Slowly, V began to come out of the net, the entire ordeal starting to dawn more on his physical body. His immediate surroundings were that of the Araksaka Facility, where he was tucked away, giving him neither assurance nor comfort. ''Jesus, musta been out longer than I thought,'' V murmured to himself, slowly reaching for his neural port to disconnect him from the net runner chair. Standing back on his own two feet suddenly made him tremble, nearly keeling over if not for the small table to break his fall. ''How the hell am I gonna get out of here?''
''Well, the first thing you should do is perform a scan, coming out of a system that dated is not without issue.'' Lia's voice chimed, her shape materializing near the other end of the room, leaning against the half-moon entranceway, where a ramp led upwards into a larger room with a reinforced sloping glass roof. Though, he never felt comfortable hearing the voice of another in his head, somehow, Lia made it more. . .bearable. ''Granted, I took the liberty of doing so; nothing to report.''
Sounding a hum of acknowledgment, V took his time to get up and about, checking his person to feel for his Overture and Dying Night. Satisfied, he projected his Mantis Blades in a flourish, checking the function a few times before nodding to himself and retracting the deadly murder weapons. ''And where is this? A little hidey-hole?'' V noted the gunmetal gray black and silver paneling, emblazoned or etched with all manner of mathematical formulas, long, dried blood stains from a quick Ping scattered about nearby the singular capsule bed that laid on the merc's immediate right.
Shaking her head no and gesturing to the bed in question, Lia spoke. ''This is the last place I remember being, at least physically. I would assume Arasaka. . .or someone else jacked me into the net from here, threw up the firewalls, and yanked my body free once they managed to make me a construct.'' V noted, though small, the frown on his sister's face the longer she laid eyes on the bed, a flash of memory coming to his mind, was it an experience? Familiar, cold, piercing, pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain!
''Agh!'' V hissed, his vision and neural net seizing for a moment, causing him to drop to a knee.
''Sorry, sorry!'' Lia winced, walking over to V and crouching down in front of V as she laid a hand on her brother's shoulder, though it went through him.
Dang it.
''W-what was that? Our memories-''
''-Mixing, yes. I may require more testing to verify if it goes both ways. But, to be sure but I would guess the melding occurs when emotions are high.''
''Namely, yours,'' V joked, shaking his head clear. He wore a small smile on his face, the light in his brown eyes appeared as a beacon in the low light of the room. ''Just try and keep that on the up and up until we find a way to disentangle.''
''Yes, yes. Of course, brother.'' Lia said going silent for a time before turning her attention towards the exit. ''We should focus on your friends, you have the Daemon now, all we need do is use it at the right time.''
V walked, ducking his head and scaling the ramp to come out into an open area, his optics catching glances of the first flicks of light from the outside. The massive dome overhead nearly was covered on its top by way of rock, sand, and dirt, small slivers being seen the further V walked to the other end. ''And this is?''
''A holding area for the robotic parts to be transported out of the facility. However, due to natural occurrences, the service exit was blocked off by columns of rocks some 20-odd years ago; too many for extraction.'' Lia said, V catching the tone of her voice to suggest something was attempted to be done, only to fail. ''While the minds of the facility may not have been the brightest of minds in comparison to times of today, they were nothing, if not persistent.''
Anything even closely resembling morals and Arasaka in the same breath was only the ideas of optimists. V knew better, the kind of cruelty that one company could exude over multiple decades, and with so little regard for the concept of basic human life made the proverbial superpower one to fear and, ironically one to look up to in some aspects. ''So, give me a bit more intel on this Daemon; how will we know to use it? And why not just flatline these bozos instead? Sure, it'd be more work, but at least they'd be down for good.''
Lia felt the surge of emotion behind his words, her digital mind scrambling and adjusting to his tonality, the bite in his words at wanting to kill them, even the knuckle-tight grip he held onto his Dying Night with. All of it; primal. But, all of it, she understood. While she was not opposed to the idea, the overarching theme of their surroundings and that of his family was of the utmost importance.''If you can manage to do so without bringing the entire building down around us, then we should be careful.'' Lia said, looking over at her brother to see his face contorted in thought. ''For the sake of your family.''
''Speaking of which, where are they? Not that I didn't trust you, but who's to say-'' Lia raised her hand, effectively silencing V as her own eyes glowed a dim blue, lines of code flowing throughout for nearly a minute before his display showed the map of the current level. It showed the rest of the inner workings, as well as a connection to an age-old camera feed into the rooms where the cyber psychos originated from. The other four feeds in his vision showed Panam, Mitch, and two out of the three psychos patrolling aimlessly.
Two? Where did the other scamper off to?
''Yes, it appears that your friends are safe, for the moment, but our guests are the in the process of hunting us down,'' Lia's eyes returned to their normal color. A moment later, V's hud displayed an update bar, showing the name of the Daemon in question being queued up for use, his neural port opening. ''To use the Daemon effectively, you will need to jack into each of them; going for a quick hack, as you can imagine would be too easy. But, it also posed the issue of any old thing being allowed to upload to their nets while not under the eye of Arasaka.'' Lia said, her tone attempting to be sympathetic.
Of course, it would never be that easy; not when his family was on the line, and certainly not when the circumstances allowed otherwise. And, to be fair, there were only a handful of events throughout his life where everything just happened to go exactly as planned. If he didn't know any better, V nearly shouted to the high heavens for the closest thing resembling a miracle. He would have to cash in all of his supposed 'good karma', but he would do it if it meant Panam and Mitch would be ok. If anything happened to-
''Watch out!'' Lia shouted, a dark shape careening through the sky, heading straight for V's position. The entire movement was nearly too fast for him to react, the tendons and muscles in his legs straining to their maximum to enable his roll to the side and almost barrelling into a stationary crate. The ground whined and bent, a quick succession of large, bulky legs clomping into a position to get straight. Standing keeled over, with optics as red as a stop light, was the source of V's frustration. Well, one, at least. ''I would advise falling back.''
''Sorry sis, a bit too late for that; if he tracked us here, then what's stopping the other two from the same? We need to handle this here, and now,'' V squared his stance and flipped the safety off his gun. He ran enough as it was.
Even after 12 years, V could be as stubborn as a mule, but it was that same stubbornness that made him into who he was today. Lia missed. Missed him, even despite the bad blood. At the same time, she was not too keen on any outside factors introducing a possible rift to pull the siblings away from each other, not when they just reunited. ''Well, seeing as this is the one which you had trouble with before, I would suggest your blades versus a gun, in this area of the building at the very least.''
''Any ideas, I'm open to them,'' V snarked back, his focus solely on his enemy; intent on maintaining as much of the upper hand in this situation as he could, Though it wasn't long since disentangling from Johhny, V did have to admit not having a voice for essentially a form of counsel in trying times did more harm than good, and the merc figured it would be nobody better than someone who seemed to the know the layout of the land, and for it to be his flesh and blood (though digital) was a welcome thing he gre concerned if he would become dependent on, or if the feeling itself would fade before long. ''Don't think big and tall over there might want his mind scrambled long enough, so what do you figure?''
''Glad you asked, brother.'' Lia simply smiled at V ''I hope you remember the escapades of the Coyote and Roadrunner.''
Saul Bright. Leader of the Aldecaldos. Well, co-leader. Regardless, he was a great many things, however, one for games and trivialities was not one of his strengths. If one were to ask his 20-25 year self, then just maybe he would give whoever asked him one of the craziest answers ever possible. But now, he had authority and responsibility. Though not to the same caliber as those leading entire armies, it still was enough for every choice and action to be carefully decided and weighed, lest he brings the entirety of his family down all on the cusp of one bad calculation.
Enter V.
At first, the man didn't even have two nickels to rub together to make a snap judgment like he could with others. But, V wasn't like others. The first time he laid eyes on the man was during that day when he followed behind Panam on her little stunt to recover her merch and get her revenge on the Raffen Shiv. He held an controlled, albeit, arrogant air; coupled with his butting in on family matters gave Saul an instant neutral disposition about the merc.
Then came his rescue at the hands of V and Panam; oh, karma and her ways. With the action and tension that followed soon after, he began seeing more of the merc around the camp, whether by word of mouth or seeing him get into varying sorts of trouble in the short amount of time he was around camp, and slowly, change began to be planted. People were happier, in their way. Supplies came a bit more frequently, more of the younger cats were able to get their cyberware and medicine filled, and jobs became more common throughout the week.
All on account of V's status. Saul would never admit it out loud, but V began to grow on him, bit by bit. The culmination of all his hard work came full circle when one day, Panam came to him and laid down the idea of V becoming part of the family proper. The only thing he should have was take a picture of her face when he cooly replied. Saul had been thinking the same things, he just mulled over when he would break the news to her, only for the old vet to be beaten to the punch. ''I swear that kid is something else,'' Saul muttered to himself as he prepared himself to take a brief lunch break after the near back-to-back ripping and running that came with being chief of some 100-ish odd people; each of their needs, grievances, opinions, all of it were something that Saul held dearly and strived to make the best of with the resources that he had.
His second thought was something more delicate that he could make neither hind nor tail of was something foreign; V's condition after the Mikoshi raid. While he did not understand the fullest extent of who his health was (being Panam knew the most), like everyone else in the family, he would turn every rock, cash every favor, and do whatever job needed to save their brother. It was the least after all he provided for them from the rocky start.
While at first, he loathed to admit it, having a second to lighten the load some made the days so far easier to deal with, rather than powering through with sheer will. The kid still had a lot to learn, and like him, was hot-headed and fiercely loyal, all in the name of family, but he was mostly confident that if anything were to happen to him, that the clan would be in good hands. He would pour all he still had into the old tank to ensure the best for the people he cared about.
Ring! Ring! Ring! Saul's phone buzzed in his pocket, drawing him away from the small synth meat burrito he was in the middle of chomping down on in the middle of his table, papers, tablets, and maps strewn about the faux wood table. He nearly let it go to voicemail; almost. The caller id showed Cassidy's information, Saul's entire arm moving on instinct from answering the call to putting it to his ear as he steeled himself to hear about some tomfoolery. ''Cass? Talk to me.''
''The youngins may have got themselves into some trouble. Panam told me to call within the hour if they hadn't come back up or called.'' Saul could hear the crunch of the cowboy's boots at a quick pace; was he jogging? And come back up? ''Knew I shouldn't have listened to the young buck; always trying to be the hero.''
Casting his tone aside, Saul had to find out just what exactly he was talking about. ''Back up from where? V should be heading back from his patrols. And where are you and Mitch at? I thought you were handling the medical and supply duties.''
The scoff in Cass's voice would have made any other person question it, but after years of dealing with the vet, Saul knew it was wrapped up in humorous sarcasm. Which meant shit was serious. ''See what being in love gets you? Pan's lucky we all care about V too, but when stuff like this comes up, I wonder if it's more obsession in her case.''
Standing up and walking out of his tent, Saul's eyes focused on the armorer's vehicle and tent, which was offset diagonal to his own, to facilitate a speedier mobilization of their more. . .colorful weaponry. On instinct, his mind began formulating squads, load-outs, plans of attack, and what snarky comment he would have for the lovestruck knuckleheads when the whole ordeal was over. ''We're on it. How bad could it be?''
Cassidy hummed. Better to rip the band-aid off now. ''Arasaka.''
Stopping momentarily, Saul groaned. Of course, it was Arasaka. At this point, what could be worse?
