"Alright fuckers, here are the rules."
David nodded to the 6th street member as he side-eyed everyone that was around him. There were only 12 of them looking to compete in the competition, and David felt a little awkward at being the only guy not wearing 6th street colours.
The other competitors didn't seem to care, but living in Santo his whole life had taught him to be wary of 6th street. It was especially prevalent now that he was about to try and outspeed them all so he could take their money.
"In the 'arena' that we set up, we've got some circles on the ground. You're gonna stand in them and holster these guns."
The 6th street member waved his hand over to the side, where a small table held 12 of the shittest-looking revolvers David had ever seen. He wasn't gonna make any comments on them, though.
He guessed they didn't want any cheating with personal guns and holsters.
Which was… kinda weird, seeing as the rules that they had set out explicitly said that the use of cyberware was completely fine… but again, David wasn't about to speak up and ruin his biggest advantage by pointing out the inconsistency.
Instead, he just nodded and stayed silent as the 6th-street member went over the other rules. It was fairly self-explanatory stuff, to be honest. Basic shit like 'Don't shoot the audience members' and 'If you kill someone or die, we keep all the loot.'
All the normal rules you'd expect from a gang-run, back alley quickdraw competition. After the goon stopped talking, David went and grabbed the revolver they'd supplied, a beat-up DR5 Nova with a red, white and blue paint job.
He almost rolled his eyes at how garish the design was.
"Alright shitheads, we're gonna run this in pairs, nice and quick, ok? So... you and you, get in there and wait for the signal. The rest of you? I got your names, so go chill in the audience or something for a bit."
After David finished getting the strap clasped around his hip and thigh, he headed back up to the makeshift seating area where he had seen Becca go before the rules meeting, and saw her standing, waving her arms at him, her light green skin making her a beacon in amongst all the dark, military camo colours of the 6th street people.
Becca was… honestly a little bored.
Sure, she was excited, she was about to get to watch the reactions of a bunch of 6th street wild-west-wannabes as David smoked them over and over. She was even prepared to fight their way out of the party if they had to.
She'd lived in Santo long enough to know that 6th street was full of uptight assholes with their guns shoved so far up their asses they vomited bullets. Sometimes literally, she'd seen some gonk with a fucking gun in his mouth before.
Shit was fucked.
"Yo, choom"
She looked over to her left as she felt a weight settle in beside her and her eyebrows shot up as she recognised the person. "ABBY! Holy shit, girl, I haven't seen you in yonks!"
The woman looked pretty much the same as Becca remembered her, her blonde hair still looking like it was a contender to be the cleanest and best-groomed thing in the 'stadium' that the 6th street gonks had set up.
They had… worked together a couple of times back when Becca ran with the Mox. Had a fairly professional relationship. Danced on stage together, saw each other's tits, kissed a few times… all the basic Mox stuff like that.
But she hadn't seen the woman since she stopped working with the Mox, so why was she here? From the 6th street colours, it was clear she'd also gone off on her own and joined with that at some point. As Becca gave her a once over, she noticed the woman's arm and hummed. "Still ain't gotten some synth shit for that arm, eh?"
Abigail laughed at that, patting Becca on the head and rubbing it for a second, shaking her own head. "Nah, unsettles most people right off the bat, makes dealing with street trash easier. Plus I don't even really notice it anymore, to be honest."
The two sat in silence for a moment, watching as two random 6th street goons, who Becca mentally dubbed 'Mohawk' and 'Pedo Mustache' drew their revolvers at each other as quickly as they could. They were pretty evenly matched, both using a standard cyber-arm, but Mohawk ended up being just a touch faster.
Abigail huffed, shaking her head before skulling half a can of beer. "Damn, Jackson's gonna be a right pain in the ass later. He fucking hates losing."
Becca just laughed, grabbing the can out of Abigail's hand and downing the rest of it. "Ha! He was just gonna lose when it was his turn to go up against Dimples, anyway."
Abigail turned to her at that, smirking. "That guy you arrived with, yea. Got some pretty sweet chrome, so I don't doubt he could sweep this shit. But Dimples, huh? Do explain that, Becca."
Becca grinned at her, shrugging, looking very smug. "He's cute, has dimples when he grins, and even though he looks pretty green, he's downright scarousing when he fights. So he gets a nickname. Dimples."
Abigail just paused at that, chuckling as she shook her head. "You made that word up, didn't you?"
As some 6th street goons escorted Mohawk out and took Pedo Mustache's unconscious body with them, Becca just stuck her tongue out at Abigail, before turning and watching to see if it was David's turn next.
"Did not, and you couldn't prove it if I did. Now shoosh, Dimples is about to have his go!"
David was much less nervous than he would have expected to be.
He was in the middle of a gang party, about to get into a duel with someone who would very definitely be trying to kill him, judging by the look in the 6th street dude's eyes, with a gun he didn't know how to check, in an attempt to fleece the gang for as much money as he could.
And yet, as the 6th street goon that was the 'referee' grabbed his own pistol out of its holster, watching the both of them to make sure they didn't cheat, David couldn't feel anything but excited. As he shifted his feet slightly, he blinked, realising something.
'Wait… Is that a red outline around the dude? Is this some Sandevistan-system thing?
He didn't much of a chance to process that as the referee gave both of them a thumbs up, before pointing his pistol skyward, and letting out a yell.
"GO!"
BANG!
The world flashed green as the 6th street member fired his pistol into the air, the sounds echoing for a while longer while using the Sandevistan. David couldn't help but smile as he almost lazily pulled the stock standard revolver they'd given him out of its holster, aiming it at his opponent.
The man was incredibly chromed up, so David aimed around where his kidney would have been if he still had a 'ganic one, and fired. David let the world return to real-time, and the guy didn't even get the chance to pull his own revolver out of his holster before the bullet slammed into him, barreling him over.
"Holy shit… Uh, Jimmy is down!"
The world erupted into cheering at that, and he was surprised to find out that could actually hear Becca's cheering over everyone else's. He looked up at her and grinned, sending her a small wave, before leaving the small arena they'd set up for the competition.
As he did, he noticed a couple of the other contenders passing eddies between each other, and there was more than one of them that gave him death glares, either because he lost them their money, or because they'd have to go up against him next.
The referee stepped out after him, slapping him on the shoulder. "Must have some absolutely fucked bio mods to look that ganic and move that quick, kid. Good shit."
David just laughed, thanking him. The referee sighed after a second when some other 6th street members brought 'Jimmy' in on a makeshift stretcher. "I noticed that the gonk's still breathing. That's good thinking on your part. Most here won't mind if you win, but if you do it by killing our chooms… well that's a different story."
David nodded at that, smiling. "I'm here to take your eddies, not get myself killed. I'm gonna do my best to not zero any of your boys."
The referee just nodded, looking over at the stretcher again before humming. "Good, yea, that's good. You got a few goes before you're back on again, so go chill with your output or something. I'll call you when you need to get back here."
David's face went a little red, and he was about to correct the referee, when the guy practically bolted to the other side of the room, his starting pistol, which turned out to just be a regular, if incredibly modded, pistol, aimed at two people wrestling on the floor. "James! Gavin! Stop that shit right now or I'll fucking dome you!"
As the referee's involvement just made the situation devolve further into a three-way brawl, David shook his head, chuckling softly. He looked around for a moment, before activating his Sandevistan.
As the world went green, he jogged off towards where he'd seen Becca, ready to watch a few of the duels with her.