Night City, a city run not by the government, but by corporations and their private armies. A city of hopes and dreams that one could make it big. Of course, reality was so much more bleak than a ripperdoc's clinic. For Night City was nothing more the a playground for mega corporations, street gangs who fight for territory, organized criminal syndicates, and so much more that it was no wonder the suicide numbers arent higher then they already are. However not all is bleak in Night City, for if you can't cut it as a hard working citizen, then you can try for the more 'lucrative' jobs such as street mercenaries. Of course these individuals like to call themselves Cyberpunks.
One such mercenary was David Martinez, a relative newcomer to the Edgerunner team. He sat down on the hood of a car with a drink in hand, watching as a woman with light blue hair was getting an ear rape from another crew member with elongated limbs.
Of course, what caught his attention was their leader, Maine, who was a dark skinned tall and large framed man with a good amount of chrome which was mostly strength based, walking off away from the party.
Curious, David shadowed Maine and what he saw shocked him as Maine was seen talking to none other than the CEO of Alucard.
"Look, we got you the car and data, so what's the problem?" Asked Maine with a clearly agitated voice.
"The problem is that your means of acquiring the vehicle has possibly alerted Arasaka to our involvement. Now they are on high alert and our spies are possibly compromised. That data is important, make no mistake about that, but this cost lives that could've been saved if your operation went smoother."
The CEO, Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes, was tall with pale skin, yellow eyes, and with long platinum blonde hair that reached the small of his back. He wore a black suit with no undershirt, showing off his chest. He wore black dress pants with leather heeled boots while his overcoat was hanging on his shoulders.
Maine just huffed as he asked, "So what, you gonna cut our pay because of a simple complication? Also why the hell ya need the data anyway? The last corpo war was not good enough for you and your pops? Cause last I checked you and Militech gave Arasaka a good bloody nose." David stayed silent as he watched the interaction, but questions were racking in his brain as to why the crew was working for a corpo.
The Son of Dracula grabbed Maine by the throat and pinned him up against the wall and growled, "Do not push me, boy. This data is worth more than your entire crew's lives. Speak ill of my father once more and you will lose more than just your pay."
Maine choked and clawed at the man's hand before the CEO dropped him onto the floor before beginning to walk away. His eyes glowed bright blue, as did Maine's, signalling the transaction of eurodollars.
"I'll be sure to contact you if I have any more jobs for you, but I expect a flawless performance next time." He said before climbing into a limo with Alucard printed on the door.
David was shocked as he stayed hidden with hand covering his mouth trying to stay quiet, hoping he wasn't noticed, of course that wasn't the case as in the limo, one of Lenore's children, a woman by the name of Lena, was dressed in a suit looking at Adrian.
"Sir, the target was there in the shadows. We could have grabbed him and find out why the Arasaka executive is so interested in him." She said in as neutral and respectful a tone as possible so as to not anger both her boss, head of Tepes Counter Intelligence, and Prince of all Vampires.
"We'll deal with that later. We have enough problems with the ringing bell those fools made." Adrian, the CEO said before closing the door of the limo and it drove off.
Maine breathed heavily as he held his throat and muttered, "Fuckin' asshole."
David decided to slip back to the party and act as if he didn't hear anything, cause in Night City, loose lips equals slit throats and when Corpos are involved, it mostly results in a bullet to the head. 'What the hell did I get myself into?' was what David thought, not noticing Maine returning to the party.
Maine sat down on the hood of the car that David was, and sighed as he held a Spiked Spunky Munky in his hands. He took a sip when Dorio, Maine's right hand sat down next to him.
The party went on and once David calmed down and took in his surroundings, he smiled. For all their chrome, their quirks, hell even the crazy things they did. In a way, David now had a new family. Which was what they were to David, a family and as the days went by, he learned new skills from them and even started to get closer to Lucy. Of course, on some days he had this feeling of being watched but played it off as just another thing of Night City.
Of course he was only half right as off in a high rise office on a video call, Lisa and her husband were seen speaking with their son. "And your certain you haven't found the last Belmont?" Asked Lisa with slight concern in her voice.
"We didn't find any distant relatives, no one who could've possibly matched any sort of mixture of the Belmonts." Adrian said with a somber tone.
During the 4th Corpo War, the Enforcers of the Tepes Clan, The Belmont Family. Dracula's sworn enemies turned allies during the Vampire Civil War, were all wiped out by Arasaka in a sabotage.
This was what caused Dracula to join Militech in a temporary alliance to fight Arasaka.
Dracula sighed and simply said, "You've done what you can for the day, son. Rest now. We'll continue the search another time."
Lisa just looked down with a sadden face before she asked with a hopeful tone, "Before you go, what of Striga and her wife? Lenore has asked about them."
Adrian sighed with relief as he answered, "Thankfully that search has turned up something which is better than we could hope, Striga and her wife from what I have found, are leaders of a Nomad tribe and even have a daughter, as to whether she is adopted or of their own blood is not stated within the information gathered."
Dracula had a small smile on his face, "Thank you son. I will inform Lenore."
Adrian nodded as the connection was cut, sitting down at his large desk, he pulled up images of their operations within Night City regarding their operations against Arasaka, however their current leads all pointed towards David Martinez.
"Why are they so interested in you, why would one man push so hard to have you. Who are you David Martinez." Adrian asked himself as he stared at the school photo of David when he was enrolled at the academy.
Of course much like the flow of time, everything moved forward and an opportunity came for which Adrian couldn't pass up, David was nearby when Maine got the call and judging by his face, he wasn't happy about it. "YOU WANT ME AND MY CREW TO DO WHAT!?'' Shouted Maine through the call to the Corpo Adrian.
"I want you to kidnap an Arasaka Executive for us." Adrian said, unfazed by the shout. "He has data encrypted in his head that is in correlation with the data you acquired for us on your last job. Grab him, steal the data and report it to me at your usual place."
Maine just growled, "Alright, let's put aside the suicide element here. I am down a man due to a Cyberpsycho, the bastard will be guarded tight, not counting everything else! Why don't you do it?" He was many things but crazy was not one of them, and he wasn't lying about being down a man.
"Because we are still a relatively small corporation compared to my father's, and my resources can only be stretched so far. That is why I hired you. Because unlike the gangs in this cesspool of a city, you have intelligence and the resources necessary for this job. Besides, this executive is after one of your crew members. A Mister David Martinez." Adrian said, looking into Maine's eyes. "Surely you'd want to know why he's curious about him?"
Maine just stays silent, "And us being a man down? You want us to do this a man short or are you gonna throw us a bone." He says clearly not liking this one bit.
Adrian was silent for a minute, looking off to the side before looking back at Maine and answered, "One of my operatives will be available and will accompany you on this mission. He will be briefed and sent to a location of your choosing. Is this acceptable to you, Maine?"
Maine huffed, 'Better then nothing I guess for a fucking corpo.' He thought before answering. "Yeah, I'll send the detes when we have a plan."
He hanged up which Lena comments dryly. "Rather rude to hang up without saying goodbye." She comments as she was listening in on the call while also making it secure.
She looked up to her boss as she said, "So who are you sending to help with this operation? I mean no disrespect but if the data is what we believe it is then David would be vital to have a backup plan. Not to mention that Lucy." She said looking at the files on what their agents have gathered so far.
Adrian looked at the profile screens of the Edgerunners. "I'm sending Alucard. I don't trust that these amateurs won't screw this up. And for our back up plan, send whatever available platoon near their destination."
Lena slowly nodded before she asked, "I mean no disrespect sir, but are you sure?" She slowly questioned. "I mean I know Agent Alucard has a good record, but at the same time his methods are a bit… extreme."
Which was an understatement considering anytime he was sent the company had to do both clean up and heavy PR coverup so their image didn't lose what they had built up.
"Yes, they are extreme, but I feel that if their plan fails, Agent Alucard will clean it up in his own unique way." Adrian said before walking away from the screen.
Lena sighs as she begins a call to their 'operative' "Agent, we have a mission for you and please do try and not cause us any more PR nightmares then you already have." She said as already she felt a headache coming on.
"Oh Lena, you think so low of me." She could already hear the smug grin on his face as he replied to her.
Yep the headache was warranted, she only hoped that the operation went smoothly.
Later
Gunshots were everywhere as Max Tac, an elite police squad meant to deal with Cyberpsychos, began firing at the crew and their agent Alucard.
He was a tall man with pale skin and long spiky black hair with a black suit and red coat on. He also had orange round framed sunglasses which seemed to shine in the dark hallway.
Outside the building an Alucard industries QRF, or Quick Response Force, was stationed outside the building and prepared for the order to be given should they need to rush in and complete their objective. The leader of this QRF force was in constant communications with the main branch which in this case was a direct line to Director Adrians office. "QRF Actual to Base, target One and Two are still in the garage, however thermals seem to indicate target one might try and enter into the firefight. Requesting advice over."
"Stop Target One from entering. He's valuable, as is Target two. They have the data we acquire." Lena ordered. "And can someone PLEASE get me Agent Alucard's position and how much of a mess he is making?!"
The leader of the QRF team nodded as two of his men rushed off in a blur into the garage waiting to intercept David, "Agent Alucard is currently on the top floor and is engaged with NCPD, Max-Tac, and Trauma Team forces. It's… It's looking bad." He could swear he heard the Assistant Director, Lena popping a blood vessel from his report.
Over inside, Alucard was laughing like crazy as he held two large pistols and fired on the assaulters. Maine was slowly starting to lose his mind with the Arasaka Executive chained to his body.
David in the garage attempted to leave the car and join the fight, but a single dart in his neck stopped him, Lucy fearing a set up, tried to spot the shooter, only for her to get a dart in the neck as well. From the shadows two of Alucard Industries QRF step out in full black tactical equipment as well as sporting fully sealed helmets which had red optical cameras to enhance the wears abilities to see and hear, which for the vampiric operators made them even more deadly.
"Base this is Team One, Targets One and Two are subdued, please advise next course of action? Over." Asked the one operator as his partner kept an eye out for any possible attackers which in this situation could mean NCPD or Max-Tac stumbling upon them.
"Get Target One and Two to a safehouse. Agent Alucard can make it out on his own. Status on Maine?" Lena asked.
QRF Actual responded as he reports, "Gone full Cyberpsycho, and Agent Alucard is helping him with something-" He was cut off as the entire section of the building as well as three floors up and two floors down became engulfed in a large explosion. "Maine's status is flatline via explosion base." He could already tell that this was going to be one where they and the agent would be yelled at. Thankfully Team One was already enroute to the safe house before the explosion happened
Agent Alucard walked out, his clothes somehow not burning while his burning face was healing up. His grin was still present on his face as he said, "Well, that was rather boring."
Safe House, one hour after extraction
David's vision was blurry as he began to come to. The first thing he noticed was a rather upscaled room and the soft sounds of beeping from a machine, the next he notice was a rather attractive woman with red hair yelling at Alucard who was working with the crew, of course her voice was muffled until finally the ringing in his ears died down, "YOU BETTER BE HAPPY THIS WAS WRITTEN OFF AS A TERRORIST ATTACK! Cause so help me Agent, if you help start the 5th Corpo War, I WILL MAKE SURE YOU'RE SENT TO THE FRONTLINES!"
Her voice seemed to switch between low and rage fueled in a fraction of a second, however there was a third figure in the room being half covered by the shadows but David didn't notice them as he moved his head over to a very unconscious Lucy.
Alucard couldn't help but smirk, "With respect, Lena, that sounds like a very fun time."
Lucy began to stir as well, waking up as well.
Lena just started to growl and one could swear, she had a big cat bio-augment within her as her hair started to stand up, however before she could say or do anything, David spoke up with a weak voice. "W..what happened?" Lena stopped herself as she returned to her calm and collected self when looking at the two people who were Targets One and Two, or in this case, David and Lucy.
Lena took a deep breath and walked towards the two. "Well your mission was botched, but you got the data. Luckily, this was written off as a terrorist attack so no one is actively looking for you or us. With that said, your pay."
Her eyes flashed blue as did David's. His account was nearly in the millions which nearly gave him a heart attack.
Lucy's face was pure shock at the amount, however she was afraid that they would learn of David and Her as she tried to erase the data about them. David had a smile slowly form on his face looking at the amount of eddies in his account, with the cash he has now he could make a good life for himself and Lucy. Only that thought was crushed as he asked, "What happened to Maine?" Lena was silent as she sent a glance to the figure half covered in shadows.
The figure stepped into the light to reveal himself as Adrian, the CEO of Alucard Industries. "Maine displayed signs of Cyberpsychosis. He was beyond saving at that point. I am sorry for your loss."
Both were silent as David slowly looked down at the ground in total shock, Lucy went over and brought David into a tight hug to try and comfort him.
"Now, the data you gave us has really helped us out. And the data on you and Mr. Martinez has been erased. You two are officially clean." Adrian continued.
Now both looked up in shock at the Corpo, however Lucy didn't fully believe him with her past experience with Arasaka, however David was different as he asked, "Why? Why would help out some street kids, hell Edgerunners no less?" He raised an eyebrow at the man. "What is it you want from us?"
"Arasaka knows about you and that Sandevistan you have implanted, and they wanted you to test out their material against Militech. Now, what I want from you is over. We have the data we need, but the question is, what else do you want from us?" Adrian asked as he stared down the two.
David was silent before looking at Lucy and looked back at Adrian and said, "We want to go to the Moon."
Lucy was silent as her whole world seemed to crash, of course David brought her out of it by adding, "And that includes tickets for our friends as well, I'm not leaving my crew behind." Lena nodded as she typed away at her pad. "I believe that can be arranged."
"Excellent, we'll have a scheduled flight for you within a week. Pack whatever belongings you have." Adrian said before beginning to walk away from the two, his coat flowing in the non-existent wind.
David and Lucy looked at each other before they kissed in a fit of passion before Lucy pulled away and smiled, "Thank you..."
That week went by, and David convinced Kiwi, Rebecca, and Falco to retire to the Moon. A man in a red suit with three eyes on the right side of his face attempted to hire them for a job, but David refused.
Everyone got on the ship and were nervous but excited. Though Kiwi didn't show it from her usual blank expression.
The rocket fired and launched up. Up and up until it reached the stars.
Finally Lucy had her wish.
However on Earth, it was much different as Adrian and Lena were seen sifting through the data they had gotten as well as some data from Adrian's 'inside source'.
"A Relic? What's so important about this?" Lena asked.
Adrian had his hands intertwined together as he answered, "Something Father wants. There is something about this chip that Father wants."
"Of course, I just… wish to know why." Lena answered.
Adrian sighed, "As do I, Lena. As do I." It was silent for a while before he asked her, "Any luck on locating any Belmonts?"
She shook her head, "I've poured over the database, in both ours and Tepes Industries, we couldn't find any of the Belmonts that fit our description."
"Not even a child?" Adrian asked, beginning to lose hope.
Lena looked down and Adrian sighed. "We've done all we can, Lena. That's it… The Belmont Family is finished… Taken out by a fucking sabotage!" Adrian slammed his fist down on the desk, denting the metal desk.
He closed his eyes and took deep breaths to calm himself down. He stood up and began walking away from the Surveillance Room, his shoulders hunched over. He dreaded telling his family about this, but it was true. The Belmont Line was finished…
… Or was it?
