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Night City Legends
Chapter Nine: We Had to Pay the Price
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After leaving Cami's apartment and dropping by Viks to give him the eddies from Naruto, it was already getting pretty late in the evening so Jackie did what he liked to do after a long and stressful day, get his grub on at the Chubby Buffalo. There were a few more folks sitting around the joint than last time so he grabbed a booth and chilled while waiting for his order to get to him which got to him in less than five minutes. Impressive since he ordered a plate of wings and a BBQ scop sandwich.
He was about three wings and a bite of his sandwich when he noticed a familiar redhead come dragging in.
"Hey yo V!"
Several people glanced over at him before going back to their own business and meals, the woman's head shot up and zeroed in on the voice before visibly relaxing, "Oh hey Jackie,"
"You good Holmes, you're looking a little rough," he looked her up and down as she walked over, her Corpo suit looking a little wrinkled and she had dark rings around her eyes, "If I didn't know better, I'd say someone gave you a pair of black eyes."
V slid onto the booth with a groan, "Eh, just work. Boss is fuckin psycho but hey, whats new there huh?" she brushed a lock of hair from her face, "Still got us looking into that antigrav tech but it's like it's vanished into thin air, no sightings, no whispers, nothing. Shit, some poor gonk's stuck scrubbing through net forums for any clues."
That made Jackie chuckle, "Probably not what they were expecting when they joined up,"
She nodded as the waitress came over, "I'll have what he's having."
"Wings and a sandwich with Nicola?" the waitress asked, her eyes flashing as she sent her order, "We'll have it right out in a few ok,"
"It's so damn nice to sit down and get some actual warm food," she whined, acting like a petulant child much to his amusement, "Last night I grabbed a burrito and it took me two hours before I could eat it. Oh and get this," V leaned forward and motioned for him to do the same.
Jackie took a gulp of his cola and did so.
"Apparently," she cut a look to make sure no one was nearby to overhear, "ACI's been keeping an eye on the whole thing between the Valentinos and 6th Street right, well listen to this, they caught wind of a coup going on in the 6th Street ranks, looks like Militech might be supplying one side." V stopped when Jackie suddenly muttered several curses in Spanish, "What's up Jackie, you know something?"
"Shit V, where do I start…" he looked up and stopped, seeing the waitress returning with V's tray.
"Here you go dear, can I get you two anything else?"
V arranged her food on the table in front of her and returned the trey, "No thanks, I'm good," which Jackie seconded.
"Alright, just give me a holler if you need anything else ok?"
They waited for a moment as the woman left to help another customer a few booths away before V leaned forward again, "Alright choom, spill."
Pinching the bridge of his nose Jackie sighed, "You know the whole beef that started this right,"
"Some of it, 6th Street tried to zero some members right?"
"Yeah, they took out a few guys and tried to kill some of the bosses," he told her. V noticed how Jackie seemed to wither a bit more. "I told you about my old buddy Gustavo, right? Knew 'em since we were kids… well they killed his sister in the attack."
"Wait… isn't his sister?"
"Yeah, Camilla. Straight through the head, killed her like that," he told her, snapping his fingers at the end.
"Holy fuck Jackie," V leaned back in her seat, "Im sorry man."
He waved it off, "Thanks Chica. But not only that, her mainline just got back to NC. He's close to going off the rails… fuck, you should've seen him, looks like he's been up for days and even burned out his Neuralware." he took another sip of his drink, "He came to the bar earlier today and wanted to know how it happened. Vato crushed a broseph with his ganic hand and didn't even flinch,"
V whistled, "Shit… and here I was complaining." she took a bite of her BBQ, "You said he's a solo right? He's gonna go after the ones who did it?"
"Oh yeah," Jackie did the same and took a bite of one of his wings, "Cabron's planning to wage his own war, I could see it in his eyes."
"He got any leads?"
He took a moment to think before shrugging, "Said he had a line on someone who'd give him the deets."
"He got back-up?" she looked to him and saw the sheepish grin he had, "Oh, of course your helping him,"
"Hey, if I let 'em go off and get killed on his own, Camilla would probably haunt my ass. Besides, I'm pretty certain that Gustavo and his boys will be more than happy to jump in and join us."
V shook her head but couldn't blame either of them. Jackie had proved to her years ago in Mexico that he'd do just about anything to help a choom, to help a choom and get payback for another? Hell he'd go to the ends of the earth no doubt. "Well if your doing this then look out choom, if Militech is supplying one side or the other-"
"Then shits probably gonna get a lot louder than we thought." he finished, "Somehow V… I don't think Naruto will care."
-xXx-
Pulling up on the corner down the street from Tom's diner, Rico killed the engine and put his head to the steering wheel, banging his head lightly a few times. "You don't have to do this, Ortiz."
"Oh right, I'm just gonna let my choom roll in and get himself flatlined," She grumbled, checking the mag of her Sidewinder smart rifle and securing her smartlink. "This aint no kid you're coming up against Rico, this is the fuckin Shino, you need the help like it or not.'' The calibration was fine tuned to her own systems to give her all the edge she could get. "If nothing else, maybe I can distract him while you get her out of there."
"Do not," he stressed those words, leaning back into his seat to stare her down, "Do not, do anything stupid Ortiz." he leaned and grabbed the stock of his Palica leaning against the passenger seat between her legs. Where she would normally make a joke about how close she was between her legs, Ortiz was strangely serious.
If things went the way they feared, they'd need every edge against the kid. Smartguns gave them the added advantage of a targeting system and homing bullets, against a Ninja that should be a huge help… they hoped.
"What do you think he wants"
Rico sat there silent for a bit, multiple thoughts running though his mind. "I don't know… maybe he's pissed about what happened out there in the badlands?"
"You didn't have shit to do with that," she exclaimed.
He nodded, "That's why I'm gonna try talking to him."
"And if he zeros you as soon as you show up?"
Rico was silent for a moment, staring at her before slowly looking back down the road to where the diner was, "Then I guess I'll just be shit outta luck. You scanning the area?"
"Not much networked around here," she reached up and removed her holovisor to free up what little RAM it used with her Cyberdeck, looking away from the man as she did. "Got a few vending machines and some small appliances inside that I could cause a distraction with.
"Ping picking anyone up?"
She nodded, "Yeah, looks like the employees are all connected to the local Net, can't see your boy though… or his boys for that matter. Must all be running purely in meatspace." that would make things tougher for her, she couldn't hack his chrome from here and would have to get much closer to do so without line of sight. "Looks like they're all sitting in the booths… one is by herself."
"Got it…"
"Where did he find a team anyway?" she couldn't help but ask, still not looking towards him. He didn't know what to say, hell it wasn't like they went out for drinks and talked shop. The biz between him and the kid was purely that, just biz.
"Maybe I'll ask him about them. Better move out though, don't wanna keep the kid waiting," Rico chuckled, opening the door to his truck and stepping out. "Hey Ortiz, if something happens-"
"Yeah yeah, I know, you've always loved me." She tried to joke but couldn't hide the trembling in her voice. "And don't worry, I'll wipe your net history."
"Ah…" he looked slightly worried at that thought, "Yeah, please do… but seriously, thanks for everything. Couldn't ask for a better choom."
Ortiz slowly turned to look at him, letting him see her face for the first time in years. From just below her left eye and all the way down to her neck was mostly scar tissue, stretched and twisted from the burns she sustained during the Metal Wars. They were her biggest insecurity and cause for anxiety which he knew she tried to hide behind her mask, both literally and metaphorically. Rico just smiled at her, not reacting to her scars in the slightest.
"Go on and get your niece out of there," her eyes lit up as she reconnected to the net, "I'll try and cover you however I can, keep in touch via the coms… and If shit goes sideways I'll come running."
Rico nodded and shut the door. Taking a deep breath he steeled his nerves and started walking.
The walk down to Tom's Diner was only a couple blocks but seemed to take hours, he kept going over the different outcomes in his head over and over but no matter how he looked at it he couldn't help but feel like he was simply walking to his doom. Shit… he was probably in a sniper's crosshairs right now, if he was in the kids place, he'd have a sniper on overwatch.
-xXx-
"Why are you doing this?"
Naruto looked at the girl and slowly cocked his head to the side. She looked like she'd had a rough few days before he'd even shown himself and now she looked terrified and near tears. Then again, having someone kick out your customers and basically take you and your coworkers hostage would do that.
When he came in through the front door his appearance had caused the entire place to go silent. Some of the workers in the kitchen tried to sneak out the back and were met with a couple shadow clones who marched them back inside and had them sit down at a booth in the far corner while another followed the original and let the customers leave out the front door.
He himself had Rico's niece, Sara, get in touch with the man while all of this was going down then had her join him in the booth on the opposite end of the diner while his clones hung around. One was watching the workers, pouring each a cup of synthcoff which confused them as this was probably the most civil hostage situation they'd ever heard of.
"I told you," Naruto spoke after a moment, "Your uncle may have information I need,"
"You can't just call him?" she snapped before realizing it, looking away and flinching.
"Lost his contact info honestly… but at this point I don't know if I can trust him,"
"So what… you're using me to get to him?" she looked at him aghast before starting to get angry, "It's bad enough that you people got my brother killed, can't you just let us grieve in peace!" the girl clenched her fists on the table, "Why cant you gangoons just leave us all alone!"
"I'm sorry for your loss," he replied softly, "Really I am, I understand how you feel but-"
"How could you possibly understand?" she cut him off with a snap, "How could you even begin to understand what we're going through? My brother is dead because of people like you," His fist clenched at her words, "My mother is devastated, I'm devastated. So don't act like you know a goddamn thing about how I feel!" she finished with a scream.
Slowly, Naruto reached down into his pocket, making the girl pale and stuttering out an apology before flinching as he slapped his hand on the table. Beneath his fingers was a photo that he turned and slid halfway to her before raising his hand letting her see it.
It was the picture of him and Cami, smiling at the dinner table while Mama Welles snapped the picture, you couldn't see it in the picture itself but they'd been holding hands the entire time under the table.
Sara looked at the picture for a second, confused as to what a picture of some couple had to do with anything before looking up at him as he reached up and removed his mask, slowly sitting it down on the table next to them. She looked between the blond and the picture and realized that it was him.
"You want to know why I'm doing this? Fine, I'll tell you," Something about the calmness of his voice made her shiver as he slowly tapped the picture "Her name was Camilla Orta, Cami to her friends… and she is… was the love of my life." All the calm vanished as he snatched the metal napkin dispenser bolted to the table and sent it hurling through the diner with a roar where it exploded into cheap metal and springs with thin tissue flying everywhere.
The other waitress and cooks ducked at the sound and tried to take cover by hiding under the table while his three clones stood around stoically.
"She was the one good thing I had in this goddamn city!" he yelled, slamming his palms on the table and towering over her, "The one bright spot in this fucking hell." he trembled and leaned closer to the now petrified woman to hiss through clinched teeth, "And some bastards in 6th Street killed her… I really want to believe that Rico had nothing to do with it but I'm certain he at least has a fucking clue as to who does."
The diner went silent, the only sound coming from the now sniffling girl he just raged at while he gently picked up the photo and looked at it before sliding it under Cami's fox mask.
-xXx-
From her position, Ortiz could barely see what was going on but knew something had gone down. Activating her link to Rico, she shot him a message "Yo Choom, heads up. Looks like something happened, everyone's hiding and shit."
"Fuck, Im almost there, keep me posted,"
Suddenly, the door next to her swung open, "What the fuck!" hands grabbed her and snatched her from the cab and out onto the ground before she could disconnect from the local subnet. Blinking as she groaned, the techie yelped as she was pinned in place, "Hey asshole let go!" she kicked her legs but gasped as her arm was twisted behind her back. "Ah fuck you, that shit hurts."
A pair of zip ties clinched tight around one wrist, she tried struggling to escape before the second could be secured but could only flail around like a fish out of water as her other arm was yanked back painfully.
"Stop before you hurt yourself," her captor told her, locking the last loop around her other wrist.
"You're the one hurting me bitch!" with the last tie in place, Ortiz knew she was fucked and not in the fun way. Her captor grabbed her under her arm and hoisted her up to her knees before stepping in front of her, making her freeze. He looked just like the Shino, only with the full face mask underneath that weird fox mask, if it wasn't so serious she'd be pretty turned on right now. "Ah… " she tried to think of something to say but blanked out so she just gave him a sheepish grin, "about those insults, yeah I was kinda panicking you know,"
The guy shrugged, "No hard feelings."
She knew it was coming, she felt it but just couldn't help herself, "Really…" she looked straight ahead at his crotch, "Nothing hard at all?"
-xXx-
"Ortiz, I'm going in," Rico sent through his coms, not waiting for her response as he walked up to the door. The tiny parking lot where customers usually parked was deserted and even the people that usually walked around going about their day seemed to be giving the place a wide berth. His shotgun was primed and ready to fire via smartlink, if push came to shove he only needed to think about it and the gun would go off.
Opening the door, the electronic bell went off making him wince at how loud it was compared to the silent diner. Stepping in, he saw one of the kids hustle sitting on the bar with his feet on a stool fiddling with a knife, face covered by a mask with long ears. To his right, another leaned up against the wall near his niece's coworkers who tried not to draw attention to themselves and to his left, he saw Sara, sitting in the far booth with the kid… no Naruto.
"I'll take that," the hustle sitting on the countertop said his voice muffled by the mask while, motioning to his sawed off, "Don't need any accidents,"
His grip on the barrel tightened, all he had to do was turn it and think, then scratch one gonk.
"Uncle Rico!" His niece's voice snapped him from those thoughts as she looked over her shoulder at him with a pleading look that cooled his thoughts. No, he couldn't put her in any more danger than he already did.
"Fine," he growled, pulling the over his head and thrusting the gun towards the goon. He could still access the link via his implant and fire it if needed, probably wouldn't be able to get the homing function to work properly but it'd be a distraction. He still had his trusty hold out just in case.
"Sara, you ok?" he asked, only for her to wrap her arms around him tightly and nod, "Kid let them go, they don't have anything to do with this."
A tense moment passed, "Fine," Naruto looked at his clone and nodded, "Let em go,"
It took a minute but the waitress and cooks quickly made themselves scarce once they realized that this wasn't some sick joke, that they weren't gonna be shot in the back like they half expected. Rico took Sara by the hand and went to help her up from the table. "Come on, you delta on home ok, I'll handle things from here,"
"Not her,"
"What?" the man turned to look at the blonde still sitting at the table, "Kid she has nothing to do with any of this."
"I know, but she's not leaving… not yet." Naruto told him coolly before pointing at the seat next to her, "Now sit." Not seeing any other way, Rico did as he was told and motioned for his niece to slide over and sat next to her.
"Alright kid, I'm here… let's talk huh, this about what happened in the badlands? I promise you that we had nothing to do with that," he idly noticed the kid's hustle set his Palica on the bar aimed towards the kitchen.
Naruto tapped his fingers against the table, "No, I know what happened there."
"Then what is this about huh?" Rico felt the seat behind him move as the hustle took the seat directly behind him, probably staring at the back of his head just in case and ready to flatline him if he even twitched wrong. The door opened again, the electronic bell going off making both uncle and niece turn to look as another one of the kids hustle walked in with someone over his shoulder. "Oritz!"
"Sorry choom," the girl grimaced, her scared face marred with a frown, "Gonk got the drop on me. Never had a chance."
Rico felt his heart race, his biomonitor once again alerting him to the increase in his blood pressure. The kid… Naruto had him over a barrel, the only backup he had was just brought in like a load of dirty laundry, "Hey where do you think your putting those hands?" he heard Ortiz shout, making the hustle nearly miss a step.
"I didn't even touch you like that!"
"What if I want you to though?" Ortiz was grinning like a fool as the man sat her down on one of the bar stools, making her friend want to smack her.
"Alright enough," Naruto slammed his fist down on the table, making them all stop and turn back to him. Rico felt his niece stiffen and press herself closer to him, "6th Street started a war and I want to know whos fucking responsible." he looked between the man and his friend, "Your gonna tell me who ordered those attacks."
"The shit with the Tinos?" he asked dumbfounded, "That's what this is about?" The 6th Street lieutenant couldn't process it, this gonk… the fucking Shino of fucking 6TH STREET was close to zeroing him out over a rival gang? What the fuck was going on?
"Answer the question Rico," there was no trace of the kid anymore, this was purely the Shino sitting across from him, "Did you have anything to do with it."
Beside him, he felt Sara move, "Sir-"
A single pointed finger towards her made her go silent, "Not you…" he moved his finger to point at the man, "Him… I want him to answer me."
"No," Rico stressed though gritted teeth, "I didn't order this shit and no, before you ask, the general didn't have a fucking thing to do with it either." he leaned forward and looked the Shino eye to eye, "A goddamn gangwar is the last thing we need around here,"
"Then tell me," Naruto leaned forward himself, meeting his gaze, "who was involved,"
"You know good and fucking well that Gunner put that shit togethor. After all the shit you did to him, making him look weak, he needed something to build up his cred. Killing a bunch of Tino assholes was just-"
Naruto lashed out, punching the man in his face. Rico felt his head snap back and fell back against the booth, dazed and seeing stars while Sara pushed herself against the wall screaming. Another fist collided with his nose, and he could already taste the blood on his lips.
The man couldn't hear what else was said over Sara crying in his ear and was too stunned to do anything else as the hustle behind him snaked an arm around his neck and squeezed, putting him in a chokehold that quickly brought him to his senses in a panic.
"Rico!" Ortiz yelled, trying to jump off the stool despite being restrained the way she was. She made it to her feet to try and lunge to her chooms aid only for the hustle near her to kick her feet out from under her. The man then pinned her down by stepping on her back, "Get off me!" she hissed, trying and failing to move, "Stop it!"
"Sir please!" The man's niece cried, trying to pull the clone's arm from around her uncle's neck while he kicked and struggled to breath, blood pouring from his nose while his face rapidly turned red, "You're hurting him!"
Naruto signaled to his clone and it loosened his hold, letting the man gasp for air but not letting him go. "Gustavo Orta,"
"One of the Tino bosses?" Rico gasped out, eyes wide as he coughed, "What about him?"
"I want to know who tried to kill him."
"The fuck?" he didn't understand, "Why the hell do you care?" the arm around his neck tightened again in warning.
Naruto stood up, grabbed the picture and moved to stand next to the man, looming over him, "Look at it," he growled, holding the picture a foot from his face.
Rico did and it only added to his confusion, it was the kid with some latina chick at a table. They looked like they'd had a good time or something but what did that have to do with anything? "You and some girl?"
"Her name was Camilla Orta." the gears in his head started to turn, his eyes widened and it was as if ice filled his veins, "She was the love of my life."
Oh fuck. He knew Ortas little sister died from the attack that day but she had been the kids fucking mainline? This fucking psycho? "Kid look, you have to believe me. We didn't have anything to do with your girls death,"
"Members of 6th street were the ones to pull the trigger," he snapped, reaching down he drew his knife, "That's a fact Rico. If your gonna lie to my face then at least make it a good one!"
"NO!" he yelled, seeing the knife and fearing the worst, "I mean that our side had nothing to do with it. It's fucking Gunner trying to save face and take control with his boys."
"Prove it!" the knife stabbed into the table in front of him causing Sara to cry harder from fear.
"I can!" Naruto turned his head to the woman pinned to the ground, "I can prove that Gunner's the one who ordered it!" Ortiz struggled against the boot holding her down, trying to look up at the Shino. "Just stop, don't hurt them!"
He stepped back, gently putting the picture away while the niece sobbed quietly beside the man. "How?"
"Gunner sent out a bunch of gonk shit about how Morton was working with a megacorp, that he was a sellout!" the techie explained quickly, "trying to turn the others against him and show how he was the better boss by pushing out the Valentinos. I took one of the shards."
The Hustle holding her down stepped off of her and knelt down, cutting the zip tie around her wrist with his knife. "Hand it over," Naruto demanded, wanting to know for certain. The woman slowly reached into her pockets and pulled out a small case, "It's all on this shard,"
Naruto took the case and slid the shard out. He stared at it for a moment then walked back towards Rico and set it down infront of his niece, "Slot it."
"What?"
"Slot the shard," he repeated. If they hid any nasty surprises on the shard then they wouldn't let the girl chip it in. Rico tried to protest but Ortiz assured him that it was fine, that she'd slotted it earlier and everything on it was fine.
The girl was clearly afraid to do it but did as she was told, her eyes widened as she got the deets from the shard and when she popped the shard out, Naruto took it and slotted it into his own neural port, where he read over the details. They were telling him the truth, Rico had nothing to do with Camis murder.
He signaled to the clone to let the man go, "Fine… I believe you." Naruto sat back down heavily across from them and looked at the man who pinched his still bleeding and most likely broken nose, "Where is he?"
"Gunner? Fuck if I know, gonk went to ground when shit went sideways," The man winced as he held his nose. "Look, kid… about your mainline,"
"Don't." Naruto's voice went cold again, "I want the ones responsible. I want to know who was there and where they are…" they knew exactly what he'd do to them too once he knew where to find them. "Then I'm gonna find Gunner and anyone protecting him… after that, this" he pointed between himself and the two members of 6th Street. "Is over... and as far as I'm concerned Rico, any debt I owe you is paid."
They stared at each other for a moment, "Do we have an understanding?"
"Yeah kid, all debts paid."
The Shino stood up from the table and took Camis' mask, slowly putting it back on his face and looking at them through the slits, "Good, then I suggest you start looking for the shooters and send me their location, cause if I have to start hunting them myself… well, it's kinda hard to tell one ganger from another." he shot the man his contact info
With that he started to leave, his clones falling in behind him on the way until he stopped at the door, "Oh… and I'm sorry about… all of this."
"Well you'll understand if I don't write," Ortiz snarked, rolling over and trying to get herself free from the zipties. "I'm all for a little bondage but this sucks!" The Shino and his team exited Tom's Diner, leaving the three behind and ignoring Ortiz who flipped them off.
-xXx-
Once the psycho kid left, he got Ortiz free, snatched up his gun and delta'd the fuck out of there before either the NCPD showed, which they most likely wouldn't to be fair, or the kid changed his mind. He peeled away from Tom's Diner and didn't stop until they were safely back on their own turf with his own people.
Ortiz's apartment was the closest so they went there, where Ortiz quickly got to work surfing the net to find out what she could about the shooters. There was no telling how fucked the gang would be if he decided to just say fuck it and go open season on them. At first, he was pretty confident that they'd be able to flatline him if he ever started to lose it.
Then he saw the aftermath of his Scav hunt. A solo merc is one thing, but a ghost… that's a much different fight. Again, they'd probably be able to zero him, probably cost them both a fuckton of eddies and blood but they'd get him. But a team? Where did he get a team? Ortiz was actively scanning for signals while running overwatch through the net, just so that no one could sneak up and get the drop on her but lo and behold, they got her.
"Sara, stop it." Rico sighed as his niece fussed over his broken nose, from the way she was acting you'd think that she hadn't just been basically held hostage by a lunatic. "It's just my nose, not the first time old uncle Rico got suckerpunched by some- AH, dammit girl!" he cried out, jerking away as she squeezed the wrong spot too hard.
Sara snatched away "I'm so sorry!"
"It's fine," he waved it off, she was just trying to help. "I'll get the doc to reset it in a while." The maxdoc he used took the edge off and the bleeding had nearly stopped.
"Are we in danger uncle Rico?" she asked him, taking off the now bloody rubber gloves she'd put on to try and help doctor him up, "Is he gonna…" Sara trailed off, clearly worried about what could happen.
"I won't let anything else happen to you," he told her quickly, turning to look her in the eyes, "I promise,"
"So your gonna help him find out who killed his girl"
He nodded slowly, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his smokes, the blood on his hands stained the filter as he lit it, "Don't really have much of a choice, kiddo."
She frowned, seeing him smoking and sighed before leaning back next to him. "Hey… can I have one?" Wordlessly, he offered her the pack and his lighter.
How did things get to this point, he found himself wondering again. The kid went off and got himself a mainline and that girl just so happens to be a Valentino shot-callers little sister? Talk about a fuckin small world. Then Gunner goes pulling this gonk shit and gets the girl flatlined.
He wanted to be pissed at the kid… Well actually he was pissed, but he wanted to be even more angry at what he did but that little voice in the back of his head kept pointing out that it was his mainline. Hell, he'd already sent his wife away to stay with her folks so that something like this wouldn't happen to her… like Diego.
"Hey Ortiz," he called, finishing his smoke and setting the butt inside an open Nicola nearby. "After this… I think I'm done with that psycho… shit, maybe I'm just done with all of this." She stopped typing away for a moment and turned to him, spinning her chair around to face him with a look of shock, even Sara was doing the same. 6th Street was his life and they knew this. "Just… look at how fucked this is. Because of one gonk… were on the edge of all out war, some of our friends have turned on us thinking we sold out, some are dead for sticking with us, Diego…" he trailed off for a second, "And now, the kids pulled a fucking nutty since his input was zeroed, by 6th Street to make shit even worse."
-xXx-
"I don't know who your talking about you fucking psycho!" Naruto held a member of 6th Street over the edge of a rooftop in Santo Domingo, the woman had mentioned something about Gunner being the new General of the gang and how he would turn things around so when he got the chance he snatched her off the streets and hauled her up to the rooftops to ask her some questions. The first being who was the shooters responsible for trying to kill Gustavo Orta.
"Then how about you tell me where Gunner is?" he asked, lifting her up a bit and acting like he was about to drop her.
"Whoa hey hey hey, don't drop me!" she yelped, hands clapping around his wrist for dear life as he held her by the front of her flak jacket. "Gunners gone underground, only his captains know where he is!"
He rolled his eyes, "Then where are they?"
It had been a day since he left Rico behind but he just couldn't wait around and hope for news he had to do something, anything. So he sent out his information network of clones. By pure luck one ran into this Gonk laughing about the new general and quickly made his way to the clones location.
"Hell if I know man!"
"Better start thinking hard then!" he snapped, "A fall from this height won't kill you but it'll hurt like hell."
"I don't know!" she screamed back.
*Beep*
Blinking, Naruto opened his messages and found a short one from Rico containing a picture of a bald man with a completely chrome jaw.
"Found the driver, Grady Franko. Holding up with some Gunners people. They're holding up at the old Electric Corporation Power Plant building on Republic Way."
Reading over the message, Naruto focused back on the Gangoon he'd been unsuccessfully interrogating, "Hey, the old power plant in the Republic, tell me about it."
"It's a hang out man!" she cried out pale and shaking in fear. She was already afraid of heights and now this masked psycho was dangling her over the edge like it was a normal night out., "Corpos cleared out for some reason and we moved in." She was low in rank and relatively new, but as she stared at him the woman slowly put two and two together, "Oh fuck, no no no I know who you are, your the 6th Street Shino,"
He jossled her again, "Focus. Tell me about the layout.
"It's a fucking warehouse surrounded by walls!" she held onto his wrist for dear life. "Got some shit underground, buncha weird ass tech for power and shit. Only been there once."
"You're useless to me then," Tossing her forward, the woman screamed as he let her go, falling down onto the street below. It didn't kill her but from the way she kept screaming, it definitely broke her legs. The thought of silencing her for good crossed his mind, to keep her from possibly alerting them and letting them know he was coming. But, so what if they knew? He'd take out anyone who tried stopping him.
Time to go and pay this Grady a visit…
-xXx-
Sebastian Ibarra sat in his car deep in thought, he'd been keeping an eye on things as best he could since this whole mess started, even more so now that Naruto had vanished off the board and the Shino of 6th Street showed back up. Gustavo and Campo are beside themselves, jumping at shadows thinking that the 6th Street boogie man would leap out and flatline them at any time.
If it wasn't so serious, he'd find the situation quite humorous.
If only they knew that their most feared adversary at the moment was actually their greatest ally in this war. That while 6th Street had cost Gustavo a little sister, it had taken a lover from the Shino.
"Padre," Marcus spoke, looking at him from the rearview mirror, "Our contact called, we believe that the Shino is on the move. What should we do?"
"Bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you to find peace and salvation with the Lord" he mused, before shaking his head, "For I feel that many of them shall soon meet the Lord." The man pondered for a moment before looking up at his driver, "For now we will do nothing, keep searching for the shooters but do not get in his way."
Once they found the ones responsible, he'd forward that information to the boy himself, free of charge of course. Gustavo might want to avenge his little sister but the lad was avenging something much more precious in his eyes. For he too knew the pain of losing a love and even worse yet, a child. He hasn't shed a tear in many years but when he learned that Cami had been carrying a little one he felt as if he'd lost a great grandchild as well as a grandchild.
-xXx-
Along the edge where Arroyo and Charter Hill were separated by a large drainage canal, sat the old abandoned warehouse with ELECTRIC CORPORATION emblazoned along each side in glowing letters. The building itself was a mess of rust and stained metal that looked like the people in charge of building parts of it just up and left one day years ago.
For a gang of military obsessed gonks, they sure didn't take any consideration to the overpass above the building providing a major surveillance risk, you could try and block the view from the road all you wanted but anyone just looking over the edge had a perfect view of the entire area.
Parked alongside the road just outside were several 6th Street trucks and cars, each sporting similar OD green paint jobs or camo. Two guards were posted outside and unlike the Scav population he hunted, these guards took their job much more seriously… too bad they didn't bother looking up or they would've seen the Shino standing on the bottom of the overpass above them.
Her mask clung to his face, its little upturned fox grin hiding the dark circles around his eyes. He hadn't been able to sleep the night before, between sending out his clones and processing their memories he literally just had too much on his mind to rest. But Naruto didn't worry about it, he was a trained ninja after all, between his training and energy he could last quite a while without rest.
Looking over to the rooftop of the building next to the warehouse, Naruto could see several more of his clones crouched by the edge of the roof, hidden to those below.
Inside past the gate was a small open yard with stacks of construction materials scattered around, on one side of the yard was the warehouse and the other, a crumbling building that looked like they were being used as a security post.
Several 6th street gangoons walked around below, unlike the guards, these seemed to be relaxed and were just hanging out. From his position, he couldn't see for certain if any of them were his target, they'd have to check each one to make sure they didn't kill him by accident, he needed to have a chat with them first.
-xXx-
Guard duty blowed, everyone could agree to that but hey, it was one of the easiest jobs to do, pair up with your choom and shoot the shit for a while, dont get caught fucking around too much and if you want a little Jazz or to smoke a little Rez, just share with your choom and it all nova.
"Hey G, let me run something by you choom."
G was your typical run of the mill 6th Street Gangoon, discharged from the army due to 'budget cuts' after the war, tried to use his experience and training to sign up with corpo security but ultimately fell in with his fellow disenfranchised soldiers and joined the gang. "What's up Cook?" The man reached over and took the offered rez and took a drag.
Cook on the other hand looked like he should've been tucked away safely in some megacorp cubical. Clean cut, skinny and scrawny despite a proven service record, having seen actual combat more times than half the crew older than him.
The man looked around slowly for a moment, making sure no one was too close, "It's about this whole thing with Morton, man." he took the rez back and held it to his lips for a moment, "The whole- *cough* him selling out thing."
"The General gettin in bed with Militech?" G muttered, "Yeah, hell of a thing. A gonk move if you ask me, he must've short-circed or some shit if he didn't think we wouldn't find out."
"Yeah, but don't you think its kinda fucked up? Right after we hit the Valentino's, Gunner brings in a stockpile of Militech shit he stole from one of Morton's deals?"
G leaned against the wall and shrugged, "I don't get where you're going with this dude,"
Cook rolled his eyes, "Choom I'm not going anywhere with this," turning to face his friend, the man crossed his arm, "All I'm saying is that if…" he trailed off and looked behind the other man, "Hey G, is that… oh hell no."
Turning around, G searched the street, hand going to the SMG hanging by his side only to see a bum wrapped in rags staggering against his chooms, customized Thornton Mackinaw which he called 'Warhorse'. The man looked like he could barely walk a straight line, making him chuckle a bit knowing how pissed Cook was getting. "He's going around behind it choom, looks like he might try and interface with it,"
"The fuck he is," taking another hit from the rez, he handed it back and slung his M2038 shotgun over his back, "Cover for me a minute, gonna go ventilate that gonks skull."
"Yeah, yeah, just don't take too long or I'm smoking the rest of this shit."
Cook stalked his way down the sidewalk, following after the man, he could see that the bum had left his truck alone and had staggered his way into the street, leaning heavily on one of his chooms cars. Maybe he'd beat the shit out of him first then call some of the guys over to get their kicks in too for touching their wheels.
"Hey you," he stepped around his truck, looking at the scratch the bum left along the back panel which make him pissed, "Hey asshole, I'm talking to you," reaching into the back of his truck he snatched a trusty tire iron from the bed, he was gonna make this last.
The bum stopped, mumbling incoherently under his tattered rags, long greasy hair, scabs all along his arms, once he finished beating the fuck outta him, Cook felt like he'd have to wash himself. No telling what kinda filth this trash was carrying.
"Got shit in your ears huh?" Cook jabbed the bum in the back with the tire iron making him stumble a few steps, catching himself on the next car. "Get your filthy dick beaters off the wheels gonk,"
"Wait… wait, got something… you should hear." the bum grumbled out, his voice sounded like gravel to the gangoon before he coughed a few times, his words slurred and raspy.
Cook stepped forward, "Fucking spit it out then huh?" he spat, jabbing him with the tool twice in quick succession, once in the chest and another in his gut, "What's wrong gonk? Thought you had something to say."
"Your…" The bum lashed out much faster than any bum or most men could ever hope to catch. Blood spattered along the side of the car in a long streak while Cook dropped the tire iron with a clatter and grabbed at his throat, bleeding profusely and staring wide eyed at the bum who leaned close, "not who I'm looking for." Cook felt his knees go weak, staggering he fell to his knees and collapsed against the wheel as the bum knelt down beside him, a Kunai in his hand.
It must've been the blood loss but the bum seemed to be engulfed in a cloud of smoke, when it cleared there was another man in his place, wearing a weird mask with pink flowers and small spatters of his blood across the front. He gurgled out a few incoherent words before the man stabbed the knife into him again, making him tense then go limp.
"Alright then, that's one down," Naruto muttered to himself, leaning over and slapping an explosive tag against the car, "Guess it's time to move in," with that, he vanished, leaving the rapidly cooling corpse leaning against the car in the road.
-xXx-
Back at the front gate, G did as he promised if Cook didn't hurry and smoked away. He knew the gonk would take his time, that truck was his baby. That bum was fucked for messing with it at all. Damn though, choom was taking his sweet ass time though. If the Cap decides to show up they'd both get their ass chewed out.
From above, Naruto detached from the bottom of the overpass, letting himself fall down towards the last guard. His movement signaled his other clones to move out as well, each either jumping over into the open yard or sliding down the wall to take down any gangoon they saw. He landed on the fencepost behind the guard which wobbled under his sudden weight. But before the guard could turn, Naruto fell again, landing on top of the man and sending them both to the ground.
G grunted, the sudden weight knocking the breath out of him, if not for his cyberlungs he'd probably be gasping for breath. He sent out a sos via holomessage as his attacker yanked his head back, peering at his face for a moment. The sight of his attacker mask sent chills down his spine, that mask…
This wasn't his target either, Naruto quickly ended the man with his kunai, slashing his throat and stabbing him once in the skull. Overkill but one scav had somehow managed to cling on to life for longer than expected during his earlier hunt, he wouldn't make that mistake again.
Standing up, he heard a few cries from behind the fence and turned to walk inside, where he spotted his clones finishing off the various 6th Street gangoons like a wave of death. Any that saw them coming had less than a second to react before they were upon them, some tried to fight while the clones verified their faces, some tried pleading, one seemed to go berserk but couldn't overpower the ninja pinning him down. Ten gangoons died in the dirt around the warehouse, each left to bleed out wherever they fell. Two were up on the ruined building, from the looks of it, they didn't fare any better, one actually managed to dodge the first ambush but was quickly overwhelmed and killed.
"Targets not here boss," the closest clone grumbled to him, pulling his kunai from the goon's skull. The door to a small building on the side of the warehouse opened and out stepped a woman holding a shotgun.
"Alright you fuckers, who sent the SOS-" she fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, several kunai from different clones riddling her body like a pincushion.
"Looks like one of them sounded an alarm," he said to himself quite literally, "Grab their guns, were going loud,"
-xXx-
When they didn't hear back from the guys outside about the SOS or the ones they sent to check it out, they instantly knew shit had gone down? Was it the Tinos, were they officially declaring war on them? The old power corp building was pretty close to Tino turf so it was possible. In the deepest part of the underground inside the furnace room, the 6th Street soldiers scrambled to get any last second gear on.
Saddie 'the Sarge', one of many combat vets, quickly barked out orders to her people inside, Gunner had placed her in charge of this area for a reason and she wasn't gonna disappoint. They could hear the sounds of gunfire above echoing down the corridors, every now and then there was an explosion, one of which seemed to shake the entire area.
"Contact on level 1, unknown attackers. Damn it, we need back up!" came the calls from their radios, turning to the gonks near her she grabbed her custom VST-37 Pozhar Power shotgun and checked the mag. "Take positions around the area, don't bunch up," she called out, then checked the pistol holsters under her arms.
The sounds continued before a terrible screeching sound made them all winch, before everything went silent. They all aimed their guns at the door, waiting for the breach and preparing to fight for their lives. A minute passed, then two. The group glanced nervously at each other only to jump when something pounded on the door.
"Get ready!" Sarge snapped, aiming her gun at the doorway. "Zero anything that comes through that door!"
The pounding slowed down, "Guys…" they heard a gasp from the other side, "... Guys please… I need… I need help."
"That's the kid!" one muttered to the others just loud enough to hear. The kid was a fresh faced recruit barely 20 years old, he probably shouldn't have even been allowed to join up but the gonk was stubborn. They picked on him like they would any newbie but he grew on them.
"Guys please," they heard the kid outside gasp out, "Please don't let them get me,"
"Sarge, we can't leave him," one of her men muttered.
It seemed like such a stupid idea but she agreed, the kid was one of them. "Fuck it… fine, open the door and bring him in. Windsor, Tank, Choppo, you three stack up on the door and get him in here. Medics drag him to the back and look him over."
They nodded and did as they were told, one of them remotely opened the door and the Kid stumbled in, arms wrapped tightly around his torso and covered in blood with tears streaming down his face, "Guys… you didn't… leave me," he sighed with a relieved look on his pained face. "I thought they'd kill me for sure,"
The medic ran up to him, only to stagger back in shock as they saw the damage up close, one retched in the corner. The kid was holding a massive wound on his torso, parts of his intestines could be seen slipping out. How he managed to get to them in that condition scared and awed them.
"Sarge, his guts are…" the medic started only for her to cut him off.
"Just do what you can, Franko," she snapped before turning to the others, "Get that door shut now,"
The door was secured once again and they spread out. Seeing her people in position, she went over to the medic who was helping the kid as best he could, "Franko, report."
"Kid needs an actual doc, Sarge. Stuffed him up and got 'em wrapped but he'll need more than what I can provide." he grimaced, looking down at the pale and sweating young man. How he was still conscious, much less coherent, was an amazing feat. All he could really do was secure the wound and hit 'em with a Bounceback to try and keep him stable, he should've at least been out cold from the pain by now.
The woman knelt down and looked the pale man in the face, "Soldier, you with me? What happened?"
"Masked men…" he gasped, holding his bandaged torso, "They were on top of us before we knew it… Blink and you miss them…"
"Where they Tinos" it was possible, some were known to love their speedware.
He shook his head, "No… it's worse." he whispered, motioning for her to lean down. She leaned down so she could hear him, "It's not the Valeintinos… it's me."
Saddie felt her M10-AF Lexington pistol be pulled from her shoulder holster and press against her chest. The kid's pained expression vanished before several rounds burst through her chest, sending blood spattering the ceiling above them with a fine pink mist covering both him and the medic.
"Sarge!" Franko yelled, only for the kid to lash out and toss the woman's body at him, another quick burst from the pistol ensuring that he wouldn't be moving quickly anytime soon as the rounds shredded his knees.
"The kid's gone psycho!" One soldier cried just as the door exploded off its rails, the force propelling it across the room where it nearly killing one man as it skipped across the floor and bounced against the furnace.
Several masked men all poured into the room one after the other. The gangoons who were able to recover fast enough fired wildly at the smoke, which only seemed to add more smoke to the mix and they quickly found themselves being attacked from the masked attackers on one side and the kid on the other. The firefight seemed to last forever where in reality it was over in less than a couple minutes, quickly devolving into hand to hand as the ammo ran out and they no longer had time to reload.
They didn't stand a chance against these people, those with decent combat chrome managed a bit better but Military training aside, it was like fighting a tidal wave. But the strangest thing? When one got a lucky shot with his hold out pistol, the gonk burst into smoke, only to have two more take its place. What kind of shit was this?
Franko laid there, trying not to react to the searing pain in his legs underneath the Sarges corpse. Thinking that maybe they'll think he died in the confusion and he'd live to see another day.
But that hope was dashed when he felt someone stomp on his knee and grind their heel against it, making him scream before the body was pushed off of him.
"Grady Franko," the man growled out, lifting his foot from his kneecap.
Several other masked men approached and snatched him off the ground. Any weapons he had on him were taken and he quickly found himself sitting on a chair in the middle of the furnace room, surrounded by his dead chooms which were being tossed into a pile nearby.
He looked around for the traitous kid but couldn't see him anywhere, "Who the fuck are you people?" Grady grunted out, his chrome mouth twisted in pain, "Do you know who the fuck your messing with?" his hands hadn't been tied down so he took the opportunity to clinch his bleeding knees. "Were fucking 6th Street motherfucker! You don't know what kinda fresh hell you're about to bring down on you!"
"Oh?" one of them said, from the way the others deferred to him, the medic assumed he was the leader of this squad. "Trust me, I know a little something about your friends."
"Then you know your fucked!"
He chuckled, "We are all fucked, Grady Franko… but not as much as you." the man walked over and placed his hand on top of his bald head, "I have a few questions for you, but first," Naruto took off Cami's mask and set it down on a bloodspattered box nearby. "You were the driver of a group that tried killing one Gustavo Orta, I want to know who the shooters were." he grabbed the chair and turned it slowly, the metal legs scraping the floor. "You don't have to answer just yet. Take your time and think. My friends here are going to clean up some of this mess."
The chair stopped, leaving him facing the blazing furnace to see the body of Sarge be stripped of her weapons and get tossed into the flames.
"I want their names and where to find them." Naruto continued, "and I want to know where Gunner is for that matter."
"I-I don't," he shook his head and gagged at the smell that started coming from the fire in front of him. "I don't know anything,"
"You sure?" the blonde asked, patting his shoulder, "think real hard ok… because as soon as they're done throwing your friends in the fire, if you don't tell me what I want to know, you're going in next." his hand clenched on his shoulder.
"Fuck you man I said I dont know anything!" Next to him, he had to watch as a couple of those masked men went over each of his friends, tossing their guns into a pile along with anything else they happened to find, money, shards, they didn't take any personal items, just eddies and anything that could have intel.
Naruto nodded slowly, "Ok," he patted the man again and stepped around him, "I believe you… I guess I don't need to wait, do I?"
"Huh, no wait," Grady tried to struggle as the blond snatched him up by the arm like a petulant child, manhandling him toward the flames and slowly forcing him closer and closer as he tried to plant break free and away from the searing heat, "I said wait mother fucker… I said wait!" throwing his hands out, he tried to stop himself from going into the open hatch by pushing against the furnace itself.
His palms stuck to the metal, the searing pain making him scream in agony. When the man finally let him go, Grady snatched away from the furnace and fell back, pressing his burnt hands to his chest as he screamed.
Naruto let the man writhe in pain for a bit and squatted down next to the man to stare at him. "I'm waiting Grady," he said, voice cold as ice. "Tell me what I want to know and I wont have you thrown in and burned alive." he motioned for the clones to continue and slowly walked around the man, eyes slowly bleeding from his normal blue to his slitted red.
"You goddamn… fucking psycho!" grunted the man between groans of pain, "Why the fuck are you doing this huh? Cause we tried to zero that gonk?… How much are the fucking Tinos paying you?"
"Why am I doing this?" he repeated with a growl, coming to a stop to crouch down next to the man again, who shivered at the sight of his eyes and paled as the whisker marks on his face darkened and his teeth visibly sharpened. "I'm not doing this for money or because you tried killing someone,"
"What the fuck are you?" the man nearly whispered, trembling
"I'm doing this because you did kill someone." Naruto continued, slowly and carefully taking out the picture of Cami and him, "Look at it," he demanded, forcing the man to look, "Her name was Camilla Orta," Looking between the picture and the blonde, Grady felt his heart sink even lower than before he recognized her from that day. "You were the driver, I want the shooters…" He trailed off for a moment to carefully put the picture away.
Grady clinched his eyes shut, loyalty to his people battling against his will to survive this nightmare, glancing over, he saw a fourth corpse get tossed into the fire which quickly consumed it, the smell of burning hair and flesh stinking up the area. "I… ah," he bit his lip, still cradling his hands against his chest.
"How about this," he continued, making the Gangoon turn back fearfully.
Naruto stood up and walked over to where some of the dead goons' gear had been tossed and found a small pouch with a first aid pouch on it. He opened it up and pulled out both a Bounceback and a MaxDoc before showing them to the wounded man, "Tell me where to find the shooters and where to find Gunner… and the pain stops."
Grady grimaced again, "I don't know where Gunner is," as soon as the words left his mouth the blond tossed the MaxDoc, he tried to grab at it despite his hands causing him agony, but it sailed over his grasp and right into the open furnace, "No! Please, I don't know where Gunner is!" he pleaded only to see the monster start to do the same to the Bounceback, "No wait, I know where Angel and Fatstack are, they're your shooters!"
"I'm listening,"
"They're shacked up together at Stacks garage," he told them, the words tasting like shit as he gave up his chooms, "Corner of Gibson, Rancho Coronado." Grady looked like he was about to be sick for a moment, "They can tell you where Gunner is too… Now give me that damn thing!"
Naruto nodded and tossed it on the ground next to the man, "There you go, I always keep my word." he said only to get a muttered fuck you in return as the man gingerly grabbed at the injector and after a moment of fumbling, injected it into himself. "Feeling better?" the man grumbled again. "Oh well… Stand him up."
"What?" Grady looked up as two men took him by the arms and hauled him to his feet, pain shot up his legs as he was forced to put weight on his legs but even as he tried to crumple back down, the pair held him up. "What the fucks going-" he saw the leader reach down and draw his pistol, "No, no, no you said you wouldnt kill me!"
"No, I said that I wouldn't have you burned alive," Naruto admitted while aiming the Overture at the gangoons face, "Never said I'd let you live… I'd ask if you had any last words but honestly, I don't care."
"Fuck you! Gunners gonna flatline your gonk ass!" The revolver fired and Grady's head snapped back, his body going limp in the clone's arms.
"Fuck that was loud," Naruto grimaced, rubbing his ringing ears. He should've known better after the last time he'd accidentally shot this thing indoors, perhaps he should look into finding a suppressor for this thing. Turning, he saw the two clones about to dump Grady's corpse into the furnace "Hold on, don't throw him in there… I got a better idea."
-xXx-
"We're coming to you live at the scene of what authorities are calling the worst episode of gang violence since the summer of 2070. We are told that the number of fatalities are as of now unknown but are estimated to be in the lower to mid thirties."
The camera panned over to where emergency crews were hauling out numerous body bags and loading them into the vehicles while several vehicles burned down the road. As it panned across the scene.
"As you can see behind me, several car bombs seem to have been used in the attack that may have caused damage to nearby infrastructure of-" she was cut off as a yell was heard from further back. "It's gonna collapse!" "Everyone move back!"
The camera quickly moved to look at the overpass where several bombed out vehicles were still burning and part of the support near the warehouse was destroyed. Several people in emergency uniforms were seen running away before the camera looked up to see a section of the overpass starting to crumble and collapse. Screams could be heard as tons of concrete fell onto the street below, damaging the warehouse wall and crushing the burning vehicles below.
Rico could only stare at the holo in shock, he knew that the kid would raise some kind of hell but this… this was on a totally different level. Next to him Ortiz did the same, less shock but more inraptured with the destruction.
"Oh fuck," he couldn't help but mutter before looking to his choom, "We caused this didn't we?"
She nodded slowly with a little grin on her face, "Fuck yeah we did,"
-xXx-
"Come on, pendejo pick up already," Jackie muttered while pacing back and forth in his garage/home. He heard the explosion from across the river and after seeing the news, seeing the 6th Street gonks dead and being carted out, knew that Naruto had made his move. He was pissed that the gonk had left him out of it, didn't he give him that fat stack of eddies to arm up for this? Did he think he couldn't handle it?
When it went to the voicemail, he cursed and hung up, muttering curse after curse and starting to dial again when it started to ring. He didn't even give it a chance to light up and answered, "You fucking pendejo, how could you do something so estupido!" he snapped, he might not have known the guy for long but being left out like this actually hurt.
When the video function popped on he saw the stern look his mother was giving him and paled, "Oh Mama, I'm sorry I thought that-"
"Mijo, just who do you think you are calling estupido? Just you wait till I see you," she snapped, instantly pissed at how her son talked to her as soon as he picked up the holo.
"Mama! No, I wasn't calling you that I promise, I'm sorry. I thought you were Naruto," he quickly tried to explain with a grimace, last time he made the mistake of calling her anything unflattering, she wore his ass out with both shoes.
She crossed her arms and Jackie just knew he would be smacked with her slipper the first chance she got, "So he went on and did it huh?"she sighed while shaking her head slowly, "Foolish nino, I just knew he had something to do with that mess on the news. You gonna go and find him?" When Jackie gave her a sheepish look she gave him a knowing look, "Jackie, mijo. I know you better than you know yourself. I raised you after all. You're gonna go charging into this mess to try and help him. That's just the kind of soul you are."
"Yeah… I'm sorry mama," he told her with a small grin, "I know she'd never forgive me for how I ended things, not that I deserve it. But she'll find a way to zero me from the next life if I don't try to help him."
Mama Welles frowned then shook her head, "Oh Jackie, Cami already forgave you… if not for you she wouldn't have met him." seeing the look he gave her she shrugged, "Her words, not mine. But it's the truth. Just be careful, ok mijo?"
"You got it mama,"
-xXx-
No matter the time of day, Militechs Night City branch never really stops working, day and night corpos scurry along like good little cogs in the machine, making sure that the machine keeps rolling less they be replaced. At this time of night, anyone remotely important is usually left alone and most tasks are delegated to middle management and should someone higher up have to be called, it'd better be a matter of life or death. Because if not, it would be.
Freshly promoted to her position as Senior Operations Manager of this branch, Meredith Stout was less than pleased to get stopped on her way home and asked to return. If this wasn't good she was surely going to strangle someone. When she returned, the woman could feel the tension in the air and was directed to head up to one of the secure operations rooms where she was met with several others waiting for her by dozens of holoscreens displaying all sorts of information.
"What the hell are we looking at people, report!"
Her voice caused a few people to jump, not that she'd ever admit to enjoying it. One of her people approached and handed her a datapad, "maam, we've received reports that several assets have been taken out." the woman told her as she scanned the data given to her.
According to the datapad, Militech assets cultivated a relationship with elements within a local gang, one Will Gunner, of 6th Street. The man agreed to work with Militech in exchange for them supplying him with weapons and gear along with legal help should he need it after he took over leadership of the gang. The plan had been put into motion for over a year with them cutting off support to the gangs 'old guard' and covertly helping their man look better. But something went sideways. Someone was undermining their efforts and now things had come to a head.
"While we've maintained surveillance of our assets in the field maam, our systems sent out an alert" one of the other techs in the room reported, typing at a large console, "not too long ago we lost contact and went back over the footage and found this." They queued up several camera feeds with the day's date and time stamped for a couple hours before.
It was footage from the old Electric Corporation building in Santo, they watched as several goons milled about outside and just as she was about to snap at them to get to the point, several masked ninja appeared out of nowhere and slaughtered the lot of them.
"Arasaka Ninja?" she questioned, it was possible that their corporate rivals would pull something like this. But if so, why? What did they gain? They wouldn't do this kind of shit for no reason.
"Negative maam, the subjects appear to be under the employ of a mercenary known as the 6th Street Shino" They watched as the men picked up the enemy weapons and moved into the building, systematically slaughtering their way through the first level.
"Him?" one tech questioned, "But reports indicated that he was a solo,"
Meredith crossed her arms, "Well looks like he's got a team now." seeing how they moved as if they already knew what the others would do she smirked, "A damn fine team too. Who's clusterfuck of an operation is this?"
"Gilchrist, Anthony," another read, looking over the reports next to her.
"Wait, did that person just vanish?" she asked, seeing one of the men get shot point blank by a shotgun, only to be engulfed in smoke. Several others shot the man dead but as the smoke cleared, only the 6th Street gangoon was left lying there in a pool of blood. "Do we have audio?"
"Surveillance only captured visual maam."
'Cheap ass gonks,' she thought, knowing that the old corp that owned that building skimped on good tech to save a few eddies. But despite that, none of them could deny what they were seeing. The techie captured the clip of the man being killed and turning to a cloud of smoke then played it back in slow motion. They could see the shotgun, a M2038 with a pistol grip fire and hit the closest ninja in his upper chest, they could even see the buckshot exit out his back and impact the wall behind him just before smoke filled the area.
Meredith Stout couldn't put what she was seeing into words. After they collectively watched it half a dozen times all she could manage to say was mirrored by everyone else with her.
"What the fuck?"
-xXx-
David frowned as he watched his mother quickly throw on her EMT jacket while trying to slip her work shoes on, "Mom you just got home, do you really have to go back?" he'd seen the news earlier and worried for her, what if something happened to her out there?
Gloria smiled sadly, "I'm sorry Dee, but they called me in." she sighed before stepping over and wrapping her arms around him, a comforting gesture for both of them. "I have to go and try to help anyone I can,"
He buried his face against her and hugged her back, wanting to say that those people didn't matter, after all it was only a bunch of Gangoons. But he knew that wouldn't stop her and him pleading would only make her feel awful. "Please just be careful ok mom?"
"You got it mijo," she kissed his forehead and held him just a little tighter, "Now you try and get some sleep ok? Tonights a school night and you'll be starting class at Arasaka Academy in a few weeks so you need your rest ok?" she let go and finished putting her shoes on and headed to the door. "I love you, Mijo."
He watched her heading out and sighed. "I love you too Mom."
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To be continued…
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Ok so I had planned for this to be his whole revenge chapter but decided it needed to be at least two parts, maybe more who knows. Anyway Naruto's slowly slipped a little further down that dark rabbit hole of revenge and someone, corpos no less, have witnessed and recorded something else chakra related.
Oh and sorry, no preview this time.
I really hope you enjoyed this chapter and feel free to review if you want to, I enjoy reading them and as always, I love you guys!
Look forward to Chapter 10: Cause We Lost Everything