Lucy shorting the drones, Maine blasting open the side of the hauler with a smartgun, Bee zipping between AV fire in his bike-mode mimic, boosting off sand dunes and skimming alongside armored wheels.
Lucy leapt onto the hauler and yanked the data shard from inside its mainframe.
"We got it!" she yelled. "Let's-"
BOOM!
The last escort vehicle exploded behind them.
From the smoke, a new figure stepped forward seven feet tall, chrome-black with a glowing red arrowhead visor. No human. No netrunner. Not even Smasher.
"Target identified," it rasped. "Cybertronian energy detected."
Bee's frame locked. Old data surged through his system like lightning.
🎥 [Soundbite: "You're not supposed to exist…"]
Lucy grabbed his arm. "Bee we run or we die."
He shook his head. And spoke, aloud:
"I fight."
Clash in the Wastes
The hunter came at him like a missile. They crashed together in a storm of sparks and metal Bee dodging with impossible speed, Lucy firing from the ridge with a hacked Militech rifle. But it wasn't enough.
The hunter buried its fist into Bee's chest damaging his core plate. Bee grunted, launched into bike mode, and boosted hard enough to crack the highway beneath him.
He turned mid-air, flipped back to humanoid form, and jammed his arm blade deep into the hunter's neck. Sparks exploded.
ZTTZTT-CRACK!
The hunter staggered.
Bee whispered, "Goodnight."
Then kicked it into an AV engine nearby, where it exploded in a blaze of fire and steel.
Back in Night City – Rooftop View
Lucy sat beside Bee, her hand resting on the warm plating of his shoulder.
"You really talked," she whispered.
Bee's voice was low, glitchy but real.
"First time in years."
"Why now?"
"Because I finally have something to protect."
Lucy turned to face him.
And kissed him.
Slow, long, deep. A spark of heat in the cold chrome night.
Bee didn't need a soundbite.
Rogue's Message
Later, as they walked through Little China, Bee's comm lit up.
FROM: ROGUE
"You're leaving a trail of broken chrome and corporate headaches.I've seen your kind before just not in this century.If you want the truth about yourself, come see me before someone else does."
Lucy looked over his shoulder.
"Friend of yours?"
Bee's optics glowed softly.
🎥 [Soundbite: "Let's find out."]