July 20th, 2076
NC Ringroad East, Night City
Everything's fucked.
Kiwi was speeding down one of the lesser-used sections of the freeway on her Yaiba Kusanagi CT-3X motorcycle, weaving in between the drivers that didn't know what an accelerator was. She had expected tonight to go smoothly, that she'd get paid and be able to either hide for a while or just skip town entirely. Then that crazy bastard came in and upended all of those plans. He'd left her alive, but based on what she saw him do to Faraday and those goons, if he had actually wanted her dead, she would be. Despite herself, she actually shivered at the fresh memory.
That cocky gonk's head went flying into the air, the stump that was his neck having a single clean cut through it. I've seen people flatline from mantis blades, knives, katanas and every other kind of blade in this city, but I've never seen something make that clean of a cut. It's like the blade didn't even register there was flesh, muscle and bone in its way. The other thugs opened fire immediately, but this new guy just used his arms as a shield to block their rounds as he charged at them. I know I saw a few rounds actually puncture him, but they didn't seem to do shit.
In one smooth movement that looked like he'd done it a thousand times, he rolled and sliced upwards, creating a huge gash in another guard's torso. In the same second he carried the momentum of the strike to turn and bring it down right on the center of the next one's head. The goon's skull split so easily that I'm pretty sure the only reason the sword didn't slice his entire body in half was probably because the wielder didn't let it. Instead he just sliced the unlucky bastard's head in half and then used the body as a shield to block the shots coming from Faraday and his last silver-skinned guard.
Then he fucking threw the body at them. It didn't even seem difficult for him, as if the at-least 250 pound goon was a damn toy to him. Faraday had to duck to dodge it, and the thug sidestepped the flying corpse, but now the attacker had his opening at me.
I barely got my arms up in time to block the heel kick that was aimed at my head, but the force of it still dazed me for a moment. I got knocked to the side slightly, my entire body turning from the blow. As soon as I had gotten my footing back a second foot came and hit me squarely in the spine, and that one dropped me to the floor. I've been so used to relying on quickhacks and 'runnning that I must've gotten rusty at actually fighting someone. Stupid meat brain.
I looked back as the last goon yelled some insult at the one who'd just thrown his dead friend at him. He tried to get some rounds down range again, only to get a knife thrown into his throat. The dumbass's entire body convulsed as the knife let out some sort of electric charge. It must've completely fried his nervous system, because his optics caught fire and exploded a few seconds later.
This wasn't a corpo, a 'saka ninja would've had a kerenzikov or sandy and used cyber weapons, not some old dusty blades. But this couldn't be a regular solo either, I definitely would've heard of someone like this before and besides, what actual NC regular didn't use guns? If you were to take on Maelstrom or 6th Street with just some blades, you'd have to be either the biggest gonk to ever live, or so damn good at what you do that you didn't give a shit. Pretty sure this was a case of the latter.
Faraday clearly had realized this too, as I saw genuine fear on his face as he rose back to his feet. Honestly, it was an amazing sight to see. I didn't stay long enough to really etch in all the details though, since I took my chance and delta'd the fuck out.
Heard some shots go off as I left, and then a scream of agony that normally would've made me chuckle. I just ignored it and got on my bike, hoping I could get as far away from whoever the fuck that was as fast as possible.
Kiwi wasn't sure what had spooked her so much, she'd seen plenty of death before after all. It might've just been how quickly the job went from mild to 'I need to get the fuck out right now', or possibly how close she came to flatlining. In truth though, the only part of the encounter that actually bothered her was that whoever her attacker was, they were a fucking ghost. Her ping had literally not recognized he existed and none of her quickhacks had worked.
Maybe he doesn't even have any 'ware at all?
She shook her head and cleared her mind, right now she had to focus. Her only goal at the moment was to make it back to her apartment, get her stuff, and get the hell out of dodge. David and the others would undoubtedly ask questions as to where she went, but this wasn't her first time getting a new crew.
Never trust anyone.
She would've been back a while ago, but she decided to take the long road back in case the 'ghost' had decided to follow her and finish the job. By now she was passing by Corpo Plaza on her way to Watson, subconsciously tuning out the innumerable ads that covered every building around her.
How can anyone live like that? In a big, shiny tower where everyone's out to usurp and shame each other?
Images in her mind flashed of her making the deal with Faraday, and then watching as Lucy writhed on the floor as the daemon the older netrunner had quietly left in the building's subnet flooded her neural load.
Huh, now that I think about it I guess it ain't that different from being an edgerunner, is it? Just instead of paperwork and emails, it was blackmail and hacking. Or at least the way I work is.
Some small part of her was bothered by how trusting the others had been of her, only for her to turn her back to them as soon as things got too dangerous. But she'd been burned before too. A much stronger part of herself did its best to snuff the dissenting flame that could still see the images of an old memory she wished she didn't have. She was tempted to run her hand along her mask, but quickly squashed that too.
Can't trust anyone. Never again.
Back in the present now, Kiwi parked her bike in her apartment's lot and got into the rusting elevator. She got a cig out, the familiar taste of nicotine and scent of smoke slightly relaxing her mind. The elevator started to slow down as it neared her floor. The apartment she'd "rented" (she had just forged the checks that paid for it) wasn't much to look at, but it was still her sanctuary, where she could be alone and safe without needing to worry about anyone else. She shut her eyes and breathed out slowly, finally feeling her muscles loosen as she heard the elevator doors open.
"What's up, choomba?"
Everything tensed again and her eyes shot open. Standing in her apartment was… oh fuck.
"Why are you here?! And what the fuck do you want from me?!", Kiwi yelled defensively, preparing to try and fight back again.
"Relax. Not here to fight.", came back that same modulated voice from earlier that night.
He was leaning up against one of the windows in the back of her apartment with his arms and legs crossed, acting like he hadn't sliced four people apart as if they were amateurs just a few hours ago.
Kiwi, obviously, didn't believe him in the slightest.
"Horseshit, start talking or I'll-"
"Do what? You can't hack me, and clearly you haven't sparred with anyone in quite a while, and you can't call your crew either, can you?"
"Wha-", Kiwi started, but quickly gave up as she realized he was right.
There wasn't a point in trying to fight him when it'd likely end up the same as before, but with her actually ending up as a corpse this time. She reluctantly lowered her guard and walked into the apartment, keeping her distance from the stranger as much as she could.
"I can tell you're tense, so let me ease your nerves a bit. My name is Faolan, and I'm not here to kill you, in fact it's technically against my orders to hurt you now."
"You kicked me in the spine."
"True, but that was when my job was only to find Lucy, but now that I have found her, I am to protect her and not go out of my way to hurt the people she cares about."
Who the hell hired this fucking guy to protect Lucy of all people?
"Why?", she asked coldly, her eyes narrowing.
"Her dad told me to."
Kiwi's eyes quickly un-narrowed. She was pretty sure her protégé had said she was an orphan. Was that a lie, or had she not actually known that her folks were alive? Kiwi couldn't be sure, especially since there was no way she could out right trust the word of this merc.
Faolan continued, "Look, I know we started on.. I was going to say the wrong foot, but that would be a little insensitive considering our encounter, so I'll just say bad terms."
The netrunner held back the urge to roll her eyes, of course this fucker was a jokester too.
"How about this, you grab the pistol that's in your kitchen drawer-"
How the fu-oh, he must've checked the apartment before I got here. Smart move.
"-and you can aim it at me while I explain myself. If I can't convince you to not kill me in five minutes, you can pull the trigger. Deal?"
Kiwi opened the middle drawer on the left side of her apartment's kitchen, pulling out the Militech Lexington she'd been keeping for just this sort of situation. She lazily aimed it from her hip at the intruder's head.
"Helmet off," she said coldly.
The metal faceplates of his helmet quickly folded away, his pale face and deep green eyes contrasting with the shit-eating grin on his face.
"What, making me strip already? Not gonna take me out to dinner first?", he joked.
Kiwi raised the pistol higher, aiming it more seriously at the merc's head.
"Start telling me what the fuck you want before I make your brains splatter on my window." Her teeth gritted as she held back the urge to just beat him to death right now.
Faolan relented and sat down on a stack of empty boxes, retelling much of the same story he had told the rest of the crew earlier that night, including the phony convoy heist. Only things he didn't include were the more personal details that he'd given the two lovebirds, since he didn't think that Kiwi needed to hear all about Lucy's family drama.
"And what does any of that have to do with me?", Kiwi asked once he was done.
She didn't understand how or why anything he'd said was so damn important to her specifically, but she understood that clearly skipping town wasn't an option anymore. Faolan knew way too much about the entire crew and her traitorous deeds for there to be any actual attempt at escaping and being unseen while doing it. A part of her was tempted to try and kill him now, but that would also raise too many suspicions for Lucy to not notice, and even if the older woman didn't want to admit it, Lucy definitely outclassed her as a 'runner by now, so she wouldn't even be able to hide in the net.
She was partially surprised at the revelation of the convoy job being a complete sham, but then again it did fall in line with Faraday's MO. He was always out to push himself higher up his precious 'corporate ladder', regardless of what happened to anyone around him, even those under his employ. In a slimy, corpo way, Kiwi could almost respect his dedication to those ideals.
"Like I said," Faolan said, "I'm supposed to protect that girl. That includes mental trauma from finding out her mentor was the one to help kidnap her and to sell her entire crew out to the exact corporation that has haunted her for her entire life, the same one trying to turn her input into a damn science experiment."
Faolan's face was a lot more cold now, his disdain for her actions evident. Kiwi knew she shouldn't care what he thought, but she couldn't help herself from thinking that, well, she really did sound like a huge bitch, didn't she?
No, I did it to protect myself. They were going to destroy themselves, and I didn't want any part of it.
"Kiwi, look.", Faolan started, interrupting her mental attempt at self-validation.
She quickly refocused her attention and realized she'd dropped her guard momentarily and let the pistol drop down a couple inches. Kiwi corrected both of those mistakes just as fast, but clearly Faolan didn't seem to care as he got up from the boxes and walked towards her.
"I don't really care why you did what you did. Probably some shit about not trusting people, but the point is, I need you to be alive and cooperative tomorrow during the convoy gig."
He was within a few feet of her now, and she took a step back, only to hit the edge of the kitchen's bar.
"Why?", she was trying her hardest to not let her voice waver.
"Because if you are to do anything that alerts Lucy, David or anyone else to what you did tonight, or to how you clearly wanted to skip town and leave them to die, it will ruin all of my plans tomorrow for getting her to safety for a while. And if that happens, understand that you will never be safe from me. If you so as much cause her to shed a single fucking tear that isn't from laughing so hard she pisses herself, then you'll be wishing that the Scavs ripped out more than just your jaw."
What. How. How does he-no, that's not possible, nobody should know about that. He can't, there's no wa-
"A-and if-if I cooperate?", she failed this time to keep her voice in check.
The merc's attitude flipped to the one he had originally, with a smarmy grin and loose shoulders.
"Then we're cool! And you get to do… whatever it is you do in your downtime. After the gig tomorrow, you can tell them whatever you want. Tell them the truth, lie, or just ghost 'em, I really couldn't give a fuck."
His helmet suddenly snapped back into place in the blink of an eye. The cold, dark metal added to the ferocity of his gaze as her attacker took the last few steps between them and stopped when the end of her pistol's barrel was maybe inches away from his face.
"If I were you though, I'd remember that I ain't the only one that'd want to hunt you down for hurting your own protégé.", Faolan said coldly, the modulation of the helmet making it sound as if he had almost growled out that last warning.
Then he just turned and walked off without another word, getting into the elevator and leaving her alone. Kiwi stared at the closed doors for a long moment, before turning back and sitting down in one of the chairs near her never-used dining room table with a huff.
Her arm was shaking. Her whole body was shaking.
Oh, I am so fucked.
July 21st, 2076
Rancho Coronado, Night City
"So, this is where the magic happens, huh?"
Rebecca was the second to enter their crew's 'hideout', really it was just an old warehouse they used to hide after gigs or to prep for big ones, with the first being Faolan whom she was now following around as he looked around. Falco had come in right after her and shut the door, moving to sit on the closest couch and put his legs up on the table.
"S'pose so, yeah. We uh… don't use it as often though anymore. Not much point for a big place like this when there ain't that many of us left…", her voice suddenly turning melancholy.
Maine and Dorio's death had hit all of them hard, not to mention the absolute clusterfuck that was the Tanaka job ruining their cred for a while. Rebecca grimaced at the memory of that night, but pushed past it and kept her focus on the here and now. It's how she's stayed alive this long after all.
Faolan's helmet folded away and he looked back at the shorter woman, deciding to change the subject away from more depressing shit.
"Well, I've stayed in far worse places than this, so I think it's nice."
Faolan sat down on another nearby couch, crossing one of his legs sideways over the other, Rebecca opting to sit next to the older man that she actually knew already. Falco only glanced down at her as she plopped down next to him and crossed her legs like she was sitting on the floor.
"So what are you anyways? A fuckin' ninja bodyguard for hire?", she asked Faolan.
"More like an international merc. Think of me like an edgerunner, but instead of dealing with fixers and shooting at gangers I get to deal with politicians, heads of families, and cartel leaders while fighting terrorists and local warlords, or maybe even a few corpo execs when I'm lucky," he responded absentmindedly, as if such international adventures were nothing but the standard day-to-day for him.
"Been forever since I've been outside of NC," Falco started, "but I've never left the country. Got close one time at the Mexican border, but that was definitely not on purpose."
Faolan nodded, "Can't say I blame ya'. Out of all the places I've visited, I'd say Mexico is one of the few that didn't change much when the world went to shit, at least everything outside of the major metropolises anyways."
"Where have you gone?", Rebecca asked intently.
She'd never been outside of NC really, but some small part of her had always wanted to see the world. She wasn't sure exactly why, maybe it had something to do with growing up with a parent that was a travel agent, either that or because of the untold millions of ads she must've seen in her life all showing off some other random resort in an obscure corner of the world. More than anything, the idea of visiting a place where you didn't need to be constantly looking out for threats or grinding for eddies sounded incredibly relaxing. It was more of a fantasy than an actual goal for her, but that small part of her was giddy with excitement when she actually had someone who'd really been out there to ask about it.
"Oh that is way too long of a list to go through real quick."
"Can you list the top 5? Or like, the best places to visit maybe? That isn't also in space and will consume every eddie I have?", she asks with raised eyebrows.
"Are you making traveling plans?", came a familiar monotone voice.
Rebecca looked to see Kiwi walking in, surprisingly early for her actually, she was usually one of the last to get to these sort of get togethers. Something about the way she entered the room seemed different too.
Did she get railed last night? No, she can walk straight, it's more like she's… avoiding a certain area of the room?
She decided to let it go as just Kiwi being her weird self and answered her.
"Nah, just always wondered is all. I don't trust N54 for shit about what other places are actually like."
Kiwi didn't respond and leaned up against the wall opposite of the two couches, her eyes not making direct contact with anyone. Except for Faolan, who stared the netrunner dead in the eyes for the quickest of moments with a look so intense that Becca internally cringed.
Fuck is that all about?
Faolan just as quickly swapped to his usual laid back self, stood up, and walked up to the blonde.
"You must be Kiwi", he said while extending his hand to her, "didn't get to meet you last night."
David had said he did try to call Kiwi while he was running to pick the gun maniac up, but the netrunner hadn't answered the call. As weird as that may sound, it wasn't abnormal for Kiwi. Any time after seven, unless they were on a job, she seemed to stop caring about anything but her personal… well, whatever it was she did in her personal time. Rebecca was quite used to the woman's cold demeanor, as well as having experience in seeing through the mask she literally and figuratively wore, to see the actual person behind it. Kiwi always tried to hide whatever it was that had made her like this, and there were always signs that she wasn't as cold as she tried to be. Slight jokes every now and then, being at least a little friendly to a few of the crew, and so on.
"Uhm," the clearly petrified woman said, "Yeah I uh… was doing some deep diving, sorry I couldn't be there. Faolan, right? Becca sent me the deets this morning."
Rebecca saw genuine fear flash across Kiwi's eyes as she shook Faolan's hand, and then she noticed that the woman's hand was actually quivering ever so slightly. In barely a second though those telltale signs went away and were replaced with her classic 'couldn't give a fuck' attitude.
Don't think I've ever seen her be scared like that…
"Yep, that's me. Glad to make your acquaintance, hope you'll stick around and help out," Faolan said.
Kiwi sheepishly nodded and took a long drag on her cigarette, refusing to make eye contact with anyone else in the room as Faolan walked back over to his couch and sat down. A part of Rebecca wanted to confront Kiwi on whatever the fuck it was that was going on with her, but decided that right now it really wasn't the best time for that. There was already a lot on their plate today, and adding more chaos to it sounded like actual hell.
"Anyways," Rebecca turned back towards her new travel guide, "you gonna fuckin' answer me?"
"Oh right, top 5. Hmmm… I'd say that for the best five of all the places I've seen, from worst to best, would be Northern Canada, Antarctica… hmm, Switzerland, Japan, and then New Zealand." He counted on his fingers as he listed them off.
"I thought Australia and all that was barely inhabitable today beyond one or two cities?", Falco asked.
Faolan shook his head, "That's true for Australia, somehow those damn kiwis," the blonde in the room glanced up with a raised eyebrow, "have managed to preserve most of their island. Beautiful country, those rolling hills really are a sight to behold. If you uhm, don't mind the endless hordes of sheep skeletons littering them."
Rebecca always had a bit of a soft spot for animals, especially the innocent ones that didn't deserve the harsh treatment they usually get. Obviously there weren't many animals to go around in NC for her to actually fawn over, but when she and Pilar were younger their family did have a cat, and that little furball was by far her best friend.
"That's… a little morbid.", Becca said.
Kiwi jutted in, "You see people get killed almost every day, but dead sheep are morbid?"
Faolan didn't even give the little goblin time to get a comeback in as he did it for her.
"Do you have to see the skeletons of an entire species littering your country every time you want to take a stroll out your front door?"
Kiwi huffed, "Point taken."
Rebecca's attention was taken by the sound of the door opening again, this time with their crew's leader walking in just behind his clearly just-woken-up output.
"Fucking finally! You two forget how to wake up or something?", Rebecca asked, only slightly teasing.
Lucy didn't even respond and just flipped off her much shorter colleague, who in turn stuck her cybernetically-enhanced tongue out. The two of them had a weird relationship. They weren't super chummy, but had also never really disliked each other. Just seemed like neither of them had gone through the effort of making a stronger connection. Especially after she shut herself off from them all when Maine died, whatever the hell that was about. The best analogy Rebecca could make for it was that Lucy was like her younger cousin, they were close but didn't really involve themselves in each other's lives that much. Well, with the one exception of David, who was clearly either oblivious to all of her very clear hints, or he was just so whipped that he ignored them all.
Lucy actually sat down next to Rebecca on the left side of the now full couch, and David sat down on Faolan's right, effectively taking up the corner of the L shape that the two pieces of furniture made.
"So, what did you come up with?", David asked the armored merc to his left, sounding quite tired himself.
Earlier that day Faolan had messaged all of them and asked to meet here to discuss what to do about the convoy job, which honestly Rebecca wished that they could just forget about and not even involve themselves in. Way too much could go wrong still that would land them in deep shit for this to be a good idea to still go through with it.
"Well, I've got some friends on their way to help out, and I have an idea as to how to make sure you aren't followed after today, but I've got nothing for how you actually disappear in front of 'saka's eyes like a magic trick," Faolan said.
The group was quiet for a long moment as they all considered their options, which weren't many, until Falco snapped his fingers and spoke up.
"We gotta die," he said.
Rebecca turned to look at Falco and raised one of her eyebrows, wondering if he'd gone completely mad. The ex-nomad saw her look and answered her unspoken question.
"Back when I still roamed the plains, my clan had a procedure for when corpo patrols would get too close to our smugglin' routes for our liking. We'd fake evidence of a large battle where we just lit some of our busted up cars on fire, scattered some broken gun parts on the ground, and used the wreckage as target practice for a bit. Sometimes even used some of our actual dead to make it look more real…", Falco explained, his eyes looking down at the floor during that last part.
The driver hadn't ever talked much about his past beyond saying he used to work with the Aldecaldos, really most of the crew didn't like talking about their past if they could, just made working together much easier. In this situation though, 'Becca was glad that the old man had the experience he did.
Faolan continued where the driver had left off, "And you want to do the same thing, fake everyone's death? Actually not that bad of an idea."
Lucy nodded, "It would make them stop trying to track us down."
Faolan shook his head in denial, "When Arasaka really wants something, I don't actually think there's anything that could really stop them, even if it took them a while. But this would at least give you all some time to hide and recover."
"It's batshit crazy, but just enough that I don't think they'll see it coming. Now, how do we do this?", David asked.
Rebecca smiled slightly, the young edgerunner had grown into his role as the crew's leader quite well, and in a pretty short timeframe. He certainly didn't notice it himself, he seemed to still doubt himself most of the time, but that didn't stop her from being proud of him all the same.
Faolan chuckled to himself and smirked, "By becoming a legend. You guys know Rogue?"
I'm not going to like this, am I?
