Hey guys, welcome back!
So before we get into the story I'd just like to thank everyone that has left a review and/or sent a PM with their comments and suggestions, I greatly appreciate the feedback, ideas and the kind words, so thank y'all for that. If anyone else who is reading also has an idea or questions about the story's direction and stuff then feel free to hit me up or leave a review with your questions. I might not go super into detail but I will do my best to respond in a way that leaves people satisfied.
Alright, that's all I got for now so let's get into it!
-DISCLAIMER- I do not own Harry Potter or Cyberpunk 2077, Edgerunners, Red etc. etc. If I did then maybe Sirius would have gotten a trial.
Chapter three: Heywood or Bust?
Harry wakes up not so bright but definitely early the following morning, after a quick shower and "washing" of his clothes via some handy dandy magic, he settles down with his remaining food at the small table and once again goes over his plan for getting out of Pacifica and hopefully into Heywood. "Alright, this apartment is in the southernmost area of Pacifica near West Wind Estate, there's a road that leads out into the water so there must be some kind of tunnel leading below." he muses aloud after a sip of his Nicola. "At least I hope there is, I don't see anything concerning road closures there so it should be open, problem is I don't know if it has a walkway connected to it or if it's only for vehicles, last thing I need is to get run over."
He takes a bite of breakfast, another mystery burrito, while his eyes track the direction of the road. "If I exit from there, that'll bring me to Wellsprings but very close to Heywood. This is by far the safest route from Pacifica assuming I can actually walk through the tunnel."
Taking another bite, he adds this to the top of his mental list for 'Quickest versus safest', with this in mind he goes back to his spot on the map, "The first alternative choice is to leave by going through the heart of Pacifica, into Coast View and then directly into Heywood." he pauses for a moment, eying the very direct route and thinking over yesterday's events. "While this looks like the fastest way to get to Heywood, it would mean having to go past the Voodoo Boy's turf again which might be pushing my luck a bit, not to mention..." he glances over at Mono's severed cyberarm still on the floor in a drying puddle of mystery fluids where he left it the night before. "What are the odds that those guys will be holding a grudge?" He snarks to himself before taking another bite.
"While it'd be nice to say goodbye to Nadege again, odds are she'd probably just yell at me for still being here, assuming she's even at her kiosk this early." Harry sighs, part of him wanting to risk it just to see the first friendly face he's come across since waking up under Mt. Gross.
"Last but not least." He mumbles, looking over the least likely of his possible options. "My last real option is leaving out the east side of Pacifics and roughing it in the dirt and sun up to Rancho Coronado, through the center and into Arroyo before crossing into Vista Del Rey and then finally into Heywood." Harry leans back in his seat a bit and stretches out his back some. After feeling a small satisfying pop he hangs his head back and stares at the ceiling. "This route is potentially more risky than going through Coast View since it's the longest route and through several different territories I know nothing about, ugh, this would be so much easier with my firebolt." he lets out an aggravated sigh, 'Maybe that's something I should look into sometime, it can't be that hard to make something around here fly right?' he thinks with a chuckle. "I'd probably crash on the first test and break...everything?"
He shakes his head, "Alright, back to important things, the sun will be up soon so I need to make a decision and do it quick." he eats what's left of cold breakfast before deciding 'fuck it', "Coast view it is, if worst comes to worst then I just make a mad dash east and go the 'Rancho route'."
With his decision made, Harry dumps his trash into the small bin by the table, not like it really matters right now, before pocketing his Agent. With a quick check of the essentials, wand, stone, etc. Arm? Harry looks at the mostly still intact cyberarm on the ground, I mean really looks at it. It's similar to human bone in shape, the obvious difference being the almost normal looking hand at the end. 'If hands were made of segmented metal parts' he thinks with a snort. Deciding to try something, Harry whips out his wand and points it at the arm and with a quick shrinking charm, it actually takes to the magic pretty well, the arm now being small enough to fit into a back pocket without being obvious. "Could be good for something later on." he says as if needing to explain himself for walking around with someone's arm in their pocket.
"Time to go." Harry steps to the window and lowers the board for hopefully the final time. He gives the visible area a quick glance to make sure nobody is snooping around before deeming it safe enough to leave, with a quick crawl through the hole and into a quiet crouch Harry opts to not put the board back, "Thanks for keeping me safe for a couple nights." he mutters before standing and heading down the stairs like someone who hasn't recently begun talking to himself might.
Once he makes it to the ground floor he immediately sets off in the direction of Coast View, Nadege having been right that nobody seems to really be out much at this time of early day. You know, except the homeless, tons of garbage - CRACK- 'And a FUCKING SNIPER!?' he screams in his head before taking a dive behind a corner and out of street view, the spot next to where his head was having erupted in a large spray of concrete chunks and shredded metal. 'What the hell is wrong with this city!?' he groans internally before shaking his head hard, "No, focus!"
'A single shot, missed, where'd it come from and why? I haven't even done anything today!' his rapidly piling questions comes to an abrupt halt, 'Wait, how did they even know I would be here? Nobody saw me on the first night and last night I apparated right in, how would they have found me?' he ponders silently. "I need to find their position, fast." With that thought a quick plan assembles itself in his mind and with a sharp turn he apparates back to the outside of the room he'd been staying in, making sure to keep lowers than the walkway railing to keep out of sight. 'As long as they think I'm still on the ground floor, they won't be looking over here.'
Harry slowly raises his head over the railing and starts scanning rooftops, walkways and staircases. After a very stressful minute he catches it, a small glint coming from the rooftop of another apartment complex across the street. 'Seriously? They had that much of a view and they missed their shot?' he thinks incredulously, he knows first year students with better aim than that. He scans the rest of his target's rooftop along with a quick glance to the surrounding vantage points around before focusing on some raised scaffolding behind them. With a flick of his wrist his wand slides into his palm, gripped tightly in anticipation of what's about to follow.
'I've got a few more apparitions in me if I need to, but let's try and get this done as quickly as possible, I don't want to be doing this all day.' With another sharp turn into the direction he hopes his target is standing in, Harry appears on top of the scaffolding platform with a bang, luckily his target wasn't expecting the sudden sound or his presence behind them. "Stupefy! Incarcerous!" Harry belts off the two spells rapidly, the sniper not even having time to turn all the way around before they and knocked cold and bound, their rifle clattering to the ground as their unconscious body slumps over. "Well that was simple..." Harry murmurs to himself before hoping down to the snoozing sniper's position.
A quick check of the other rooftops and walkways once more shows a lack of backup or bystanders, "So they came alone? Why?" he asks the crisp morning air. "Welp, nothing for it then." With a wave of his wand, Harry sets his accuracy-challenged attacker into a sitting position and sticking him by his back to the wall of the rooftop so he can get a batter look at him. "And it's you again..." Harry sighs, seeing the peacefully unaware face of Mono, "With a shiny new arm as well eh?" he notices, seeing the new chrome is not as nice looking as the one he destroyed in his escape the night before. "Alright Mono, time to wake up and explain yourself." Harry grumbles as he takes a few steps away before casting an enervate on him.
"Ugh, what the hell hit me?" Mono chokes out with a slight slur to his words, not quite noticing that he can't move in his stupor.
"That'd be me." a young english accent chirps in slight mirth.
Mono looks up into the most unimpressed pair of vibrant green eyes he had ever seen. "Hey there, mind telling me how you found me?" the young man asks, politer than Mono deserves if he's being honest here.
"Do you know who I am you fu-" his angry tirade is dragged behind a pair of lips that seemed to slam shut and refuse to open, his surprised angry muffles being the only thing left to be heard.
"Yeah, no, You don't get to be all angry and demanding right now, you and your douchebag friends have been chasing me for two fucking days and instead of learning your lesson from last night, you decide to what, track down the guy who sent your boss flying like a brutish frisbee AND tore you arm off at the same time?" Harry asks, sarcasm practically dripping from his mouth. "So here's what's going to happen next." Harry says before walking towards the dropped sniper and lifting it up into slightly unsteady arms, it being heavier than he thought it'd be. "I'm going to unseal your lips and you are going to tell me how you found me, or I'm going to take this whatever this is and I'm going to practice my aim on you every time you say something I dislike, deal?" Harry asks as he walks over to a stack of crates and lays the sniper across the top of one. "By the way, I've never fired a gun before so if I end up blowing off something important, just know that I'm aiming for your new arm." And with a wave of his wand Mono's lips unseal themselves.
"Fuck you! You think I'm scared of yo-"
-BANG-
Harry had taken aim the moment he released his spell, having guessed he'd need to make a point rather quickly. He spoke the truth when he said he'd be aiming for that new arm of his, but he was also telling the truth about never firing a gun before, so a couple things happened after that first squeeze of the trigger. The first thing that happened is a loud bang/impact against the wall of the rooftop, the bullet having flown above target and clipped Mono's left ear, tearing a chunk out of the lobe and punching a hole into the wall behind him.
The second thing to happen was Harry being knocked flat on his ass from the recoil.
"Oomph!" Harry gasps as the air is punched from his lungs, stunning him for a moment. 'What the hell!?' he groans loudly, barely taking note of Mono's screaming and cursing about his ruined ear. It takes him a minute to get back up and back to the crate where the rifle sat knocked over on its side. "Okay!" He says drawing Mono's attention and ire once more. "Let's try this again, how did you find me?" Harry asks while inspecting the side of the rifle for how to chamber the next round. Noticing a small handle looking bit on the side he grabs it and pulls, watching in slight triumph as the spent shell flies out and is replaced by a fresh one as he slides it back.
Mono gulps at the sight, his favorite SPT32 GRAD in the hands on this gonk punk nearly making him grind his teeth and the ear pain isn't helping at all. "Two seconds before I fire at you anyways." Harry calls out. Mono spits in his direction, acting way braver than he's feeling. "I said go fuck yourself you little shit!"
-BANG-
Harry is more prepared for the recoil this time, it still kicks the hell out of his shoulder but he manages to stay on his feet this time. Mono on the other hand, is less than prepared to see the front half of his right foot get blown away into chunky red mist, the same round punching through the armor plating on his jacket sleeves and obliterating the elbow in his right arm. "AAAAAAAAAAAGH! FUUUUUUUUCK!" Mono yells, his voice echoing slightly into the barely lit streets below. More pained swearing filling the air as harry ejects another spent case. "I dunno how much ammo this thing has, but you're either going to run out of luck, limbs or bullets, and if it runs out of bullets before you answer my questions I'm going to have to get creative." Harry explains with a slight tremble in his tone, despite the bravado he still doesn't like causing others pain, and he's never personally had to do anything like this even during the the hunt for the Horcruxes.
"You're fucking dead kid! When my crew finds you they'll splatter your gonk brains all over the fucking streets!" Mono yells back, clearly braver than he is smart.
"Ahuh..." Harry deadpans as he begins taking aim again, "You mean the crew that didn't come on this little assassination attempt of yours?" Harry asks with thinly veiled disdain, "The same crew that thought better than to go hunting for the guy who could one-tap their boss and do what I did?"
Mono grits his teeth, anger and pain practically wafting off him in waves. "That's what I thought, so, wanna tell me how you found me yet?" Harry asks again.
Mono maintains his angry silence, his eyes looking around wildly through the pain as he tries to find a way out of his predicament. "Alright then..." Harry sighs. "How about this, if you tell me how you found me and if anyone else from your crew might be looking for me, I'll stop blowing chunks off you and I'll even make the pain stop. Sound fair?" Harry tries, really wanting this idiot to take the hint and just come clean already. "You're really cutting into my day-plans here guy."
"Fuck! Fine, the arm has a tracker in it alright!? My crazy input put it there so she could make sure I didn't stray!" Mono yells, finally relenting, "None of my crew know I'm here, they didn't want to fuck with you anyways after last night! Now please make the pain stop!" he yells frantically.
"Okay."
-BANG-
The last thing to pass through Mono's pain filled mind is a bullet manufactured to punch through solid cyberware, not tender meat, the result of this being the entire top half of Mono's head disappearing in a spray of mist and scrapped metal, his jaw left hanging with his tongue flapping about as blood sprays the roof in a crimson pool. The sight brings Harry to his knees, vomit spraying the rooftop. He collapses with his back against a crate, the only sounds heard being his heavy breathing and the occasional gurgle from Mono's neck hole.
"He wouldn't have left you alone." Harry says aloud, needing to justify taking a life. "He's just like any other Death Eater, he wanted you dead and you did what you had to do." The thought doesn't make him feel any better, with a grunt he digs around in his back pocket for the shrunken arm and tosses it over the crate towards the body. "No reason to hold onto that if they can use it to find me." Harry decides before slowly getting to his feet. He doesn't turn to the body once standing, "You could have avoided this, you could have just left me alone..." he says, neither an apology but also refusing to accept it being his fault either. With a twist and a crack Harry is gone from the roof, heading back to the corner he dove behind originally and coming around back to the main street to make his way to Coast View.
"What are the chances that I'll run into more trouble today?" He asks himself sarcastically. With a sense of determination filling him Harry heads off down the street, being completely unaware of the camera back on the rooftop that watched and recorded the entire exchange from Mono's first shot to now. Unknown to Harry, he was about to become a target of interest for multiple factions in Night City and his life was just going to become more interesting and dangerous.
-At the Afterlife-
A dark skinned man with shaven light hair was taking his time in the Net, browsing about for nothing in particular while his feelers search for anything to do with his main point of interest, Rache Bartmoss, A ping would bring his attention to one of his feelers programmed to locate anything 'Out of the ordinary', bringing up the feed, the netrunner known as Nix gets a front row view as the recording of Harry plays out. "Nothing all that special here, just some crappy sniper missing his mark." He thinks aloud, wondering if he needs to check the programming for bringing him an average hit attempt. Harry suddenly appearing on the roof behind the sniper and doing 'something' when the sniper suddenly falls over covered in... "Are those ropes?" He asks, stunned at what he just saw before the first part clicked in his mind. "DID HE JUST FUCKING TELEPORT!?" He exclaims in shock, that sort of tech shouldn't be real, much less in the hands of someone who looks so young. "I need to bring this to Rogue..." he mumbles while watching the rest of the exchange, the questioning and screaming going unheard due to being a video only recording. He watches as the kid finally kills the sniper before disappearing again to who knows where. "Yeah, she needs to see this." he says before saving the footage and disconnecting from the net.
-In Arasaka Tower-
A young analyst, looking to be in their early 20's is doing their daily grunt work when a video file crosses their 'Sort or destroy' stack of random camera footage from across Night City. "Ugh, this job is so boring I might flatline right here." they grumble as they lazily click open the file, expecting another random mugging or some couple getting busy in a dirty alley somewhere. "Why doesn't anything good ever..." they stop mid sentence as the video begins to play, the clear footage of what looks to be a teenager just, 'appearing' behind some rooftop gunner gonk before taking him down in a way that makes no sense at all. "Some kind of cloaking tech and a net launcher maybe?" They deduce out loud. "No that doesn't make sense, the only thing he has is some kind of...is that a stick?" they continue, only growing more perplexed as time goes by. "He's a terrible shot." they chuckle as the 'target practice' takes place on screen.
Once all is said and done, they watch the boy disappear again and the footage ends. The analyst leans back in their chair, trying to decipher what it was they just saw. "Definitely not cloaking tech, nothing on the market makes that kind of distortion." they ponder, but before anymore thought can be put into it their cubicle door slides open with a bang, almost startling them from their chair. "V!" the apparently angry voice of their boss says from the doorway, "We aren't paying you to laze about on the job, get back to work sorting those files or you're fucking fired!" he says before storming off, the door sliding back closed slowly. 'What a dick.' The now named 'V' thinks to themselves. "Well, since they don't seem to think it important, maybe I'll take this one for myself." V mutters before loading the video file into a chip before deleting it from Arasaka's servers.
'That kind of tech has to be worth something to someone right?' V thinks before getting back to their new job doing the bitch work for Arasaka's Data Acquisition team.
-Back in Pacifica-
Deep in the underground subway systems beneath Pacifica, the notoriously dangerous gang known as the Voodoo Boys are hard at work around numerous consoles and screens, Netrunners in their cooling tanks are scouring the Net, looking for any method to get in touch with the 'life' beyond the BlackWall when one comes across a particular video file, recorded on a camera not far away. After viewing the footage they immediately ping their boss and sends the file over.
Back in the real world, a man by the name of Placide receives and reviews the footage of the unassuming boy from the day prior, 'Not just mildly interesting it would seem.' He thinks to himself as he goes through the footage several times trying to make sense of what he is seeing. With a grunt he gets up from his own console and heads to where he knows their leader will be. He walks from dark tunnels up into the church that acts as the front of their operation. He leaves the building and heads to the large building that might have been the beginning of a megabuilding but now acts as both home and market to the civilians who live within the bounds of Voodoo Boy territory.
The passerby's slide away from his path with both respect and fear for who he is as he makes his way through the crowds and up the stairs to a higher level. Shortly after he comes upon a pair of doors that lead him into the main office of his leader, Maman Brigitte, "What brings you here Placide? You're meant to be working with the others in the Net right now." She asks, her tone almost neutral in delivery.
Placide places a chip onto the desk before her. "One of our boys spotted that ganic boy doing something interesting." he barely explains, knowing she'd want to view the footage herself if he bothered to actually bring it in person instead of sending it via message. She takes the chip and slot sit without a word, her eyes showing the telltale glow of someone viewing a feed on their optics. "Well well, that surely is interesting." She says as the video begins with Harry teleporting in view. Her interest is piqued as a flash of light followed by some flying rope puts the sniper down to the ground. "Did you see him use anything in order to do that?" She asks her second in command.
"The only thing he seems to carry with him is that stick he is waving around, he didn't even take the rifle at the end of all that." Placide says, wondering why the kid didn't at least take it to sell if anything.
"He is mildly impressive but he acts like someone not used to the violence of Night City." She mutters to herself, "I wonder how he does that little teleportation trick of his, if I didn't know better I'd almost say it's like magic." She ponders with a chuckle, knowing full well the history behind her gang.
Before Placide can comment himself, they both receive a message from their 'neighborhood watch'. "Boss, that organic white boy is heading our way again, what do you want us to do?" the message reads.
Brigitte looks to Placide and gives him a nod, he nods in return and heads out of the office and back downstairs, shooting off messages with orders all the while. These orders can be summed up as, "inform the civilians to get inside or leave the area away from the main street, to everyone else, get ready to ambush the kid, we want him in alive, Maman Brigitte has some questions for him. If he fights back or tries to run, well she didn't say we needed him whole." receiving confirmation from the gang as they head to set up their trap. "You shouldn't have come back boy." Placide grumbles as he heads to the church to overlook the operation.
-Back with Harry-
Aside from that little disaster of a start to his day with Mono, Harry is still making pretty good time, there are more people out and about now but not nearly as much as the day before since it's still so early. "Okay, so follow the main road, ignore the creepy stares from anyone outside in Voodoo Boy land and just casually walk the rest of the way to Heywood and I'll figure out the rest from there." He says aloud but softly to himself. "Shouldn't be too hard right?" He asks the empty air around him. "I'm starting to wonder if I should talk to somebody at some point, I'm sure speaking to nothing isn't healthy." He grumbles a bit as he walks.
It takes him some time before he makes it to the boundry line of Voodoo graffiti he saw the day before, there are some people walking about or sat in chairs around radios and fires to keep warm. They all start watching him almost as one once again and Harry would have ignored it completely if not for one small detail. For a moment, every single person he could see, their eyes began to flicker and glow a bit before they all got up from whatever they were doing and disappeared behind corners or into buildings, followed by doors shutting and windows closing.
The action brings Harry to a halt, his instincts screaming at him that something is wrong. He waits for several moments before it finally clicks in his head, another ambush. "Oh, come on man!" He complains loudly, his frustration obvious to any unseen ears. 'I just want to get to Heywood damnit!' he screams in his head.
The sound of glass cracking causes him to spin around rapidly, his wand slipping into his palm as he goes. He catches a glimpse of a hooded and masked figure pointing some kind of handgun at him before...
-BANG-
Aaaand that's chapter 3!
Man, Harry is having a pretty rough week eh?
So going forward from here the next few chapters are going to be a lot of things that will both introduce Harry to the kind of life he is going to need to live in order to survive Night City as well as set some things up for future events. But hey, at least there will be plenty of magicy cyberpunk action XD
Hope you guys liked the chapter, leave a review or PM me if you have questions or ideas and I hope you all have a lovely day!
See you all in the next one.
