For the most part Rich was bothered as Royce was coming by today.
And Most recruits were losing they're shit because most if not, all of them have not met Royce yet.
Royce did not have a deep connection with people only the top of Maelstrom hung around him and one of the big reasons for this division in the first place within Maelstrom was because Royce was too unpredictable and couldn't give a flying fuck if The Animals, 6th Street, Tyger Claws, Valentinos, and VDB's showed up in Watson all at once to take over.
And he still wouldn't give 2 shits.
No statements were made, no warnings were given out, if Royces idea of a controlled territory was let everyone walk over Maelstrom like a door mat then no wonder why people want a change in leadership.
He only knew this because alot of guys and gals that moved up to the Totentanz still come by All Foods to get work done by him.
And the shit they tell him is exactly what he was fearing.
Patricia wanted to Usurp power so she could put down some martial law against the other gangs.
And nobody knew what the fuck was going on in Royces head so they might as well be sticking thumbs up they're ass and take a walk until Royce starts passing orders.
"Will you fucking chill" spoke Rich as he yelled some sense into the poor kid.
"Go for a walk or something, Dum Dum well be here in a milisec and will hand out instruction, everything will be fine" spoke Rich lying through his teeth.
He just wanted this kid to stop fucking a
round.
Damn it, now he needed to chill, fuck it he was going for a drive, not like he needed to be here anyways.
He walked out of his office and went straight to his ride.
And took off which only left the recruits squirming more as they held Rich as a needed presence.
Watson as part of Night of City was cut into 4 different districts.
Little China
Kabuki
Arasoka Waterfront
Northside
It's unique because it's singly dominated by Maelstrom and had maintained that status quo for Decades.
Despite Lizzies spot in Kabuki The Mox weren't centered in Watson.
They're spot was in Westbrook where they're main focuse was in the District of Japan town.
And they're main Rivals being Tyger Claws who were also centered in Westbrook.
While the biggest Fixer in Westbrook was Wakako Okada as she did her operations in Jig Jig Street.
That being said Maelstrom did operations in Westbrook as well focused in the Charter Hill district.
From what he understood the business ran down there was "Numbness" BD's.
As well as a mixture of other gory shit.
NCPD had been on they're ass for years on making and selling the shit.
But they never were able to build a strong case on it.
God Damn it, it took Rich a while to realize but he was driving straight to lizzies without even realizing it.
Was he coping or some shit, he was threatened to never go back there after all.
Maybe he can just chill out at the "Roundabout" see what Straight Shooters and that Netrunners store has to offer.
As he did a U-turn and found himself in the direction of the Roundabout.
He parked on the other side of the street and was now sitting down at a bench.
The Kabuki Randabout was circular market that had all sorts of business from clothing brands to Cyberdecks, from top of the line weaponry to black market BD's, from All sorts of food and drink to the best Liquor money can buy.
The only thing they didn't have was full grain meals or natural fruit drinks.
Night City truly was a food desert.
And he hated it sometimes.
The best part about coming to the markets in any part of town was getting the scope of people.
Men, Women, Children.
All just normal civilians just doing they're best to get by and being able to make it in Night City without having to put another person in a Columbarium locker.
It was inspiring to him, and for just being among them made him feel like the possibility for himself to achieve such standard of living, well it made him feel.
Well...
Normal.
Rich went to check out the Straight Shooters Gun store and talked with the vendor a bit.
And he discovered that the Vendor had some schematics for a weapon, the name of the schematic was called "Moron Labe".
Rich only had 2 weapons and the fight with that bouncer really showed him that he needed to mix it up.
A melee weapon would be of necessity but not just anything would do but he did need to take other aspects into consideration.
Rich bought the Schematic for the weapon and was starting to get his wheels spinning again as he felt he had recognized a hole in his combat game.
He needed to be more resourceful if he was going to keep up with everytype of fighter.
He couldn't just depend on his Cybernetics and Quickhacks.
He needed to be more skilled and open the gate for profencies outside his standard.
He didn't have this problem when he was a young gun hell back then he was probably the most violent.
Now he was tame and he didn't necessarily see that as a detractor for say, but he needed to ware off the ring rust.
He need to be prepared for anything.
As he was now moving to The Netrunners store.
There is currently an interest in buying some components or if he was lucky there would be some new shards he hadn't heard of yet.
He had his doubts but a boy could dream right.
As he stepped up to the door, the door slid open revealing in the store.
The Bouncer from Lizzies.
He thought he had escaped the trouble from Royce but now it just seemed that trouble just followed him where ever he went.
Might start calling it a Bad Omen.
To Be Continued.