A lot has happened in the life of Clementine, when she was 12 years old her father had killed himself do the excruciating debt and her mother would follow soon after as the piling stress and death had pushed on her.
By the time she was 18, she was already working Jig-Jig Street.
And she couldn't lie she had a rocking body that many could not resist, but the. Night life had so much more to offer that she couldn't resist.
From the preem Chrome to the fast cars, so many people from so many different walks of life found themselves in Jig-Jig Street and ultimately found their way to her.
She had so many names on her contact list that could even send the shivers down Arasoka Reps.
But then one day she found herself tangled up, literally by the hands of a serial murderer that was on the mission to carve and create a true proxy with actual flesh, yet not taking in consideration that Flesh eventually rots.
She was saved by Susie and the Mox.
They asked for nothing in return, saying that they were happy to lend hand to someone who needed it.
And no matter how long it's been, she would always be in debt to the mox, Susie, her savior, Rita, her mentor, and her best friends Sera and Auro.
But she never believed that one day she would end up involved with Maelstrom of all people.
Witnessing a scuffle like she wasn't even in the same room.
The wind was thin, and the room had somehow become more closed in as the feeling of claustrophobia was sinking in and all Rich could do in this moment was stare down the end of Dum Dum's gun as he pulled the trigger.
No hesitation, no looking away, no flinching, he was prepared.
BANG
The shot rang through the room as the sound of the shot that was fired passed by him and he heard the splat from behind him as he then turned to now see the corpse of someone that was not supposed to be here.
Clementine jumped to cover Aurora when the shot was fired.
Seraphina jumped awake from the shock of a gun going off, survival instincts kicking in.
Rita remained unconscious.
It wasn't a Mox. It wasn't an animal, and most importantly, it wasn't a Maelstromer. It wasn't one of their own.
The gear of the now dead body in the room was of those that live on the edge of Night City.
An Edgerunner.
Rich immediately checked on the body and looked for anything in specefic.
Tattoos, Cybernetics, Weapons anything that gave away if he was part of any gang but he found nothing but a gun and a wallet with one of the stickers from The Afterlife.
Dum dum put his gun back in his holster as he left the room.
Clementine had just watched these two men argue and come to a point where one was going to kill the other.
And now they were working together as if everything is good.
And now they were trying to solve a new problem together.
With blood still on them...
But then Rich moved his attention to the box.
he looked over the area where the body was and then realized, he looked toward that piece of shit box that wouldn't open.
And he saw it.
Clear as day.
The Gordian knot in his brain when it came to this damn case had finally been cut.
Right before his optics, he saw a line cut right through the middle horizontal, and it opened just like any briefcase.
Like a moth to a flame, he could not pull away as he opened that case.
A Chip.
A single Chip.
He was going to kill himself.
The Knot had been cut, but he was still going to end up with a brain aneurysm
What was he expecting.
Nuclear Codes.
The Cure for every known disease.
The Recipe for Banana Bread.
As always, it landed in his field of expertise.
He did what he had always done with tech, he shoved that son bitch in his Neuroport.
And froze for a couple of seconds during a fucking operation. Nothing was happening, and he was okay.
He ran a diagnostic over his software and system and went further to run some scans of himself.
And it all came back instantly.
He was running Ok.
And then he remembered the shit that just went down.
The fact he was in the middle of a operation as he got back to work immediately.
Sera had just awoken and she had no idea what the fuck just happened but she saw as it was nothing super drastic and just caught up with herself as she saw Clementine come to her and hug her.
Fear and stress, as she remembered what happened this day and was just Glad to still be alive.
But she watched as her Mentor and one of her best friends was in a life death situation.
And currently the lightning in a bottle Ripperdoc that saved them before was now striking twice and was saving them again.
Luck was truly on they're side.
But the feeling of everything that happened last night was stuck to her mind.
She couldn't help but think about herself bleeding out right outside Clouds.
And Dum Dum went and pulled the body to the side behind the curtain and was doing a more extensive search while his friend was working on these possible allies in the future Dum Dum wasn't sure yet.
For all he knew they could be his targets next.
And the real issue at hand happened to be his best friend, someone willing giving away Tech from Maelstrom directly, this shit was straight up treacherous.
And for such Rich at best was as good as dead.
And that's all Dum Dum knew for sure.
For Rich he was just trying to help a friend.
To Be Continued.