July 21st, 2076
The Afterlife
"You sure bringing him in there is a good idea?"
"Do we have a choice?", David responded to Lucy, who had leaned over and whispered her concerns.
They had all left their hideout once they had finished discussing their plan, which honestly David couldn't deny was pretty clever. However, as is par for the course for them, it was also insanely risky as well. The first step of which was to talk to the most powerful fixer in NC, Rogue, owner of the infamous Afterlife. David had been here plenty of times by now, originally with Maine bringing him along for the ride, but now he had earned enough of a rep to get in himself. Getting an interview with the most powerful fixer in the city though? Way out of his league.
So when Faolan had suggested that they should try to arrange a private meeting with Rogue and get her help, everyone else said he was insane. He just laughed back at them and said, 'How hard can it be?'
So now here they were, gathered around Falco's car in the parking lot outside the most famous club in the city, waiting for Faolan to finish the call he was on. David could only hear one half of the conversation of course, but based on how long the call had been going on for already and what he heard next, it wasn't going super well.
"Just hurry your asses up!"
…
"Yes I'm aware you're half a continent away, just tell Monarch he can fly like he used to, but just for getting here! Don't let him go nuts like last time.", came the pale merc's voice, carrying through the air from where he stood a few feet away from the main group.
A pause came, likely Faolan listening to whoever was on the other end of the call attempting to protest his antics much like David had attempted to last night.
"Then put the O2 masks on and buckle in, I don't care how, just get here in time."
Faolan sighed as the call seemed to have finally ended, David and Lucy sharing a slightly concerned look as he walked back over to the group.
"Everything settled?", David asked.
"As well as they could be. Despite how it may sound, my team will be here when they need to be. Haven't failed me yet."
David just shrugged in response, not having much other choice than to just reluctantly accept the merc's antics at this point. Rebecca stretched and hopped off the spot where she'd been sitting on the hood of Falco's car.
"Great, can we go inside now? It's fuckin' cold out here.", she said, walking to the bar's entrance.
The rest of the crew began following her, but Lucy stopped Faolan before he could follow as well. David stopped and turned to listen to them for a moment.
"Don't mess this up for us. Took Dee a long while to get enough rep to go in there again, so don't go starting shit.", she commanded.
"Understood."
Huh, looks like the only one he actually listens to is Lucy. Good to know.
Everything looked exactly as it had been every other time David had walked down that half flight of stairs and into the green-lit entrance hallway. The giant of a man that was the club's bouncer let the rest of his crew through, but stopped David, Lucy, and Faolan when he saw their newest addition. To be fair, he did stick out like a dog in an NC slum with his… unique appearance, especially compared to your usual merc in the Afterlife.
Most mercs wore the usual leather or punk-style getups, fashion was a big deal to Edgerunners after all, but Faolan's gear did… well none of that. Except for the tinge of silver and dull blue glow from his visor, there was really no color to it and no actual aesthetic design beyond total efficiency. Combine that with an almost pretentiously nova helmet, all while only carrying a few knives and a sword, and his whole getup screamed "I have a giant ego". Didn't paint the most discreet image.
"Who the hell is this?", came the bouncer's deep voice.
Shit. Hadn't thought of an alibi for him. Maybe-
"Bodyguard. That a problem?", Lucy responded while putting a hand on her hip and staring the much larger man down with an icy glare.
Goddamnit, where would I be without her?
"Nah, not at all." The big man moved out of their way."Go on in."
It wasn't that busy, too early in the day for it to be, but there was enough that their 'bodyguard' got plenty of strange looks as they walked past. The rest of the crew had occupied a booth in the back of the bar, Rebecca quickly waving them over. David left his output and Faolan as he went to the bar. He had a meeting to schedule after all.
"David!", came the redheaded bartender's voice as he walked up.
Claire has always been nice to me. Not sure if that's because she likes me or if she took pity on me since I was just a kid, but I'm not about to deny myself some actual kindness in this city.
"Hey, Claire.", he responded, sitting down at the bar as she was wiping down a glass in her hand with a rag.
"What can I get you?"
"Sadly not a drink this time, as much as I'd like one, I need to know if Rogue's available to talk."
Her eyes barely widened and she smirked, "Are you trying to ask Rogue for a meeting? Got some balls on ya', kid."
"Wouldn't ask if I didn't have to, but my hands are sorta tied here. I was told to say that it involves stopping 'saka from making a second Adam Smasher."
Claire perked up at that as she put the glass down, rested her hands on the counter, and narrowed her eyes as she studied the young edgerunner for a long moment.
"She's not in right now," she eventually said, "but when she does get here I'll mention it to her."
That was significantly easier than I had expected.
"Thank you Claire, means a lot."
She nodded, "As long as you don't tell anyone else that they can just come up to the bar and ask to meet her."
A chuckle escaped his lips as he imagined Rogue's pissed face as dozens of mercs swarmed the bar trying to talk to her for just a couple of seconds.
"Will do," David said.
He got up and walked back to the group's booth, sitting down next to Lucy who put her head on his shoulder. He told the others what Claire had said.
"Expected as much", Faolan said, "well, at least we get to relax for a few minutes."
"Aren't we kinda short on time? Don't really want to waste time sitting here," Kiwi said.
Faolan was the first to respond, "Why, got somewhere you want to go?"
David wasn't entirely certain if he'd hallucinated it or not, but he thought he saw Kiwi's skin go snow white as she stammered on her words for a second.
Huh, never seen her act like that before.
She quickly collected herself and the old, colder Kiwi came back.
"Just hate waiting on people."
"Seconded!", Rebecca added.
The little goblin turned her attention to Lucy then.
"Ooh wait, why don't you tell us what happened after we left last night?", her voice went much colder, "That gonk didn't hurt either of you, did he?"
Faolan defended himself, "If I had, you think I'd be here without a few broken bones at the least?"
David already saw the beginnings of one of Rebecca's legendary 'back-and-forths', where she and some unlucky gonk got stuck in a 'comeback competition' for as long as it took for one side to surrender. She'd once done one with Maine for nearly three hours.
"No", he interrupted the building shitstorm, "he didn't do anything, Becca."
"Then what did y'all talk about?", Falco asked, cutting off Rebecca again.
David looked at Lucy for confirmation on what to actually tell them, who in turn just looked at the armored merc in question. Faolan was sitting comfortably on the booth's bench, resting his feet on the small table and having his arms crossed behind his head, which was tilted back and looking at the ceiling.
Faolan didn't respond for a moment, and David just assumed he was genuinely taking a nap, but the merc quickly returned to reality when Rebecca slapped him on the arm.
"Hm? Oh, sorry. Yeah, not my place to say."
"What?", Lucy asked, confused, "Why not?"
Her 'bodyguard' shrugged, "Not my job to tell them about it all, up to you to decide how much they get to know."
Lucy slightly sulked in her seat, eyes hitting the floor. David gripped her hand tighter, and she smiled just enough that only he could see it. She sat back up and began to fill the crew in on the revelations of the previous night over the next several long minutes. She did leave out most of the really private details like what she'd been doing in 'saka's net, the whole sibling thing, and David's new meds. Once Lucy had finished her tale, Rebecca was the first to speak up, directing her comment at the one who'd revealed all of this info to them in the first place.
"Your job is to protect her safety until she reads some letter, but what about the fuckin' rest of us? You gonna let us die as long as she lives? No offense, Luce'."
Fair point, actually. Hadn't thought about that.
"None taken. What about it, Faolan?"
The merc sighed and switched to a more standard sitting position, leaning slightly forward in his seat.
"Well, officially, I have to protect you and anyone you count as extensions of yourself to my dying breath."
"Then anyone in our crew or my immediate friends are extensions of myself unless I directly say otherwise."
The entire crew's new bodyguard sighed deeply. He then bowed his head slightly and said, "Understood."
Rebecca sat further into her seat, seemingly satisfied with that answer. Falco just huffed in response, and Kiwi took a long drag on her 'cig.
Without fail though, Faolan couldn't help but make another joke at their expense.
"Orher than that, only thing that happened last night was those two definitely fucking each other's brains out."
Faolan got saved from David and Lucy's furious looks as Claire called out.
"Yo, Martinez!"
"Looks like that's our cue, lover boy," their jackass guardian said as he made a hasty retreat to the bar.
David just kept staring at him as he went past, glancing back to see Lucy blushing now instead.
Kiwi sighed, "Of all mercs, why did you have to get saved by him?"
"Kiwi," Lucy exhaled, "I wish I fucking knew."
David just laughed and got up, following said merc to the bar.
"David, you didn't introduce me to…," Claire said, gesturing her head towards Faolan.
"Oh, he's my, uhm, bodyguard?", David said, sounding almost unsure of himself.
The armored merc in question just shrugged, to which Claire raised an eyebrow.
"I didn't have a choice in the matter. It's a long story," David explained.
"Whatever. Anyways, Rogue said she'd be willing to 'interview' you. She's in her booth."
"Preem, thanks again Claire."
David and Faolan made their way to the one booth everyone knew to stay away from unless you were told otherwise, the throne room of the Queen of the Fixers. David had actually sort of met rouge before, back when he'd saved 'becca from getting gunned down by the bouncers with his sandy. Rouge had laughed at his boldness and allowed them both inside, at which Rebecca had quite enthusiastically explained who the queen was to the at-the-time inexperienced edgerunner. Now only a couple months later, and he was getting a private interview with one of the biggest NC legends out there.
This is either going to go really well, or fucking suck.
The bulky man standing outside the entrance to Rogue's booth looked the two mercs up and down, paying particular attention to Faolan. However after a moment the man nodded and stepped aside, allowing them to enter.
"Well well, Mr. Martinez. It has been a while, hasn't it?", came the queen's unmistakable voice.
Rogue was sitting in the back corner of the large U-shaped couch that filled her booth, her legs crossed and arms laid out lazily across the back cushions. David walked in and sat down on the part of the couch directly facing her.
"Indeed. It's an honor to meet yo-,"
She put up her hand and stopped him, "I appreciate the pleasantries, and the nice manners, but I'm actually more interested in whatever, or rather, whoever it is you've brought with you."
Her eyes tracked to Faolan, who joined David sitting on the couch without a word.
"This is-"
"Bodyguard. Pretend I'm not here for the time being," Faolan interrupted.
Strange, I thought he said he'd wanted to talk to her himself. Maybe he just doesn't want her knowing his name?
Rogue was very clearly not buying it, but decided to play along as she returned her attention to the recent rising star of the Afterlife.
"Very well. In that case, what is it you wanted?", she asked.
David cleared his throat, expecting her to react as badly as possible to the plan that, despite him agreeing to it, he still thought was crazy.
He looked her in the eye and said, as seriously as he could, "I need you to make me a legend."
Rogue didn't even seem to react at all, and David swore he felt her gaze pierce through his brain and out the other side. He sheepishly continued,
"Me and my crew are caught in 'saka's spotlight, which obviously we really don't want, and the only way we can do that is by faking our own deaths."
Once again, no reaction whatsoever. He pressed on.
"But you know more than anyone that the stree-"
"Be right back," Faolan interrupted.
David looked over in complete confusion to see the armored merc stand up, walk out of the booth, brush past Rogue's guard, and head towards the bar.
What the FUCK is he doing?
"Uhh…," was the best that he could stammer out as he kept watching the scene unfold.
Faolan walked up to the bar, right behind a man with a mohawk that was wearing a sleeveless red leather jacket and dark green cargo pants. He had just been handed a drink by Claire when Faolan tapped him on his left shoulder. The leather-clad man turned around and tried to figure out who was interrupting his fun.
"Wha-"
Faolan grabbed his head and slammed it hard into the bar's counter, shattering the man's drink and causing shards of glass to sink deep into his face.
Has he gone fuckin' psycho?!
"Ah! Fuck!", the leather-clad man reeled in pain as he felt the blood trickle down his cheek. Then he curled his right fist into a ball and threw it towards his armored attacker, extending a Mantis Blade from his forearm midway through the attack.
Faolan simply leaned to the left of the strike and raised his right hand in the path of the blade, the sharp metal puncturing straight through the fleshy palm until his hand neared the base of the blade.
"Pathetic," he said, his voice having none of the usual undertones David had gotten used to. No lightheartedness, no quips, not even the slightest hint of sarcasm.
David's jaw hit the floor as he then saw Faolan grab the end of the Mantis Blade with his still-punctured hand, yank back hard, and rip it right out of the arm it was supposed to be connected to.
What in the actual fuck did I just see.
A left hook from Faolan's non-injured hand sent his victim stumbling into the center of the club, just before a kick to the man's torso sent him gasping to the floor. Finally, a heavy boot stomped down on the man's neck. Not hard enough to kill him, but just enough for his windpipe to begin closing.
Faolan ignored the man's coughs and sputters as he attempted to get air into his lungs, leaning down and speaking just loud enough so that everyone around him could hear, pure malice seeping into every syllable.
"If you EVER attempt to hurt that girl or any of her crew again, understand that you will have to go through me."
Alright, note to self: Don't piss him off.
David looked up from the viscous display to see two important details, the first of which was Lucy and Rebecca standing at the bar, staring in shock much like he was. The second was that everyone else in the bar had their guns drawn and aimed directly at the armored merc, which either Faolan hadn't noticed or just didn't care as he looked up and stared down every other patron, daring any of them to take their best shot.
BANG.
David winced for half a second as he looked to see that somewhere in the confusion Rogue had slipped past him, out of the booth, and now had her pistol raised in the air, the barrel of which was still emitting smoke from where a hot metal slug had shot out of it and into the ceiling. Her weapon lowered to join the others.
"Explain. Quickly," she commanded.
Faolan's head turned to look directly at her and nodded, the light on his visor shifting to a light green. David listened closely as an audio recording of some kind began to play from some hidden speaker within his armor.
"Come on Luce', ya gotta lighten up somewhat. Let's go get a bev or two, huh?", came the sound of Rebecca's voice.
"Fine, fine. But I'm choosing the drinks this time, I'd really prefer not to get wasted right now," Lucy responded.
There was a small moment of silence before the audio shifted, now clearly picking up a conversation between the man Faolan had just beat the shit out of and his chooms at a nearby table, who were the only ones not standing at the moment.
"Hey, that the bitch from that hit Jato and the others got zeroed over last night?", came the victim's voice.
David realized that these men were probably Tyger Claws, since they were clearly referring to their fight on the freeway from the previous night, and now that David looked closer at them all, they were all wearing various forms of red and green clothing. It wasn't uncommon for gangers to hang out in the Afterlife, in fact it was probably the one safe haven in all of NC where two rival gangs could be sitting across from each other and not be actively trying to beat each other to death.
"Huh, dunno, I think so? Why, ya tryin to get your dick wet?", came the drunken voice of one of his comrades.
David turned to glare pure hatred at the table of gangoons, one of whom locked eyes with him but then quickly shunned away, trying to make himself as small of a target as possible.
"Nah, just wanna' get even. Danny, got that little bag I gave you?"
Another voice came back, this one noticeably more sober, "Yeah, here boss. What're ya gonna do?"
"Just gonna give her bev' an extra kick. Be right back boys."
Now David began to glare at the man on the ground as he realized the hidden meaning behind his words.
He was going to poison her with fucking neurotox, wasn't he?
He got up and began to approach the doomed gangoon, but then he saw the armored merc that was holding a foot to the ganger's throat almost imperceptibly shaking his head.
Don't.
David gritted his teeth and stopped moving, watching as the merc's visor shifted back to its standard blue once the recording had concluded. There was a long moment of silence where the air itself felt tense as Rogue and Faolan stared each other down, neither seemingly willing to give an inch of ground to the other.
"I suppose I did promise you I wouldn't fight in here again, didn't I?", Faolan said sarcastically.
David couldn't see her face, but he saw Rogue's shoulders ever so subtly fall and her back relax, and then she lowered her pistol, a sign for the rest of the bar's patrons to do the same. She turned to look at the table of petrified Tyger Claws and said,
"Pick your friend up off my floor and get the hell out."
They scattered like rats to go get their downed comrade, whom Faolan was still holding by the neck with his foot. The merc looked down at the likely traumatized man. Faolan didn't flinch as he pulled the Mantis Blade out of his right hand and spiked it into the floor barely an inch left of the goon's head.
"Sorry about the arm," Faolan said as he stepped off of his neck.
As he began to walk back to Rogue's booth, David noticed that Faolan's hand was covered in a dark teal-ish liquid of some kind, but before he could get a good look at it, the merc pulled a dark bandage out from a pouch on his belt and wrapped it around his hand, concealing the wound.
I'm gonna have to ask him about that later…
David glanced over to the bar and saw Lucy returning his gaze, and clearly she had the same realization as him since she quickly put her untouched glass down and followed Rebecca back to their crew's booth, shooting David a relieved look over her shoulder. David returned it in kind. The rest of the club's guests kept a slight eye on them as they all re-entered the queen's booth without a word to anyone else.
"Faolan." Rogue was staring daggers at the armored merc once they had sat back down.
Wait, she already knows this gonk?
The merc's helmet retracted and he gave David a look that said, "I'll explain later", before turning back to Rogue and saying,
"Hey Rogue. Sorry about all of that, ss you can see, 'saka wants these kids so badly that they even have some assassins hiding in your own club."
Rogue nodded, "You do know you still owe me for the last time you did this, right?"
Of course this crazy fucker has done this before.
Faolan shrugged, "Come on, that was ages ago, can't you cut me some slack?"
Rogue's emotionless deadpan answered his question well enough, but he decided to continue on anyway.
"Look, right now my past isn't important. Need you to help David and his crew out of a shitty situation."
The old fixer glared at Faolan, clearly there was some sort of history here that the merc had been hoping to keep under wraps, but right now they didn't have time to bring up the past.
"Rogue," David said, causing Rogue to turn and glare at him now, "like I was trying to say, you know more than anyone that the street will tell the truth, or at least what this city sees as the truth. And if 'sak-
"If 'saka hears rumors of you being alive, they'll keep searching for you," she finished for him, her expression softening slightly.
David nodded.
"Makes sense, but what does this have to do with stopping those corpo-rats from making a second Smasher?"
Faolan pulled out one of the shards from last night, the ones he'd used to show them the phony convoy job, and handed it over to Rogue who eyed it suspiciously for a moment. She inserted the shard and her eyes lit up orange for a long moment as she studied it's contents. After a minute or so, which felt like hours to David, she took the shard out and handed it back.
"Alright, I'll help," Rogue said.
David couldn't hold back his smile, "Nov-"
"On two conditions."
David's smile faltered slightly.
"First," Rogue gestured towards Faolan, "that asshole isn't allowed back in here."
I can work with that.
"And second, after you're 'dead', you will work for me."
Wait, what?
He looked to his right to see Faolan groaning and holding the bridge of his nose in annoyance.
David looked back to Rogue, "Are you serious?"
The daggers in the living legend's eyes returned.
"Nevermind."
"So are we in agreement?", she asked as her arms went back to lazily resting on the couch.
Not like we have much of a choice.
He nodded in affirmation.
"Good, now get the fuck out. Come back when you're dead."
Faolan stood up without a word and reactivated his helmet, Rogue giving him one last icy glare as he walked out. David said nothing as he followed the armored merc, eventually gesturing for the rest of the crew to follow them back outside once they could see him. Somehow David felt a weight both come off of his shoulders and a new one be added on at the same time as he stepped outside. The cold air nipped at his skin as the crew gathered around Falco's wheels where he began to recount his 'interview' to the rest of the crew.
"Didn't know Rogue could be such a bitch. The fuck did you do to her, metalhead?", Rebecca asked once he was finished.
"Not important right now," Faolan said.
As much as I'd like to know about whatever beef is there as well, he's right.
"He's right, we need to focus if we want to pull this off," David said.
As much as David REALLY didn't like the next step of this plan, he knew that there wasn't a way in hell that he could stop his output once she'd set her mind to something.
"Lucy," he turned to look her in the eyes, "are you sure about this?"
She nodded, "Nobody else can break 'saka ice like I can. Besides, I'll have this jackass watching my back."
Her head motioned to Faolan who bowed his head and said, "I promise she won't get a single scratch on her."
David sighed deeply, looking between the faces of all the assembled members of the crew. It had been so long since their crew had been at full strength really, ever since Maine and Dorio passed they had always felt… reduced in some way, like they were missing something. Right now though, despite his mind screaming at him that this was a terrible idea, his gut told him that they would succeed. Or at least go down killing a shitload of corpos in the process, so really it all worked out in the end regardless of what happened.
"Alright," David said, "let's go get ourselves killed."
