V stretched out his sore limbs as the morning light came through Viktor's apartment window and warmed his skin. He turned around to see Viktor and Misty also already up and finishing cups of coffee around the kitchen table. The two weren't speaking but they seem more comfortable together than they did yesterday. Viktor offered V a mug which he gladly accepted as he pulled out a chair for himself.

"How's your head, kid? You took quite a few licks yesterday." The old ripperdoc says as he instinctively scanned V's healing bruises. He motioned to a bottle of painkillers that was open on the counter. "Put some of that in you and chase it with, won't heal you faster but should help you keep all cylinders firing."

"Thanks, doc." V said gratefully popping a pair of the tablets from the bottle. "Nothing I haven't gotten before." The hot liquid fueled him up for the day and after just a minute or two he began to feel the effects of the pain meds. The trio sipped their coffees in silence waiting to see who would be the first to bring up the day's mission. Misty watched V pensively as he downed the last of his drink. "So, we're doing this now? Where are we headed?

V set his mug on the table "East side of Heywood by the waterfront. It's far enough from the City Center to keep us off the corpo's radar, but if we get too far out, we won't be able to reach the people." V paused for a second to gauge Misty and Viktor's reactions. "Also, if we go further out to Santo Domingo or Pacifica, we could find ourselves at odds with 6th Street or the Voodoo Boys."

Viktor nodded and placed his thumb to his chin in the usual position he would take when he was trying to diagnose an patient with implant issues. "Also, we have friends there in Coyote Cojo, Some might help keep things 'tranquilo' with the Valentinos."

Misty nodded "We just need to be extra careful, we're going into their neighborhood talking about saving the world. Some will be open to working with us, and some are going to laugh in our faces. And others like the world just the way it is… with them on top of their own little kingdoms."

"Yeah…" was all V could muster as he straightened himself up. "Vik, you got wheels we can use?"

Viktor smiled, "The Thorton has a tank full of choo and ready to roll." He then walked away from the kitchen area towards a wall closet close to the door. He reached inside and pulled a hanger with clothes on it. "But before we leave, throw on some fresh threads on at least. Those rags are barely hanging on at this point."

V looked down. He hadn't realized just how much the cheap outfit he had been left with was run ragged after the day before's riding in the rain, fight with thugs and tumbling in the dirt. He could use a shower too. "Thanks, Vik… again… I'll have to owe you one."

"What else is new?" Vik said with a chuckle.

With that, V ducked out of the kitchen area into Viktor's bathroom. Turning on the hot water, V stripped out of his rags and then dunked himself under the spray. The sensation felt like it was revitalizing him, the water soothing the many bruises that covered his face and body almost to the point where he didn't feel them anymore.

With a force of will, V turned off the hot water, not willing to waste time. Drying off, he pulled on the clothes Viktor gave him. The pants were a dark olive drab in color with cargo pockets. Could have been either some military surplus from the unification war or perhaps some modern stores take on the look. The shoes were ankle boots, reasonably worn. V smiled when he saw that Viktor and him wore the same size apparently. A red graphic t-shirt with a Samurai logo went over his chest followed by a fatigue green crystaljock bomber jacket. The neon yellow collar flickered to life as V pulled his arms through the sleeves. The round sleeve vents automatically adjusted to his body's temperature, and a familiar feeling hit V as he caught his reflection in the mirror display. V smirked to himself as he turned from the image and headed into the kitchen again to find the others.

Viktor and Misty we're already waiting by the door. Viktor had opted for his usual blue-grey shirt and jeans. Misty stood there still wearing Jaqui's black Valentinos jacket with a purple top underneath and tight black leather. The three of them couldn't have looked any more different if they had to. V glanced between them before saying, "Let's do this."

The three of them sat side by side in Viktor's Thorton truck, V with his arm in the passenger window, Viktor driving like an old man and Misty sandwiched in between. After crossing the corpo plaza from Watson and moving southeast into Heywood, the team found themselves in the south end of the neighborhood of Vista del Rey. The buildings there were older and signs of old factories that used to belong to both Biotechnica and Arasaka were still visible. It was close enough to the megabuildings that housed so many of the poor population that any center of operations V and the gang set up would be accessible to them. Nowhere in Night City is truly safe, but if there was ever place that could be made into a sort of safe zone, this might be it, or maybe this is just the spot that needs it most.

Viktor pulled up the truck into a space in front of a Caliente dive restaurant and cut the engine. "Alright V," he said. "Time to show'm what you're made of all over again."

V smiled at hearing Viktor's old favorite phrase. It felt good to see that some things never changed, and looking around Heywood, hadn't changed all that much either in two years. Low rider cars moved up and down the street, Valentino graffiti tagged multiple buildings around them. V stepped out of the truck and looked around.

"Let's head out. The best case scenario, we find some old corpo buildings we can move into and take over." He said turning to face Misty and Viktor.

Misty looked around with her hands on her hips "Normally I'd suggest we split up but with all three of us still mostly gannic, we'll definitely need to rely on each other for safety."

With that the three began walking up the main streets. V in front kept his eyes scanning around out of old habits, not just for danger but for opportunities too. Time went by and for the most part they weren't having any luck. Misty sighed deeply as the crew rounded yet another street corner only to see more signs of the poverty, violence and desperation they were up against. Bullet holes lined the concrete and blood stained the ground were certain some other gang fight had taken place the night before. Or perhaps it was from some corpo enforcement team snatching up homeless people off the street.

Eventually V's eyes settled on some heavy piping that appeared out of nowhere from the ground near the road and then continued above ground down an alley and around a corner.

"Anyone know where that goes?" V said to the others.

Viktor looked it over before answering "Looks like it's old Biotechnica waste lines." He points to the faded leaf logo on the side ironically next to a hazardous waste symbol." Maybe they had a processing plant around here somewhere."

V looked down the alley and grinned as an idea occurred to him. "A little poetic don't you think? Turning an old hazardous waste plant into something good for this city?" He started to walk down the alley following the heavy piping.

Misty walked in behind him followed by Viktor. When the three turned the corner, they saw tons of heavy bags of waste. This must be where the city was dumping collected bags instead of actually out in the dump to save eddies on the transport cost. V immediately started lifting and shifting bags out of the way to clear a path.

"Are you sure we ought to be wading into this stuff, V?" Asked Misty, a hint of worry in her voice. "We don't even know what this shit is, or what this place was processing back in the day."

V nodded as and looked over his shoulder to her once the last bag had cleared leaving a path for them to walk single file. "No, I ain't sure of shit right now. But we'll never get started if we keep trying to find perfect real estate in this city." He then proceeded to walk through the path he had cleared between the garbage bags.

Once on the other side of the pile of trash the trio looked around at what appeared to be the entrance of an old plant with Biotechnica logos on the doors. The city must have grown up around this lower building, swallowing it whole. The building was about 3 stories high with the waste pipes connecting at the ground level and the two stories above had the typical smashed out windows of an abandoned building along with stains and corrosion dripping from the open windows. The smell of the place had a certain putrid smell that usually comes from rotting vegetables that had been left out ages ago.

"Home sweet hellhole…" Said Viktor scratching the back of his neck.

V couldn't hear him. He was too busy picturing the potential. All the garbage removed, the roof top covered with salvaged rain collectors and jerry-rigged solar panels and wind turbines. In his mind's eye, he could see people moving about the place using it as a center of the community that he had grown up in, finally having a real, beating heart to it.

"Well, shouldn't we knock to see if anyone's home?" Misty said stepping forward. The group begins looking for a way inside the building. The front doors were chained and locked shut. Viktor got to one knee and produced what looked like a multi-tool from his jeans pocket. Without a word he started picking at the lock.

Misty walked up to a nearby window and used her sleeve to try and rub away the grim to look in. She turned and grinned at V. It was the first time he'd seen her excited in a while. V smiled and nodded to Misty. Right then, the padlock made a load clacking sound. The lock opened and the chain barring the doors shut fell to each side. Viktor pushed at the doors and with a loud creaking sound, they swung open.

The inside was as decrepit as the outside. The open area that the door revealed had what remained of a receptionist desk. Rot from the old wood getting wet had eaten away at almost half of it and the floor was covered in a sick green layer of mold. The walls showed signs of leaks from above as they had heavy water staining.

Victor produced a trio of paper surgical masks from his back pocket. "Put these on, no idea what's in the air here." As each put on a mask over their mouths and noses V turned to the others.

"Ok, first we explore, then we salvage. Equipment, tools, materials that haven't gone to shit. Anything we can use. We meet back here in ten." He said.

"What if we run into trouble?" Misty said more concerned for V and Viktor than she appeared to be for herself.

"Stay alert, don't engage, and back out." V said trying to take his own advice to heart.

"The doors were chained and the lock was rusty." Viktor said looking thoughtful. "We might be the first ones in here in a long time.

V nodded at the reassuring analysis. "Ok, let's spread out. Stay in shouting distance though." Misty started down a corridor that took her to the left of the entrance lined with doors to separate rooms. Viktor headed past what was left of the reception desk to explore a what looked like a lab area. V saw what looked like a staircase to the right and figured he'd head up to see what was left of the second floor.

As he made his way up the stairs, they creaked and moaned in protest but held steady. At the top he immediately saw the reason for the leaking below, the ceiling and third floor roof had been heavily damaged and caved in in the center. All of it would have to be cleared away.

He made his way into the center of the room and started to rummage through the fallen roofing panels. As the pieces were lifted away V started to see the remains of what looked like batteries, heavy cables and what looked like components to silicone power cells. Many appeared corroded beyond repair, but some looked like they could be cleaned up and saved. V stood up and looked at the caved in roof. The wind blew in and created quite the channel. V felt the air move past him in a strong, consistent breeze even though it wasn't a particularly windy day.

"It's perfectly aligned to the wind tunnels made by the buildings around us." He said to himself as he looked through opening seeing the surroundings.

As V looked around, he could already picture in his mind wind turbines made from the salvaged materials charging the batteries and powering the building. He walked through and as he passed the major opening, he saw that one area was significantly less wet, probably was upwind of the opening. Here there were more materials totally discarded by the corporations.

"They were building their own solar panels in here…" He whispered in disbelief. "They were powering themselves with this tech while the rest of us fought over eddies to give to Petrochem and Electro Corp to keep the lights on."

He looked over at what appeared to the discarded resources that must have been determined as not cost effective to just give to the people that needed them. "They just left all this here to rot." V said clenching his fists.

"V you need to see this!" came the voice of Viktor from downstairs.

V turned on his heels and dashed back towards the stairwell. As he quickly made his way down the stairs didn't groan as badly as the first time; they must have settled. He rounded the corner of the stairwell and saw Misty running back as well. The two pushed their way through a pair of double doors that led to the lab area Viktor's voice had come from.

Inside they saw white PVC piping frameworks that were in various states of disrepair. On the floor it looked like stains from years old organic waste spills. Viktor was sifting through the piping, trash and organic rot on the floor and piling what looked like small bags.

"What are those, Vik." Misty said cautiously as she walked closer to him careful not to step on what they had found.

"You kids aren't going to believe this." Viktor said with a genuine smile on his face. "These are seed packets. Back in the day, Biotechnica was once thought of as the good guy corporation." Viktor made air quotes as he said it with notable disdain in his voice. "They made a name for themselves licensing out the formula for Choo2, and all the money that came in was supposed to be going into cloning and bringing back extinct species. Mostly to be pets for rich people…"

V came over to the packets of seeds on the floor. Some looked ruined by years of exposure but the majority seemed to be in good shape. "Do you think they were doing cloning experiments on plants too?" he asked.

Lifting up a seed pack that had the Latin name "solanum lycopersicum," Viktor smiled. "I think they were or at least stockpiling old seeds. These are tomatoes, we've got others here too. If we can get these to germinate… V, I'm serious… this could be big." Viktor's face was showing genuine excitement for the first time about V's plan for a revolutionized Night City.

V took another seed pack in his hand. He gave it a light shake hearing the dry seeds rattle inside. "The stuff we need to make this place better are literally lying all around us in the trash." He said with a grin starting to form on his face. "We just need to figure out how to make this work. I don't shit about farming."

The two men turned to look at Misty. "What? Why do you think I'd know anything about growing crops?"

"I don't know, you used to always have herbs and stuff around the Esoterica." Viktor said with a bit of chuckle in his throat seeing Misty flustered. "Figured at some point you might have grown your own."

Misty rolled her eyes. "No, I used to buy from a shop in Japan Town. That place is long gone now though."

V stood up and brushed off his knees that had collected dirt from the floor. "Truth is, none of know how to farm. That's part of the problem. Corporations don't want the people sustaining themselves without them." V looked over all the equipment that Biotechnica had abandoned here and thought of how many nights he had spent hungry because he didn't have enough eddies for even a buck-a-slice pizza. He imagined how so many others probably had it way worse. And all this stuff was rotting away here in a lab just because a corpo gonk couldn't make enough eddies feeding people with it.

"But I think I know who can teach us. Well teach is probably not the right word…" V said activating his holophone to scroll through his contacts.

Misty and Viktor both stood up from the rubble watching V's eyes light up red as the holophone activated. "Who are you going to call?"

"Either of you ever meet Judy Alvarez? Choomba of mine from two years back?"

Both shook their heads. "What can she do here? She a farmer or something?" Viktor asked, skepticism returning to his voice.

"She's a BD editor…Ummm porn mostly. Or… was back when I knew her." V's eyes returned to normal as he stopped to think about the last conversation they had. "She tried to make Night City a better place in her own way too way back then… It didn't work out, people she loved got hurt, and she left town. When I woke up I called her. She's living in Pittsburg now, got a wife and everything…"

Misty's eyes softened at the thought of someone else from Night City getting out and finding a life for herself. "Good for her…" She said her voice trailing off.

V looked over at Misty and saw her lost in thought, probably imagining how things could have been had she convinced Jackie to delta out of town. "Yeah… unfortunately NC has nothing but bad memories for her now. She made that clear last we talked. Not sure how she'll respond to me asking her for help again like this. But if she does, she might have the tech that could put us on the fast track to learn what we need to get these seeds growing. Hell, she might have more than that too."

Just then a piece of glass broke as if it had been stepped on carelessly. Viktor, Misty and V's eyes snapped to alert and towards the direction of the sound, a broken window close to the entrance. Two teenage kids were peeping through the whole there as when they realized they were seen, a loud curse in Spanish could be heard.

"A la chingada!" came a young male voice.

"Vamos!" answered a female one.

V immediately dashed for the exit to try and head them off, but he could already hear their steps speeding away. When he cleared the doorway, he just made out the backs of their jackets as the two ran back through the bags of trash in alleyway. The two teens had images of Catholic saints on their backs. The girl had a dark skeletal woman with a scythe, and the boy had a man holding a large gold coin on his chest. V recognized both from Jackie's old Valentino stuff. The Santa Muerte, patroness of death and San Judas Tadeo, patron of lost causes.

Misty and Viktor caught up to V at the doorway and stopped on either side of him. "Valentinos kids" Misty said with worry in her tone. "Well… I guess this place is not going to be a secret to them anymore."

"There's no way they'd have any idea what we're trying to do." Viktor said, his eyes narrowed at the alleyway the kids disappeared through. "They could think we're just a bunch of bums looking through trash."

"Yeah, but there's a problem with that…" V said as he turned to Misty. "They must have seen your jacket, with the Valentino's logo on the back."

Misty's eyes widened and she pulled her boyfriend's old jacket tighter around herself instinctively. "They'll report up they chain that someone wearing their colors was back in here being suspicious and the rest of the gang will come looking to see what we're doing here."

V nodded grimly. "Looks like we're going to have to have that first conversation with the local boosters earlier than I would have liked…" V shook his head. It looks like he's got two tough phone calls to make already.