Working at Lizzie's was more often than not, a simple job for Judy. She could work on virtues and braindances day in and day out, but rarely anything exciting happened to her, and she preferred it that way. Sitting in her little hole in the basement of the bar, she would keep an eye on things going on in the bar with a monitor of cameras but most times nothing would catch her eye. While working on a new BD one day in early spring, a figure on one of the bar's cameras caught her eye.
"Not every day you see a suit with chrome like that." Judy mused aloud.
She watched the screen in front of her with interest as the camera in question stopped on a lithe feminine figure with a form hugging deep red dress shirt on. The figure had curves in all the right places, and the outfit she wore helped accent them. The chrome dots and lines on her pale forearms, shown off by the rolled up sleeves of her shirt, hinted at something hidden in her arms. While the woman's attire looked normal for a suit, her bright pink hair, head shaved on one side and down past her shoulder on the other, didn't match and was almost comical to look at.
Judy followed the woman with the camera, watching as she moved through the crowd on the second level of the bar. This woman walked with a grace and power that mimicked what Judy had seen of a lioness in old videos. The woman walked through the bar until she stopped in front of a corner booth occupied by a large hispanic man that Judy pegged for a Valentino. The woman stopped in front of the table, her back to the camera, hips cocked to one side and Judy couldn't help herself but check out the woman's ass. Judy shook her head in confusion when the man stood up suddenly and rather than throwing a fist like she expected, pulled the woman into a big hug like that of an older brother meeting up with his little sister.
"Who is she? Who are these two?" Judy mused aloud, her eyes not leaving the screen.
Judy kept watching as the two sat down and seemed to be talking like old friends or family. As she watched, the woman seemed to get more and more nervous, her body ridged and her gaze darting all around like a caged animal. Only minutes passed before the screen was filled with a couple of suited goons that blocked her vision of the woman in red. After only a couple moments, the hispanic man seemed to get in the faces of the suits, and only a few breaths passed before the suits left, leaving the hispanc man stood over the woman who was now sprawled out on the seat of the booth, twitching in visible pain.
"Just another corpo rat getting crushed." Judy sighed, she watched the two a few moments longer before resetting the camera and going back to working on the forgotten BD. "Shame, least that suit had a nice ass."
Judy stood at the bar of Lizzie's next to Evelyn, back leaning on the bar, arms crossed in front of her. Shaking her head while Evelyn explained what it is she needed. Judy was glad her best friend was alright, but the more she talked, the more Judy didn't like what she was hearing.
"So when's this merc gonna show? How do you know they didn't already back out on ya?" Judy asked. The two women had been waiting a few hours now, but Evelyn had told her that she was in no rush.
"She'll be here soon Judy. My fixer just let me know that he just got done making sure she's up to it." Evelyn reassured.
"What do you even know about her? Somethin' special or just another merc off the street?" Judy asked, her eyes scanning the crowd.
"She used to be a rat, but a very good one at that. I picked her myself and told my fixer who it is I wanted, he's making it happen." Evelyn took a sip from her drink looking towards the door as the bar was filled with light from the outside for a moment. "And it looks like she's here."
Judy watched the new arrival and her mouth hung open slightly. She had seen this woman before, her bright pink hair was longer than the last time, but the grace and power of her stride was unforgettable. The woman's eyes scanned the room like a predator looking for her prey. While before the woman looked out of place in a suit, now walking through Lizzie's bar wearing combat boots, tight leather pants and a tank top seemed much more fitting on her. Judy's eyes briefly hovered on the revolver strapped to her thigh that was almost as big as the thigh it was strapped to. Her gaze drifted to the ends of a shotgun slung over the merc's back that was almost as big as the woman carrying it. Judy's gaze lifted to the woman's exposed arms and upper chest that was covered in ink depicting floral patterns that somehow didn't seem out of place on the woman's body. Judy realized that she had been staring for a few solid minutes when her and the merc locked eyes, the merc's red irises seemed to light up in amusement and a smirk made its way across the merc's face.
The merc, having very obviously spotted Judy's lingering gaze, seemed to exaggerate her movements, her hips swaying more with each step. Judy turned back to Evelyn, her face a bit flush, much to the other woman's amusement.
"I'll be downstairs waitin'." Judy stammered before heading to the back, not giving her friend the chance to comment.
"Evelyn Parker? DeShawn sent me." The silky smooth voice of the merc was just audible above the loud music of the bar before the doors closed behind Judy as she headed to the back of the building.
Judy heard a giggle as she walked coming from one of the Moxx girls that was leaning on the walls of the back hall.
"That merc really got under your skin huh, Jude?" The girl teased as Judy walked past. "Looked like she wouldn't mind eating you up."
A shiver went down Judy's spine at the thought. She needed to focus, but she couldn't stop thinking about the woman's gaze and how it made her feel small and yet eager. She had to get the merc out of her head before Evelyn was finished talking biz with her.
Judy reached her little hole in the wall in the bar's basement and set to getting the BD editor and players up and running. At least with her work she should be able to focus.
As V followed Parker through the back halls of the bar, her eyes never stopped moving. She knew eyes were always on her, and she always caught someone staring. Her years spent in Arasaka Spec Ops had instilled in her to keep her senses and always be looking for the knife aimed at her back. Her habits from Arasaka had kept her alive for the last six months after being forcefully terminated, and even when she had a good idea that she could ease back on her guard, instincts were hard to ignore.
Everything Parker had told her so far made sense and as of yet the job, though extremely risky and dangerous, seemed carefully laid out. She knew Arasaka's playbook, she even helped write some of it, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something huge would happen to her because of all of this, even without the potential fortune she would make off it.
Following Parking to the basement, the two stopped short at a door in the basement. V could see a server room through the windows of the door, but snapped her attention to Parker as the woman turned to face the merc.
"Judy's always been there for me. Always helped out and I trust her." Parker's veiled threat lying just under her words. "But she's a Mox, not a new member of your crew. So be a good girl and keep your tongue on a leash."
"I'm not new to this, and you know that." V bit back. "I didn't make it up 'saka's ladder by being a leak."
"Good." Parker smirked, turning to walk through the doors.
V followed the other woman to another room next to the servers below Lizzie's. She let out a low whistle as she looked around, between all the tech and information she saw flashing by, Parker's BD editor knew more V would have thought.
After scanning the equipment, V's gaze fell to a woman sitting in a chair next to a bank of monitors. The woman in question wore overalls with one strap undone, a plain cut-off tank, and a BD wreath on her head, currently active and flickering. V bit down on her tongue quickly to remind herself that she was here on business. She had locked her gaze with this woman upstairs for a few moments, and to say that she didn't instantly grab V's attention would be an understatement. The woman sitting in the chair had an ease to her that made V feel strange, she couldn't place it, but V knew that any odd feelings she got about people, it would be best to listen to them. She'd need to talk to Misty about it later to get any more clarity.
"Ahem." Parker cleared her throat, snapping both V and the other woman's attention to reality.
"Hey, there you are." The woman looked up to Parker before meeting V's eyes.
"This is V. She's here for that BD roll. And V, this is Judy, best braindance editor I know." Parker introduced the two.
"Enough, already." Judy complained, looking a bit more red than before. "Gonna make me barf."
"Impressive set up." V noted, looking around and trying to stay focused. "Wouldn't have expected all this just to edit BD's."
V looked back to Judy and their gaze met once more while Judy began rattling off pieces of tech that V didn't pay attention to, she was too busy studying the other woman, the small tattoos that were showing on her arms and chest, the way her green and pink dyed hair moved as she talked, the lines of her cheeks and jaws and how they shifted while Judy spoke.
V bit down on her tongue again, trying to focus on the task at hand the, the taste of iron in her mouth helped some. She adjusted her stance and saw that she wasn't the only one having issues staying focused.
It wasn't a normal day for Misty when V burst into her little shop, but Misty knew that her friend would stop by again. Misty had a feeling surrounding V ever since she left with Jackie earlier that morning, the former corpo agent would come back with questions and feelings that she didn't even know she had. Misty was usually right about these things, and it didn't surprise her when the merc opened her mouth.
"Hey Misty, I need some girl advice." V stammered out "I don't understand what just happened, it felt like something out of a cheesy vid."
"Sit with me V." Misty smiled and motioned to the set of chairs in her shop. "I knew sooner or later this would happen."
"What do you mean?" V questioned, sitting down next to her friend.
"You've only been free to be who you really want to be for the last six months." Misty placed a hand over one of her friend's. "You haven't been able to let yourself feel anything or explore anything that's truly you since we were teenagers.
"You went into Arasaka at sixteen, and you had been with them and controlled by them for eleven years before they tossed you aside. You spent your life almost completely involved with the corpo world and never had anything to yourself. Only people you knew outside of Arasaka were me, Jackie, and Vic for years."
V looked down at Misty's hand on hers. She could never figure out how Misty knew things before V ever told her. V knew the truth to her words, she knew that there was too much that she missed out on while giving her life to the biggest mistake she'd ever made.
"So what do you feel then?" V asked her friend. "I'm not gonna say what happened yet."
"Well, you're tense and confused with your own emotions." Misty mused, "Did something happen?"
"I don't know, I went to meet with the person that's hiring Jackie and I for this mission. She had a BD for me to watch that had a ton of intel we need for this job." V started her explanation looking down at her hands. "When I got to the spot to meet her, there was another person there, a friend of hers that I can't stop thinking about."
"Sounds like this is the first time someone has caught your attention." Misty giggled, a grin on her face.
"I've been with people before, Misty." V glared at her friend. "Only had one output last a year with me, but this doesn't feel the same. There was a moment where she pulled me out of the first BD to get used to the system. She was standing next to me, leaning over me and there was real concern in her eyes. I haven't seen that with anyone before."
"You felt a connection to her and from just that, sounds like she felt something too." Misty smiled at her inexperienced friend. "Just try and enjoy what you can, V. Don't rush into anything and just do what feels right to you."
"Very little feels natural to me anymore Misty, but thanks." V smiled sadly, "If I need any help I'll come talk to you again."
"Any time V."
"She did give me her number, said if I needed any help with editing again to give her a call." V smiled nervously to Misty, who couldn't contain her giggling.
V leaned against her car out in front of the All Foods Plant waiting for Jackie to show. He'd agreed to meet her out in front an hour ago, thankfully she had learned patience from her time in Arasaka years ago. While she had known Jackie almost all her life, she could never understand his lack of timing when it came to anything involving her. Unless there was a timer ticking down, Jackie preferred to take his sweet time.
V pulled up her phone connection and checked her messages. Still nothing, as usual. V let out a heavy sigh, the breath leaving her lungs just in time to hear the roar of Jackie's bike roar and pull down the street in front of her.
"Thought I'd die of old age before you showed!" V called out, stepping away from her car.
"Sorry, 'bout that chicca, had a conversation with a little birdie." Jackie commented, a telling shit eating grin across his face. "And that little birdie told me you got the butterflies for once."
"That little birdie of yours also tell you to mind your own biz?" V prodded back. "And did she also tell you I have no Idea what to do about it? I gotta figure something out once this job is done."
"Don't worry chicca, you got the best wingman in Night City backing you up." Jackie laughed and slapped her on the back. "Now come on, let's get this over with. Don't wanna be around these borg fuckers longer than we need to."
A/N: Thanks for reading! No promises on any updates, just expressing my interest in CP2077 and giving writing a try again.
Some things will be different, but combat or anything like that will not really be a part of anything I work on with this. Just planning on it being interactions between characters when "gameplay" isn't really happening.
Let me know any thoughts!