Chapter 3: Reconsideration
Following the previous day's events, David returned to his hideout, the old garage where their team frequently discussed various jobs, Aldo's Garage. Alda was nowhere to be seen, but Lucy, Rebecca and Falco all sat around the small wooden pallet-turned coffee table in the center of the room. He had a lot of explaining to do and Lucy wasn't on board with suddenly absconding to the moon when there was so much more money to be made with Jericho and his 'Quest' for "Knowledge".
"Man, the way I see it, 'Saka's busy tryin' to find out who Jericho is and doesn't give two shits who we are. Faraday's dead and we ain't got a fixer. How's about you call up Jericho and tell him you've reconsidered his offer?", Falco sighed. Wakako didn't have any jobs availbe for them at the moment and money was running out, somehow. He quietly blamed Rebecca for that.
"Yeaah... You're sorta gonk-brained, thinking you're just gonna fly away to the moon without any scop! What, the tickets are like 500k Eddies alone, are you and Lucy just gonna bum around up there?", Rebecca chided.
David just sighed. Lucy just stared at him.
"David... I know you promised me you'd take me to the moon. We have all the time in the world to do that now. Nobody is after us. Arasaka doesn't care, they're too busy looking into this 'Jericho' you met. We need a fixer and we need cash, now. I- I did everything for you, David. When we're old and gray, we'll retire to Copernicus.", Lucy mused. She wasn't wrong. When everything was said and done, when they'd run the edges ragged and retired from the frontlines they'd retire to a nice little cottage on the moon where they'd be surrounded by their children and grandchildren. Falco would be there recounting their adventures and embellishing every detail.
"Alright... I'll give him a call. Hold on a moment...", David relented. He opened his phone and quickly hit the contact for Jericho. The phone rang a few seconds before the stoic face of the cyborg appeared on his HUD.
"Hello, David. It's only been a day. Is there something you needed from me?"
"Yeah. Your offer? I'm in."
"Fantastic! I assume your team is also on board? I will call upon my own team, they will be in the city soon. There is much to do in the meantime. Prepare yourselves and perhaps buy some new gear. I am sending you the Eddies now. Do not disappoint me, David."
"I- We- We're ready. Meet you tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow. I know of your location. We will find you."
The holo-call ended abruptly. David was also sent a staggering 750k Eddies to be split with his current teammates and was supposed to be used on buying weapons, ammo and extra gear. Using the funds on useless garbage like potato chips would probably only lead to all of them suffering the wrath of an unknown cyborg the next morning. Jericho was also bringing his own team into the gig. Whoever they were, they were probably all Legendary Mercenaries.
"So? What'd he say?", Falco asked.
"We're in. He's bringing his own team to meet us tomorrow. Kiwi too, probably. Don't really know what we're going to do with two netrunners though.", David nodded.
"Kiwi? David... About Kiwi... She's the one who sold us out. Sold me to Faraday, tried to goad you into... Well, she's better off in a gutter.", Lucy added. David and the rest of the team just stared at her.
"Wait, seriously!? I'm gonna fucking kill her!", Rebecca shouted.
"Now, now! Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I'm sure Kiwi has a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this. NC is cutthroat, you all know that. Let's just let her tell us herself why she decided to set us up.", Falco added, trying to restrain the tiny gremlin next to him.
"And if she has some bullshit excuse, then we kill her!", Rebecca added.
"Fine by me.", Falco relented.
"Fine. We'll let her explain herself. Still, we need to prepare for tomorrow. Jericho sent us some Eddies, let's go and buy some gear.", David noted.
Elsewhere, somewhere in the sky, Jericho was still piloting the Toward Stars. The AV was heavily damaged from their intrusion into Arasaka Tower earlier. It rattled and shook and needed some repairs. Kiwi sat patiently in the back seat and a much shorter and red-bearded man sat directly next to Jericho. The shorter man was called 'Scotch', and he and Jericho were discussing a plan to insert him into a nearby Nomad camp when the cyborg suddenly zoned out for a moment and abruptly turned the AV around, catapulting Kiwi into the bulkhead.
"What did you do that for?", Kiwi asked, rubbing her head.
"A change of plans. David has accepted the offer I made him yesterday. I suppose you are going to face your fate quite a bit sooner. Is your skull perhaps bulletproof?", Jericho noted, mocking her slightly.
"It's not."
"Well, I suppose you should put some thought into what you're going to tell your teammates."
"I will."
"Change 'O plan? We're na goin' ta the Nomad Camp?", Scotch asked, a heavy Scottish accent filtering his words.
"Yes. Contact the rest of our group. Tell them to meet me in Night City. We have found our Fifth Member and a few goods mercs to pair them with. Hiatus is over. It is now time for action."
"Aye. Doin' it now."
Scotch quickly sent a Holo-Call to the rest of their wayward team. An incident outside of Prague had forced their hasty retreat several years ago. They were forced to hide for the time being, but now they were officially coming out of retirement. And it was quite a bit earlier than they'd expected.
The next morning came far to quickly for Kiwi. It was time to face the music and bare the wrath of her former teammates as they presumably ripped her limb from limb. That was, if Jericho's own teammates didn't do that instead. Particularly, the one member of his team that appeared to be critiquing his care of the Toward Stars, a one-eyed woman with a permanent scowl, messy bob haircut, large bust and a cold British accent. She wore a plum -purple bodysuit with gold accents along the edges and collar with a matching plum-purple and gold-trimmed eyepatch, a puffy-sleeved jacket in dark blue, knee-length boots and elbow length gloves.
"This is unacceptable. I let you use the Toward Stars for a few years and you've wrecked it. It belongs in a bin. I truly hope you have plans on having it repaired before we depart Night City.".
"Worry not, Hildegarde. I have plans. Scotch will repair and armor the AV as needed. It has been and always will be our base.", Jericho noted. Hildegarde just sighed.
"Ooh! New netrunners! Hi. I'm Asher! I'm also a netrunner!", Asher announced. Kiwi just stared at the smaller woman. Asher had long brown hair tied up into a ponytail and wore a red shirt with long knee-length boots and black cargo pants. She also, oddly enough, used a physical cyberdeck instead of the usual implants.
"Hi Asher.", Kiwi noted.
"I like your mask."
"Thanks."
The AV ride was long and occasionally interrupted by the overly chipper netrunner, Asher, talking about Night City and pointing out various landmarks. It was becoming apparent that none of Jericho's team had been to NC before. Sooner than later, but not soon enough the Toward Stars landed as best as it could outside of Aldo's Garage. Jericho exited the AV followed by the rest of his teammates and Kiwi and knocked on the door. A few moments passed before David answered and brought the rest of the Edgerunners outside.
"Hello David! It is so nice that you've reconsidered my offer! There is much to do and not enough time to do it all. But first, introductions. This is my team.", Jericho noted.
Hildegarde stepped up first, staring at David and examining his cyberware. He didn't look particularly 'special', but looks could be deceiving. "I'm Hildegarde. Something to note: It's Hildegarde, do no shorten my name to anything or you'll find yourself missing a few limbs. I'm from England if you haven't noticed already."
Falco's eyes just widened a bit. He knew who she was. He knew that she had carved a bloody path across Europe and Russia before supposedly being killed in action over the Mediterranean sea. It was now obvious that those were just rumors since the infamous outlaw was now standing in front of him.
"Pleasure to meet you, Hildegarde, I'm David!", David noted.
"Noted. You don't look particularly special. Show me something.", Hildegarde commanded.
In an instant, David activated his Sandevistan and spun around the plum-purple woman and reached for her sidearm in its holster. Like Jericho before, Hildegarde intercepted him at speeds even faster than his 'Military-Grade' Sandevistan could. She grabbed his arm and twisted it, bending him backwards.
"Hm. Interesting. I like you already.", Hildegarde mused. "Stick with me and you'll become Legendary, probably."
"C-Cool..." David stuttered. He was in over his head again. Falco quickly interjected.
"I'm Falco, was a nomad for a while, ran with the Bakkers, then the Aldecaldos... Eventually ended up here, ain't so bad. Got skills in driving, not a Panzerboy with them fancy implants, but I can hold my own."
Lucy announced herself as well. "Lucy. Pleasure to meet you. Former Arasaka Netrunner."
Rebecca chimed in right after Lucy.
"I'm Rebecca! NC born and raised! I'm the weapons expert!"
"Riight... So, the rest of our 'team' if you want to call them that... That's Asher, the short and annoying one with the cyberdeck, the drunken idiot with the scraggly beard is Scotch, and the tall and sarcastic bitch is Kiwi, but you probably already know her.", Hildegarde pointed out. Asher waved happily towards their new friends. Scotch just drank from his flask. Kiwi began to slide away from the group. "Oh, Kiwi didn't you have something to say to your old friends? Something about selling them out?"
Kiwi just sidled back up to the rest of her new 'team' before making her 'apology' to her former friends and teammates. She'd been loyal to Maine while he was their leader, but David was a loose cannon up until fairly recently. She just sighed and made her peace.
"Yes. I sold you out. Faraday had a way out for me, out of NC for good. The money was too good. I'm sure some of you would've done the same thing. I know it wasn't right, but I had to take my chances. It was the only chance I had.", Kiwi sighed.
"Thh huh... That's why you sold us out to Arasaka? Got Lucy kidnapped and nearly killed us all?", Falco scoffed.
"The Plan was to have David jack into that Cyber-Skeleton and then get captured by Arasaka; they were interested in David's unique tolerance to Cybernetics. You and Rebecca were to go down in any way possible, maybe even escape with your lives. Lucy was just icing on the cake. It didn't work. Jericho made sure that never happened."
Kiwi began to make yet another backtrack on her 11th hour betrayal but was suddenly and abruptly interrupted by Rebecca's oversized fist connecting with her skull.
"You fucking bitch!", Rebecca roared as her fist connected with Kiwi's skull. The much taller netrunner was knocked onto her ass and red and blue fists rained down on her body. In a few moments Kiwi was unconscious and unable to dig her own grave any deeper than it already was.
"Becca! She's down. You can stop punching her now.", David cried. Kiwi had sold them out, but... She wasn't wrong. Money talked. That was just the way of life in NC. You lived by the gun and died by the gun. Money got you a gun. And guns got you farther in the world than words did.
"Grrrr... Fine!", Rebecca relented before running back and pouting against the wall.
"Are you quite done? I think she could take a few more hits, honestly. Her brain hasn't been turned completely to mush.", Hildegarde mocked.
"We're done. Kiwi sold us out. She's out of our team. She can go her own way and find her own path.", David noted.
"Hm... Good idea. Too bad it won't work. She'll come back for your ass sooner than later. Best to tie up loose ends.", Hildegarde noted as she pulled her firearm and aimed it towards the unconscious Kiwi.
"NO WAIT!", David cried, but it was too late. Hildegarde just fired her gun into Kiwi's head several times before holstering the weapon and turning back towards their new 'friends'.
"We don't take betrayal lightly in this group. You betray one of us, you betray us all. And then you suffer the consequences. Besides, we really don't need three netrunners, now do we?", Hildegarde hissed, getting close to David's face.
"You... You didn't need to kill her..."
"Oh, but I did. I've been doing this for far longer than you. Traitors will always be traitors. No forgiveness. Same goes for you, David. You turn on us and you'll meet the same fate... Except not from me, you'll face Jericho. And there won't be anything left but ashes."
"I-... Okay. I understand. This is the Big Leagues from here on out. No more milk runs. We're dealing with real legends right now. No more failures. Got it.", David sighed. A very dangerous group had just recruited him and his close friends. Best to be on their best behavior. It wouldn't end well if they pulled something on these guys at the 11th hour.
"I'm glad you understand where you are. Scotch? Please get rid of Kiwi's lifeless corpse. It's starting to stink. Just toss her in a skip.", Hildegarde noted. Scotch just walked over, heaved Kiwi's body onto his shoulders and deposited her remains into the nearest dumpster like a sack of trash.
Jericho finally stepped back forwards after Hildegarde was done 'introducing' their new friends to their current way of life.
"Well, now that introductions are finished, it's time to get down to business. Let's go inside."
Nobody argued. Jericho was scary. His friends were scary. This was not a group to be messed with and everyone in David's team was suddenly aware that maybe he'd made the wrong choice and should've gone to the moon instead. However, it was far too late for that.
Chapter End.
A/N: I've decided to continue this fanfic. It's the "Nuclear Nomad" again except instead of V, it's David who gets to be the star. To quote another popular protagonist, "Aw shit. Here we go again..."