???

Johnny woke up groaning in pain, everything in his body flaring like all his nerves have just been instantly stabbed. That feeling then subsided for a bit as his optics lit up with a diagnostic being run following a system reboot.

Eventually the diagnostic finished and Johnny was able to see he was trapped under a metal sheet with a TV on top of his leg and a bunch of other shit just generally around him. He tried to push himself up and out of there but he was definitely stuck, so instead he proceeded to pull his hands out from under all the junk to push the metal sheet off before his vision started getting all jittery.

He then pushed the TV off his leg to finally free himself before he felt his hands shaking, enclosing them into fists as he looked at them just to try and keep himself pulled together. He then turned himself onto his front before he began crawling up a slope… of course he was in a fucking landfill. But he had to dwell on that later, getting out of here was priority one.

He finally made it out of that goddamn hole after dragging himself onto the surface level, starting to crawl forward before attempting to push himself up on some piece of junk only for it to slide out from under his hand, making his face fall right into the mud before he resumed crawling. As he felt his energy start to give out he saw a pair of figures, recognizing one of them as he thought (Dex… gonna… end you…) before he just blacked out and collapsed.

By the time Johnny regained consciousness, he was being dragged and propped up against something. Johnny honestly felt hazy as fuck as he struggled to keep himself awake, watching Dex approach an old man in a suit as he spoke "Ugh… heavier than he looks." Which led Johnny to feel slightly irked as Dex continued "Now listen dawg. I have done exactly as you asked, so 'less you and me figure this - "

BANG

Johnny jumped slightly at the sight of the old man killing Dex with a single shot before groaning a little due to the movement. Fucking hell, it feels like his body got slammed through a concrete wall. The old man then looked at him before approaching, his optics lighting up as he made a call, Johnny's Kiroshis translating his words from Japanese "Arasaka-sama, I've found your father's killer." And right around then was when Johnny recognized him, Saburo's bodyguard from Konpeki Plaza… what did Yori call this guy? Takemura?

Johnny heard him say "I expect to be there within the hour." By the time he snapped out of his train of thought and was hit with a spasm of pain, prompting him to shout "Ah! Fuck!" Which was met with Takemura saying "Quiet!" And smacking him in the face, knocking him out.

"See you on the other side Ker…"

"Look I get it, plenty of reasons to be pissed. But this is a talk that'll have to wait…"

"You could stop by, all I'm saying…"

Johnny felt hazy by the time he regained consciousness, waking up slumped in a car seat as he watched the old man, Takemura, get in and start the car. As they started driving off Johnny tried to sit up and do something, anything, but he could barely turn his head forward. He then heard Takemura comment "You smell like shit." And before Johnny could retort, he felt himself losing consciousness again, his head tilting down towards his lap as everything faded to black.

"Tt, viper pit. Couldn't have said it better myself…"

"Hey hermano. Your new life…"

"Quiet life, or blaze o' glory, hmm?…"

…

Valerie groaned out an "Ugh, fuck me…" as she felt her whole body aching. But something was off, different… she then groaned in pain as she saw something pop up in her vision.

System malfunction

Valerie had no time to question it before she heard someone say "You hear me? I need your help!" And then she felt something being placed in her hand as she looked at an old man who was bleeding before seeing what she was given. (An airhypo.) she thought to herself, knowing that it was basically a medicinal adrenaline shot but she was unsure of how she knew that.

She then raised it and went right for the heart, injecting it into herself and feeling her whole body awaken. She then pulled it out as she gasped for air, proceeding to turn and toss it out the side of the ride before a man with red cyberoptics on a motorcycle showed up, racing to be in front of the car as Valerie looked behind her to see three others riding in behind them. She felt herself being tapped on the arm before she turned to see the old man handing her a gun as two of the other bike riders pulled ahead and the three started firing at the windshield before one of the bikes gave out and went right over the car.

Quickly checking the ammo count Valerie pulled back the chamber and started taking aim, opening fire and missing their pursuers but managing to land a few shots on their rides. The way the car was swerving however was not helping Valerie much, prompting her to say "Watch how you're driving!" But quickly noticing something was up with her voice, and her arm… she couldn't even tell if it was her prosthetic or a 'ganic arm, but how did that even make sense?

She had no further time to process before the car braked a little and the man said "Hold on!" As the back of one of the motorcycles caught fire from the prior shots and the biker fell over on his side as the other backed up to practically be against them before breaking off to their left and coming back in, knocking into it and forcing the old man to turn around and quickly start driving in reverse causing Valerie to be knocked over and hold herself up on the dashboard of the car. But then her vision tapped out and she -

Johnny awoke with a pounding headache and a weapon in his hand as he saw a biker chasing after him while he was sitting in a car that was going backwards.

Realizing it was trouble ahead of them he started shooting, quickly needing to reload. In that time however their pursuer took a few shots and his vision started going red, and as he finished reloading he prepped up a charged shot from what he now recognized as Arasaka's Kenshin pistol. Just as he fired a charged shot at the bike, the motorcyclist attempted to close in on them but his ride then exploded.

Right around then Johnny felt himself becoming fatigued as Takemura said "The booster will not last long…" and seconds later another motorcyclist was closing in, ramping off a car as Takemura shouted "Shoot him!" And immediately after he said that, the man jumped off the bike with a pair of Mantis Blades sticking out, landing on the car as Johnny took aim but could barely fire a shot as he had to avoid getting his head taken off. He then felt the car accelerating as their assailant started losing balance, but just before it seemed like he was about to fall off he flipped himself onto the hood, hanging on with one of his Mantis Blades being driven in as an anchor.

As Johnny heard the attacker pulling his way up the hood towards them he opened fire, but the man was enduring every shot even as his synth-skin started burning off, probably from all the explosions he might've had to drive right through. Johnny ended up knocked into the front during a swerve, narrowly avoiding a Mantis Blade being swung at him, then again when it almost went through his head. Right around as Johnny prepared to blast the assassin in the face they crashed and he blacked out again.

When Johnny awoke he was being dragged out of the car, feeling totally wrecked as he was set down against something when Takemura came into his vision, clutching his own arm as he said "Don't you dare faint again… keep your eyes open." While Johnny just groaned out "Fuck…" as he felt as if his whole body was about to give out on him.

Looking to see their hunter still alive, he knew he couldn't let him report back to whoever sent him. Raising his arm with everything he had Johnny numbly screamed in pain before he managed to pull the trigger, taking the life of their pursuer before Takemura grabbed the gun by the barrel and Johnny's arm collapsed as he couldn't hold it up anymore. He then turned his head towards Takemura as he said "Remember you… Konpeki Plaza… Saburo's bodyguard." Before Takemura said to him "There is little time. We both could use medical attention, do you know a ripperdoc whom you can trust?"

Truthfully Johnny wasn't sure about bringing Saburo Arasaka's bodyguard of all people straight to Vik's clinic where he could easily be hunted down, but unfortunately he was right about one thing, they couldn't stay there. Johnny then said "Know a place… I'll call in… a ride." Before calling Delamain, hoping to hell he could still use the AI cab's services. Delamain then picked up on the other end "Greetings. My scanner indicates you are currently outside the service area." To which Johnny responded "Just… send a cab my way… need to get to Misty's Esoterica… gotta see Viktor Vektor…" and while he was hearing Delamain respond he could barely catch what he was saying as he felt himself losing consciousness.

Author's note: And just like that we are back! Evidently I took a few liberties with this scene such as the memory glimpses and Valerie briefly being in control during the chase scene, but I thought it'd be interesting to add these extra dynamics just to change things up a bit. Just gonna say this here, I honestly am intending to skip the flashes of memory in-between the cut-off after the car chase and when (in this case) Johnny wakes up but that's mainly just because I don't know what to really have done differently there. I promise I will not skip over any of the important stuff though, and if time is on my side another chapter should be expected soon. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter in the meantime though!