"Hey, Mr V!"
At 14 years old, Jackie Welles was a big fellow. Straight out of the Heywood suburbs, a real identifiable individual. One of the neighbourhood's most well known kids. And what was he known for?
The quiet 12 year old that always hung around him.
Jackie's attack dog, the kid known as V.
At the time, his hair was long, shaggy, and completely out of control.
Jackie already had his signature bun and a bit of ink.
Both were distinctive neighbourhood regulars.
The larger boy was approaching quickly from up the street. School was out, and between the stream of kids pushing out from the building, Jackie waded toward his target.
The smaller boy tried to duck away, once he noticed the larger kid approaching, but it was a little too late.
A burly but developing arm wrapped around the kids neck.
"AGH!" the kid squirmed, "Easy up Jack!"
Everyone ignored what was happening and gave the boys a wide berth. Jackie kept his hold, frowning down at the caught kid.
"Old man Vik says you weren't at practice yesterday" the larger boy turns an empirical eye at the boy, "you're either Loco or a fucking idiot, so what gives fool?"
"L-let me go" V gasped, "and I'll tell you"
Jackie relinquished the hold and V wrestled away from him, breathing heavily.
"So?"
They held each other's gaze for a few moments.
An impish smile spread across V's face.
A moment before it happened, Jackie realised he'd made a mistake in letting him go. That crazy look in his blue eyes was always a tell tale sign.
One punch, straight to the chest, knocked him back. By the time he regained his footing, V was beating one hell of a retreat.
"You little ratta!"
Jackie powered after him.
A cackle of delight followed behind the escaping boy, and Jackie Welles couldn't help but smile.
Oh he was going to bust V's nose in the boxing ring, right after he wrung the truth out of his skinny frame. But until tomorrow came, they were kids, just having fun.
"So then, Mr V..."
I sigh, "please, just V"
"Are you going to tell me the plan? Or do I have to guess?"
I turn to look at her.
Panam Palmer was as beautiful as she was infuriating, and her irritating use of my name was just riding on my nerves.
I look back to the view.
We were in Rocky Ridge already, staked out on top of the power building. I had a single eye spy lens, checking the desert around us for miles out.
There was no way to tell where this Nash or the merchandise were coming from, but they didn't know they were walking into an ambush.
So… where best to place my little surprises?
….There.
Instead of turning around and having to walk past her back down the staircase, I hop the railing and land in the ground.
"Hey!" her voice followed me down, but I was walking into the town's main intersection.
Panam had talked the whole way up here, and my one word replies, nods or agreements had only seemed to piss her off more. By the time we had arrived, she looked about ready to explode.
But she'd given me all the information I needed. I was aware of my mission priorities, as well as my operational directive. Anyone besides her was fair game, but if I torched the car there would be hell to pay.
Killing Nash, the Wraith member that had screwed Panam over, was also a priority but one that came from her end.
A personal vendetta I could handle, hell I could understand that a bit better, but Nash had just stolen her gear and car.
I had to keep reminding myself she wasn't a professional, just a woman trying to make her way in the upside down fucked up world of Night City. She'd hit her first serious bump in the road and was out for blood.
From my jacket, I find five devices.
In the diagonal of the crossroads, I place the largest two spheres. They are tucked in the corner with a bit of sand thrown over them for good measure.
Panam's watching me place things in the dirt and the sand, taking my time to prepare for her ex-partners arrival. I don't spare her any moments, walking towards the building that would have been the town's bar. At the doorway, I tuck the next two devices on either side. One is facing towards the door, the other is facing outward, towards the crossroads.
I wrench the door open, take a look around the empty bar area, before throwing the last object behind the counter.
Footsteps are approaching me from behind.
"Listen asshole, considering we're out here together-" her hand lands on my shoulder and I react without thinking.
Her arm is twisted up, she shouts, but in a moment I've knocked her to the ground and have a knee pressed into her spine. She's pinned.
The suppressed barrel of my Unity is already in the back of her head.
...it would be so easy…
Just one twitch of my finger.
I can hear her breathing, and the now apparent increase of it. I can't see her face, but I know half of it is buried in the dirt and sand of Rocky Ridge.
She's scared of me now. I can tell she is.
"Easy" she whispers through the sand in her face, "easy, V"
She's talking to me like I'm some kind of animal, a predator that's been unknowingly provoked. Well, now she's seen my teeth and claws.
"Don't touch me" I stand, releasing her from the hold. My pistol stays in my grip as I move away from her, crossing into the open bar and scanning my surroundings.
I hear her get onto her feet as well as the instinctive step away from me. She's not so jubilant and open anymore.
Panam's definitely got her eye on my back now.
After another few seconds of scanning the room I turn toward her… and the pistol she's got pointed at me.
I cock my head at her.
"Now what?" I nod to the gun, "you going to do something with that?"
She's seeing red. Obviously, Panam doesn't like it when she feels weak, and now she's trying to over correct for what I just did to her.
It's slight, but I notice the tremble in her hand.
She's not saying a word to me, her eyes glancing over every little detail she ignored before.
"How are you so calm?" she hisses, "I could kill you right now"
I shake my head, "no, what you can do is fire your gun and hope that the bullet which comes out the end kills me"
Panam holds her stare with mine.
In the moment she blinks, my gun is pointing at her. Her eyes widened, having completely missed the sharp movement.
She's still scared, but she's masking it better now. The shake has become more subtle.
"They arrive in less than two hours" I nod sideways, to the bar's window.
Panam doesn't interrupt, and we remain in our tense standoff. Both our weapons are still pointed at each other.
"When they get here, I'm going to draw them out of their vehicles and to the bar. From what you've said, they're not stupid, but they'll investigate strange noises" with my free hand, I thumb at the bar behind me, "whatever number enters the space will die"
I flip my arm the other way and point past Panam, "if there are others, they'll take a defensive position around the bar, which if they're coming from their vehicles would-"
"-would be the crossroads" she finishes.
I lower my gun, "glad you can keep up" I holster the weapon behind me, and walk back to the bar, ready to set up behind it and wait out the rest of the time.
"I'd recommend you get posted up somewhere high" I mantle over the bar top, and slump down onto the ground out of her sight.
She blusters, looking for words, and for once instead of hurling snark and anger at me, walks away.
Presumably to go find her roost.
I enjoy the silence.
"Can't exactly see why Nash didn't wanna come along"
"Probably still feeling guilty about busting his old output" I reply, idly fiddling with my mechanical hand.
There's four of us in the vehicle. I'm riding shotgun, Jackson's driving and we've got Dale and Dick behind us.
Jackson was a burly man, driving the stolen Thornton Mackinaw that our absent boss Nash had lifted a week ago. Kinda rough to nick shit from your woman, but she was an Aldecaldo. If she had gotten wise of Nash's true nature…
Well atleast I understood why he couldn't just zero her.
"You're a sopping wet cunt, you know that?" Jackson growled robotically. The man was more borg than human, with nearly 65% of his body replaced by chrome. Nasty fucker too.
"Ey! Leave little Nicky alone" Dale chimed in from behind, his high pitch voice grating on my ears.
"Yeah!" I could hear Dick's grin from behind me, "Poor little Nicholas can't help being a pussy"
"Fuck off" I slump into the admittedly spacious seat of the Warhorse.
I'm saved from their harassment with a timely intervention.
The radio piece chimes in, and our little mission leader, Vern, pipes up.
"We're coming up on Rocky Ridge now…. No sign of life"
There's three cars, with a total of 11 since Nash bailed. Not shitting on the guy, just saying, yeah?
Jackson keyed the Radio back, "how do we know these fags are gonna be here? Ain't never met a reliable sixer in my life"
"Shut your trap Jackson" Vern snaps back, "they'll be here"
Let's hope so. I'd rather not have to do any unnecessary work today. Hell, if they tried to ambush us they'd be in for a surprise.
I'm not really fond of a firefight, but I know we're packing a lot of fire power.
Us Wraiths can put up one hell of a fight.
"Here we go" Dick sounded gleeful.
We were pulling into the town just now. A fucking ghost town.
Jackson brought the car to a stop just outside the old mechanic building.
He shot me a grin as he opened his door, "wonder if there's still gas round these parts"
I didn't know if that was supposed to be a threat or just some idle psychotic comment. The borged out bastard didn't have a functioning head atop his shoulders after all.
Ignoring him, I popped my own door and jumped out of the car.
The night air was cool and lovely, really beating the heat of the daytime. Taking a deep breath, I walked to where our group was converging.
I could pick up the heat in Vern's voice even as I approached.
"-where the fuck are they?!" the balding man hissed, "there ain't a soul in sight?"
"Could be a set up" Jackson was still grinning savagely, "a trap, or an ambush"
Vern rounded on the defender wielding giant "I thought I told you to shut up al-"
A whine and crackle echoed out into the night.
Everyone was instantly on edge, me included. Some already scrambled for cover.
"The fuck was that?" Vern vocalized our thoughts.
From the bandana that covered most of his face, and the dirty as hell jacket, I could identify Lorne pointing at the town's bar.
"Came from over there, Vern"
Everyone adjusted themselves in the direction of the bar.
"I ain't fucking going in there" Vern whispered under his breath, but I managed to catch it, "Dick, Dale, go check it out"
The two psycho's grinned, drew their shotguns and approached the dark and now quiet bar.
"Certainly boss!"
"Our pleasure!"
They declared as they savagely marched forward.
We all watched in mute silence as they approached the bar's large grey door.
It was Dick who pushed it open, as Dale swept in with his shotgun pointed up. Both of them flicked on a flashlight.
"Ain't much in here!" Dick hollered back.
"Be sure!" Vern snapped.
They both looked back at us, Dale shrugged, and they stepped into the bar.
No sooner than the moment they cleared the doorway did it suddenly snap closed. A shotgun blast went off, followed by two soft spurts.
I knew that noise.
Suppressed gunfire.
"Shit" Vern hissed.
Jackson was all over it though.
"Let 'em have it!" he roared, opening fire at the bar.
Everyone else just tagged on to it, unloading an obscene amount of lead into the windows and walls of the structure.
I held my fire, taking my time to look around the space.
Maybe this was a fucking ambush… ah crap…
"Hold your damn fire!" Vern cursed, and the gunfire eventually tapered off. Our commander in chief glanced to our Borg brute.
"Jackson, Pierre, Lorne and Mendez… go check it out"
Mendez looked like he was going to protest, but the hispanic Raffen decided against it after a look from Jackson. He saddled up with the two white boys, Pierre and Lorne, and the four of them approached the shot to shit bar.
"The rest of you, fan out, surround the bar" Vern ordered, and everyone else moved to the cinder blocks and barricades of the intersection.
I hung by the car.
As soon as Jackson's large meaty hand, his only flesh hand, touched the door, everything went to shit.
I can hear the next set of Raffen approaching from my nest in the raised ceiling of the establishment.
The first two hadn't thought to look up as they entered, allowing me to swing down quietly and shut the door before putting a round in each of them.
One got a shot off out of panic, but it went wide toward the bar, shattering the glasses and cups left behind.
Not a second after I'd got them both and hauled my way back up into my ceiling nook did the Raffen light up the bar with gunfire.
Nearly 20 seconds of continuous fire, and a perfect view of the complete destruction that amount of firepower had on the bar's upholstery, and they sent more to investigate.
I'm glad people can be predictable at times. This Nash was a fool.
The next group that approached got an explosive welcome.
Both of the sets of the anti-personal grenades detonated, flinging red hot shrapnel in the directions they were pointed towards.
"Jesus Christ V" Panam whispered over the comms.
"Remaining targets?"
"What? I- yeah, one by the car, I think there's two alive in the street still"
I leapt down into the now permanently open door. The added combination of gunfire and shrapnel had been too much for the entranceway.
Out into the night air I stepped, pistol raised.
In a fucking heartbeat, everyone was dead. Not everyone, I could hear moans and screams of pain coming from the intersection, but I was the only one still 100 percent functioning.
I made an executive decision. Fuck Vern, fuck the now mulched Jackson, fuck everyone here. I'm not dying today.
I hop into the car and slide into the driver's seat in order to start the car up. Through the windscreen, I see a dark figure emerging from the bar, a weapon up and pointed toward me.
"What the fuck-"
Pain explodes from my left shoulder as a bullet punches through the glass and into me. The air is knocked out of my body.
'Hold the wound'
I'm barely able to, and can just make out the figure moving into the street, aiming his pistol toward the ground and firing two more shots.
Now, as the last one alive, I understand I'm going to die here.
The driver's side door opens, revealing a woman.
Nash's old woman.
"Please" I groan, clutching at my bleeding wound.
"Don't shoot my car!" Panam snapped at V, who had turned away from his initial attack on her vehicle. He was executing the surviving Raffen in the street.
She hadn't even needed to take a shot. V had single handedly killed every single person that arrived in one fell swoop.
It was… terrifying.
He had instinctively known the set up, processed it, and executed it without remorse.
She'd seen his explosives rip through nerely everyone. Fuck, there were body parts litering the intersection.
Then he'd come out of the bar, and shot at her vehicle.
Her fear fell away to her anger.
So with her own weapon out she rushed toward her Warhorse, ready to blow away the stupid gonk bleeding in her front seat.
The door opened, and panam raised her gun… but failed to shoot.
"Please"
It… it was a kid. Bleeding all over her chair, fear in his eyes, with his hand weakly raised. He was trying to protect himself from her.
Panam didn't know what to say.
This was a boy, obviously young, with sandy blond hair, mismatched eyes…
"Is it him?"
She hadn't heard V approach her, but his voice only startled her mildly.
"What?"
"Is it Nash" he repeated, harder. Panam couldn't turn around to face him, instead looking at the kid.
"P-please" the boy coughed up blood.
Panam sighed, it wasn't Nash.
"No, it isn't him," Panam said, about to move forward and gently pull the boy out from the driver's seat. A kid mixed up in the wrong deal. The boy didn't deserve to die like this. He'd have been fine, considering V had just winged him, preventing him from driving away.
Smart.
But even though Panam was about to help the boy, apparently her partner disagreed.
The boy's brains suddenly exploded out the back of his head, courtesy of V's suppressed, and now raised, Unity.
She processed the action for a second.
A wire crossed in Panam's brain.
She whirled on him, "you fucking monster!" she screamed, tackling him. The surprise of the attack managed to catch V off guard, taking both of them to the ground in a hail of dirt and flailing limbs.
Even with the initial advantage, Panam managed to get a punch off or two, before her world flipped.
An arm found its way around her throat as a knee found a spot on her spine. He had pinned her, again.
"I told you not to touch me" he hissed.
Panam would have been proud of provoking an emotion out of the dry bastard, if not for his most recent kill still sitting on her conscience.
"You killed a kid" she gasped, her own hands trying to pull at his slowly tightening neck lock.
It was getting harder to breathe.
"You're a monster"
He released her, as the darkness was creeping in on her vision.
Panam gasped violently.
"I'm realistic. He was already bleeding to death, he wasn't your mark, he was an enemy combatant, regardless of his age he's a threat" V got off of her.
Panam stayed on the ground, wheezing for a moment.
"What did you want to do? Patch him up? Send him on his way with some meds to tell his allies about us, so they'll know what's coming?!"
She rolled over to look up at him, to really study him.
It made sense to him. It was alright.
She didn't know why she said it, but she didn't stop herself either. It was like the universe just needed her to ask him.
"Don't you have a heart?"
Her voice was weak, quiet, and I don't know if the tears in her eyes were due to a lack of oxygen or…
But I heard the question.
I'd received a similar one a long time ago. From a much different person than Panam, someone much more important than Panam.
I can still see his stupid smile.
A well of… something… comes running up my chest. It tugs at the corner of my eyes, my mind. An ache seeps through my-
No!
The feeling is pushed aside, back down to the depths it came from.
Refusing to answer her question, I trudge past her, grab the dead Raffen-
'Dead kid'
-from the driver's seat, and fling his corpse to the ground. I wheel on the slowly rising Panam, who is both weary and furious at me.
I open my mouth.
Words don't come.
I shut it.
I don't know what to say, so I settle for our mission objective.
"Are we still going after Nash?"
Panam watches the wave that goes through V. For a second he's vulnerable, his detached face expressing something other than anger. Before she can tell what it is, it's gone.
His fury has returned.
Panam is getting to her feet as he throws the corpse from the car, turning around to face her.
Oh he's super pissed.
Kinda reminds her of Saul.
His mouth opens, and Panam assumes he's going to scold her or something. Instead his trap just shuts.
His expression hardens further.
Eventually he says, "Are we still going after Nash?"
Panam wants to say no. She wants to end this whole thing right here, and never have to see this fucker again, but Nash…
He needed to be dealt with.
So while she had Mr emotionless killer with her, she'd use him to her advantage.
"Yeah…" she looked into the car.
Trying to shake the bad taste in her mouth of what he'd just done, she tried to complain "you know that's gonna take awhile to clean it up"
But as soon as the word's left her mouth she regretted them. Maybe a fucked up a joke at best, but Panam couldn't see the humour in it at all, and she had been the one to say it.
V didn't say anything, not even his usual grunt.
He just marched around to the other side of the Vehicle and got in.
Panam got the message, and slid into her drivers seat.
The recently soaked chair was cold now. Cold blood stained the dash and most of her seat.
She shot V a look as she pulled out.
He was looking out the window, his pistol still in his lap.
"We'll be there in just a second"
V couldn't stop thinking about the shoot out, even as Panam pulled into the long underground tunnel. He'd done everything correctly. Every target was removed precisely, with as little effort as possible. No harm had come to him or his ally!
So why did he keep retreading the kid. The last elimination.
It shouldn't be bothering him, but it was.
'What bothers you is her'
An errant thought, but one with ground. I didn't like the look on her face when she turned on me. I didn't like the question she asked when I let her go.
Because…
Well because Jackie had asked me that, word for word. A long time ago. Between her calling me Mr V and nearly everything else she did… she was really getting on my nerves.
The engine roared louder.
"Buckle up" Panam cut in "we're nearly there"
I let out a sigh of relief, my mind switching over to the area in front of me.
Panam was pulling up into a space with multiple combatants, open sight lines and some minor digging or construction gear.
The warhorse slid at Panam's command, pulling it into a stop right before it was exposed to the building sunken in the wall. Nicely done.
I was out my door in a moment.
My gun up and blood flowing, I took two seconds to assess the situation, before advancing.
Panam saw V engage the 15 odd Raffen out of the corner of her eye. Naturally she was scanning the room for Nash, but she couldn't help but watch Rogue's Merc do his job.
He was methodical, precise, and swift. By the time she'd managed to to drop one, he'd killed three, with single shots.
A bullet ricocheted off her cover.
"Fuck!" Panam dropped completely, "there's a sniper!" She turned to her side, watching V kill another two that came down a staircase.
Two bullets.
"V!" she shouted, "there's a-"
He twisted violently to the right, his gun moving swiftly with him, and fired one more shot.
"You're clear!" he shouted back to her before moving up the staircase and onto the walkway and second floor.
Panam poked her head out of cover, and after searching for a moment, saw the prone body, leaking blood from it's roost.
Holy shit.
She shook herself, before getting her head back in the game.
Nash was going to die today.
It seemed like there were only two of them left.
I haven't been this focused in awhile. The initial 15 combatants had dwindled to 7 before 8 new ones had appeared.
One of the gonk's tried to charge me.
I capped him in the knee, sending him to the ground where I delivered some lead to his cranium.
My counter clicked over to zero.
Now one was left.
That's another magazine to add to my refund list I was going to send Rogue.
Panam had dealt with the arrival of two cars filled with Raffen. She was pretty good with her rifle, I'd give her that. A proficient marksman to say the least.
The tell tale whine of a Tech Rifle jolted my senses.
In the moment my thoughts returned to my immediate surroundings I managed to avoid certain death.
I heard the 12 rounds whiz past my newly acquired cover.
"You with the girl?!"
I peaked out, spotting the shooter from the office-like room at the end of the second floor's construction site.
The room was filled with monitors and crates. My shooter was nestled behind them with a Tech Rifle. Sounded like an expensive one, since I'd barely heard the whine as it charged up.
"Panam can-"
I spotted a hair of movement.
My pistol kicked twice.
A howl was my reward.
"Panam!" I shouted, "he's up here!"
"Oh!" the same voice, now filled with a bit more pain yelled back, "so she is here! Well come on then, come get me babe"
The growl of frustration alerts me to Panam's position, approaching the second floor from the main staircase.
She sees me huddled behind my barrel, draws her handgun, and marches in the direction I'm pointing.
This was her kill.
'This is my kill' Panam thought to herself, watching the room V had been pointing to very carefully.
She had the eyes of a hawk, carefully making sure she wasn't going to be stepping into another one of Nash's traps. Again.
From within the room stuffed to the brim with equipment, Panam heard a soft chuckle, and then a groan.
He had propped himself up in the back corner, a trail of red showing his progression.
There were two red bloody holes in his body. One was near his shoulder, the other was his leg.
The shoulder shot was… the same placement as where V had first shot the kid. Accurate son of a bitch.
"Fuck you Nash" Panam cursed, stepping forward and leveling the gun with the man's head.
He bowed his forehead, touching it to the tip of the barrel.
Panam hesitated, a slow shake building in her hand.
She pulled the trigger.
I watched her shoot the space above his head.
The man shook for a moment, obviously having a ringing noise in his ears. He'd be able to hear in just a moment, but I watched Panam carefully.
I had approached slowly, seeing her stalk into the room and draw her sidearm.
Honestly, I expected her to have just shot him.
Instead, she hadn't been able to do it.
So much easier to kill someone when you don't know who they are, but faced with her previous partner, she didn't know what to do.
Nash did.
He began to laugh, quite deeply at first, before nearly entering hysterics.
I paid him no mind, keeping my attention on Panam.
"I fucking knew it" Nash grinned, coughing out blood for a second, "I knew you couldn't zero me"
He was a smug man, and seemingly right. Whatever compulsion he had over her, it was affecting her decision mak-
"V"
Her voice was soft, but eerie. The kind of calm that just isn't normal.
My brows furrowed. Panam didn't face me, her eyes still on Nash.
"Yes Panam?" was all I could say.
"Kill him"
I walk forward.
Nash's eyes go wide as I stride toward him, "wait. What! No! No no-"
The soft spit of my Unity silences him. His body jolts as I put a hole in his eye. I look to the female nomad, waiting for something, anything.
Panam is still staring at the corpse however.
"I'll be by the car" I settle for, holstering my weapon and walking away.
She would join me in a minute, and we'd drive out of the tunnel in silence. I didn't fail to notice how she'd taken Nash's tech rifle with her.
In my opinion I think it would suit her style of combat.
A definite increase in effectiveness.
As we hit the open air, the silence remains, but without the tense layer that had developed since the beginning of this mission.
Unfortunately, there's a whole 'nother can of worms ready to be opened upon returning to Night City.
I enjoyed the quiet ride as much as I could.