\+/ Tales From Night City \+/ Chapter 45 - Cards Off The Table

Zaunya and the rest of the ladies are seen back in the booth laughing and enjoying their last drinks of the night in the underground club as the band is taking pictures with fans and wrapping up. Last call has been announced as various patrons find seats to catch their breath and slam final shots while others are dragged out unconscious by their chooms.

"I would've been gone long ago if I ever planned on walking away."

"That's not the point Zaunya... the point is you still CAN." Audrey asserts as BugBear passively listens on knowing her place and not interjecting.

"I got my hands on one of their intel databases back at that warehouse. Leave it to PetroChem to leave a bunch of valuable eggs all in one fucking basket... Its a spattering of various shit; locations, people of interest; some i even recognize... redacted cyberware and firearm inventory ledgers... and more deetes on this 'experimental' choo2. Where to find it... maybe whose making it even.. Its weird... its almost like-"

"Zaunya... going to war with these corpos only leads one way... you know this."

Zaunya continuing to listen to Audrey plead her case feels a sudden heavy hand on her shoulder causing her to look up and see Brian standing over her with Netty making his way back to the table and booth. The sounds of various glasses clinking and being cleaned up mixes together with chairs being dragged and rags being used to wipe down tables.

"Hey, we need to talk." Brian says with a subtle tone of urgency and panic while raising his eyebrows and gently grabbing her arm up.

"What happened? Is everything ok?" She asks with a concerned look on her face. She instinctually feels his uneasy energy and quickly matches it with a wary tone of panic.

"Yeah.. yeah everything's fine. Just.. come" Brian says in a reassuring tone. He tries to remain subtle while now firmly grabbing her arm and leading her toward the staircase going up and out of the hidden bar.

Netty plops back down onto the booth where Audrey and BugBear are, however the loud commotion and conversations of the bar, along with the idle house music make it impossible for him to hear them. Netty takes a look around the bar and has a moment to himself to sit down and process where hes at in life and why he's there. A quick flash of his friends taking a group picture together on the roof of a corpo megabuilding feeling on top of the world enters his mind... then another flash of his father handing him his first cyberdeck. He hears his father's voice echo: "If you're gonna follow in my footsteps Netaniel; you're gonna do this shit right, do you understand me? I'll only allow you to do this... to become the best." Thinking about the countless hours of rigorous and thorough Netrunner training he did with his father, Netty takes a deep breath before finishing his drink and resting his glass on the table. He glances over to see Audrey and BugBear get up and quickly start to make their way to the stairs with purpose causing him to get up and quickly follow behind them.

You next see the 3 of them exit out of the front of the bar onto street level into the mixture of warm and cold Night City air and make their way toward their parked Galena off in the distance. They see Brian and Zaunya at the hood of the car finishing what looks to have been a brief but intense back and forth conversation. As the 3 of them approach; Brian who's standing in front of Zaunya glances over at them past her shoulder causing Zaunya to turn around and face them at the same time.

"Hey! You guys ready to delta or did you wanna hit another bar? I'm kinda starving honestl-" Audrey says while stepping past Brian to get into the car. He quickly grabs her by her arm and slams her down onto the hood of the Galena G240 with force while also pinning her down by her head causing her to shriek.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!?" BugBear screams as she steps to Brian and punches him in the face with full force flinching him slightly and hurting her hand badly in the process. She instinctually opens her hand due to the pain and instead slaps him as hard as she can in the face before shes grabbed by the waist from the front and pushed backwards away from Brian by Netty causing her to scream. Zaunya quickly steps inbetween Netty and BugBear with her hands out in front of her before she grabs BugBear's shoulders to calm her down and hold her back "Stop honey, stop! hold on! wait!" Zaunya pleads as BugBear franticly struggles to free herself while shrieking.

"LET GO OF MEEE! YOU FUCKING GONK! WHAT THE FFUCK!" Audrey screams through her teeth trying to resist.

"DO IT KID.." Brian shouts sternly while holding her down as blood begins to run from his mouth from BugBear's punch. Netty quickly turns around leaving Zaunya to hold back BugBear as he runs over and stands over Audrey. He hesitantly jacks into one of her neuro ports as his eyes begin to flicker blue and he begins scanning.

"AUDREY!" BugBear screams frantically struggling as Zaunya holds her back by her waist from behind.

A brief amount of time passes before Netty quickly unplugs from Audrey's neuro socket and takes a few steps back.

"Holy shit.." He says under his breath with a look of fear on his face causing the commotion to stop and everyone to look at him.