"Welcome to Night City the city of all desires!
Welcome to Night City the city of all crimes!
No smile for the tramps !
A bottle and a gun to earn a few euro dollars !
No jail for assholes who steal and kill for drugs !
We'll put cigarette ashes on your forehead for your funeral in the streets !
Welcome to night city, city of whores and dreams! "
Arya sighed, it had now been 2 hours since she heard the same song, and the man hadn't received a single coin.
Maybe she should have given him one to shut him up.
"Welcome...aahhh! Fuck you man!!"
Someone had gotten as fed up as she thought when she saw the man staring at his destroyed guitar in despair.
"Good aim" she whispered, smiling.
"Princesa, we are ready."
"I already told you I hate that nickname Jackie." She said exasperated
"That's what I use it for."
" How much?"
"3 men, not much chrome."
"Perfect."
"The guards?"
Arya looked up at the two unconscious men. They made a good seat.
"Not a problem. Bring the others back. Dad wants them alive."
Arya heard the screams and gunshots behind her.
She hated being a lookout, but her father still hadn't forgiven her fight with the cyberpsycho. But this time he needed the help of all the Valentinos.
The Divine Tear was wreaking havoc on the streets and even the Tigers were showing their fangs.
The drug had appeared without warning. The accompanying game was sordid.
The drug was in the shape of a tear that you swallowed. It was always sold in a pack of 7.
7 for luck.
3 tears were just sugar, 2 others were pure alcohol. No worries so far, it was the last two that were the problem. One was a simple drug that caused strong hallucinations for a few hours and the last was the divine tear, it was a drug that in one take caused an unimaginable ecstasy and inexorably a quick death in a minute.
Buyers had fun making bets and filming themselves consuming them. Unfortunately the game did not appeal only to adults. Her father had looked so pale after finding a dead child.
The hunt for the dealers had then begun.
"Welcome to Night city the city of all desires."
Where had he found another guitar so quickly ?
They were growing in garbage cans now?
Arya sighed before standing up seeing a black van slowly approaching.
The windows were tinted and the driver was invisible.
Her hand moved to her weapon slowly. She had been surprised by the ease with which she could use this prosthesis. It was even more sensitive than her real arm. She felt the heat, the cold, the touch.
It was for this kind of thing that she admired night city.
When the driver's door window rolled down, she smiled.
"Hello Eve." she says
But her smile turned into a grimace when she met her friend's cold gaze.
"Don't say hello Eve. I remind you that I had an audition."
" I'm sorry ?"
"You'll apologize to Janis. She worked hard to get me an audition for this commercial."
"Do you think 500 eddies will be enough?"
"Better 1000 or she'll complain for a month."
" Deal."
Eve had never returned to the streets since she had chosen to follow Arya. Arya had taken her to eat a pizza which had turned into two then three pizzas. Then she had driven her to her megabuilding.
She had opened the door to a small studio and told her it was hers. It was just a coincidence that this studio was on the same floor as Arya and her mother's apartment and that every morning Arya invited her to have breakfast with them.
When a week later Janis her new agent knocked on her door she burst into tears.
She had asked Arya why she was doing all this.
She had simply said to her:
"I want to see that dream in your eyes again. It makes them shine."
Eve had blushed profusely that day before she said.
" I will reimburse you."
"Take your time" Arya had said
Eve was now looking at her with an exasperated look that showed she wasn't really angry. Moreover, having lived on the streets, she felt concerned by this new drug.
A Valentinos came out from the back of the van to pick up the unconscious men. No sooner had he finished than the door of the building opened with a crash. Jackie was dragging one of the dealers on the ground followed by another Valentinos who was holding his arm, grimacing. Jackie threw the dealer into the van without a word.
" Others?" Asked Arya
"Dead."
Arya rolled her eyes.
"Let's hope those over there talk." She said before turning to a Valentinos.
"Take the guitarist too" she said
"You take him because he sings like shit?" Jackie asked as the singer tried to resist.
The van door slammed shut behind him.
"Because he sings like shit and he's also a drug dealer"
"He's a drug dealer because he sings like shit?" he asked in confusion.
"No because the inside of his guitar is full of drugs." she said before getting in the van
She had seen the drugs drop when the first guitar blew up and with that voice he certainly wasn't getting enough eddies to buy himself a new guitar.
As the van pulled away through the streets of Night City, Arya began to hum.
"Welcome to Night City..."