Location: Westbrook / Japantown, 1:40 PM
After arriving at the target location, V set his car in park and killed the engine. Reaching into the hidden compartment next to his right leg up against the shift column, V took out his customized 9mm Militech M-10AF Lexington x-MOD2 that Wilson had personally modified. The gunsmith had spent days tinkering with it, smoothing out what was already a relatively low-recoil iron into a true beast when used on full auto. The Lexington was reliable, durable, and high-capacity at a healthy twenty rounds in the mag. The only downside was the bitch rounds it was chambered for, making it V's everyday concealed carry, but not his primary iron to use when shit got heated. However, it was all he had today, and it had to be enough. The former Arasaka counterintelligence agent slid the magazine out and made sure that all twenty rounds were seated neatly within before slapping it back into the mag well and pulling the slide back to do a chamber check. He then pulled out an XC-10 Cetus silencer from the center console and screwed it onto the barrel. It paid off to be as sneaky as possible when doing a VIP rescue gig. Kill off the gangers quickly and quietly while making sure whoever it was you were rescuing didn't take a stray bullet in a chaotic gunfight. Lastly, he made sure his trusty Kanetsugu sight was still attached and properly aligned.
"Chick we're looking for's somewhere in this building," Jackie said. "Probably crawlin' with the pendejos that kidnapped her. Eyes and ears open, all right?"
V's best choom in the world, Jackie Welles, was a big man, sporting a huge 'ganic frame, and was an all-natural tough-as-nails bastard. Any chrome he installed only made him that much more formidable as a solo—a merc that was bred for fightin', whether it was with fists or trading lead. While most solos tended to have some kind of military experience with the implanted cybernetics to match, Jackie was a former Valentino—the primary gang of the southern district of Heywood in Night City. Jackie had learned his trade on the streets, and that worked just as well for any ex-military gonk with the added bonus of not having a stick up their asses. Jackie may not have served in a corp war, but gang wars were no less deadly and forced people to fight just as lethally and, in some ways, more creatively.
Having someone like Jackie backing him up was always encouraging on gigs. Still, the objective was a rescue, not a firefight, making this insurance one that V was really hoping not to count on.
Both men were sitting inside V's ride; she was a used but reliable Archer Hella EC-D i360 that V had managed to scrape together the scratch to purchase.
"Wakako give you any tips and tricks for the job?" V asked.
Jackie rolled his eyes. " 'I'm not your mother. Just do what I pay you for. It's easy work.' Sh'yeah…"
V scoffed. His personal guess was that they were about to go up against scavengers—scavs. They were a gang that didn't control any particular Night City district, but rather infected all of NC with their presence except in the most guarded or well-secured areas… mostly. They made their eddies by kidnapping unsuspecting gonks and tearing out their chrome to resell on the black market, though they could be lucratively creative in other sick ways. Street chrome was easy to get and cheap to sell, but corpo chrome was always in high demand, much like the VIP they were meant to rescue. V still sported his corpo chrome after T-Bug and Vik had managed to help him strip out the software protections that Arasaka had used to disable his hardware and re-enabled everything through black-market soft. Good thing, too, since he would have been targeted by scavvers otherwise.
Fuckin' ghouls.
"Let's do this," V said.
They got out of the car and started making their way through the underground parking lot to the elevator of the apartment complex.
The doors were already open and waiting for them, so they stepped inside and waited. Neither of them had the access card to get the box moving to the floor they wanted, but their invisible third partner had their backs.
"I got you boys," T-Bug announced via comms.
The elevator doors closed, and the display showed that they were on their way up to the fifteenth floor.
T-Bug was a preem-tier netrunner and one V often counted on even before he had 'retired' from Arasaka counterintel. They had met, by accident, during V's middling attempts to master the fine art of netrunning. Unlike the ice-tub or chair-reclining types of netrunners, V liked to go right for the subnet, rather than try an outside intrusion. However, it did mean that he needed to physically be onsite of wherever he was hacking. That methodology meant he also needed to learn the skills of a solo and a techie in order to break into places he wasn't meant to be in to scour the subnet. Despite how dangerous his choice of netrunning might be, it did afford the advantage of bypassing corpo Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics—ICE—and preventing his synapses from frying to a crisp.
When he had broken into Biotechnica's subnet—by infiltrating one of their office branches—he had found himself surprised to 'bump' into T-Bug in cyberspace, who had taken the risky option of remotely piercing corpo-ICE to reach the same destination as him.
Needless to say, they had stepped all over each other's toes, nearly botched their jobs, cursed each other out for getting in the way, and finished their respective gigs despite the hiccups. V had to save T-Bug by injecting a daemon right into the servers to temporarily shut down Biotechnica's ICE before it could fry her, and she had disabled the alarm to prevent any unwanted huscle from finding out V was ever in the building before they could replace certain parts of him with lead. Despite the auspicious circumstances of their first meet-cute, they had ended up becoming friends. It was an arrangement that continued to work to this day. In fact, V had even earned the rare honor of meeting T-Bug in realspace several times.
"Target's Sandra Dorsett. Target's biomon went mute a couple hours back. Suspected abduction," Bug said in her clipped and all-bizlike tone. It helped her to focus on the job at hand rather than let herself get distracted when she invariably started multi-tasking. "Target could've possibly flatlined already. Not sure you're in time."
"We're in time, Bug—we," Jackie replied. "Sure, you're on 'phones, but… that don't make you any less part of this squad."
" 'Squad.' Charming," T-Bug said drolly.
"Calm the hell down, both of you," V said. Thirteenth floor and climbing. "Almost there."
"Yeah, Bug. You focus," Jackie teased. He grinned at V.
T-Bug didn't stoop to Jackie's childish antics. It didn't matter anyway, because the doors opened to the floor they wanted at that moment. Jackie drew his pair of custom gold-plated, Tsunami-made .45 caliber Nue handguns—akimbo, as he preferred—and confidently led the way.
V pulled his Lexington from his small-of-the-back holster and followed close behind.
"Lookin' for twelve thirty-seven," Bug said. "Target should be inside, but I got zero eyes on her biomon."
It was further down the hall. The place looked like a lot of buildings in Night City: rusted, broken, with a high risk of tetanus… at least. It was a wonder that it was habitable.
"Fingers crossed it's not too late. Ugh, hate this life-or-death shit. Hurry."
"On it, Bug," V replied. A woman popped out of an apartment to his left, and he quickly waved her back inside.
"Twelve thirty-seven, right here," Jackie said quietly. "Locked, of course."
"Try hackin' the door. Think you can trip it on your own, V?" T-Bug asked.
"Question like that, you're gonna hurt my feelings, Bug," V answered confidently. He tapped into his cyberdeck—a basic Militech Paraline, which was all he could afford for now—and a millisec later, the door was open. "Go, go, go."
Jackie went in and looked around. "No guards. Guess they didn't expect anyone to find their hideout."
"Or it's the smell," V said, wrinkling his nose. "Decomp, for sure."
"Dios mío," Jackie murmured.
"Bug, you in their subnet?" V asked.
"Yep. Accessing the cams on their terminals," T-Bug answered. "Definitely scavs."
"At least Wako will be happy to know the Tyger Claws weren't involved," V muttered.
"Gonna need a few to count how many," Bug said.
With T-Bug in their subnet, whatever security or comms the scavs had were both disabled and masked, making the apartment completely isolated.
While V was talking to her, Jackie peered into the next room and growled. "Are we fuckin' late?! Is that her, is that our target, V?!"
V hissed at Jackie to stay quiet. He walked into the room and promptly shook his head. "The smell alone says she's been dead for a day. Remember, our target was nabbed a couple of hours ago. Besides, Sandra Dorsett's protected under echelon II corpo immunity. Our girl's top shelf… This one's packin' black-market Zetatech repros. Typical back-alley fix-ups. Not our lucky gal. Let's keep lookin'."
Jackie nodded and made his way to the other door.
V glanced once more at the dead girl—likely a joytoy—before moving up. He quietly opened the door and spotted a scav at the opposite end.
It was tempting to take the shot, but without knowing where Sandra Dorsett was, any firefight was likely to end her as much as save her. Plus, there were other tenants living in the building that weren't affiliated with the scavs. They didn't deserve to take any lead, either.
Instead, V holstered his Lexington and tensed his left forearm. His wrist-mounted monowire ejected out of its port, and he quickly seized the other end with his right hand, holding it like a garrote. Sneaking up to the unsuspecting gangoon, V quickly brought the monowire over his victim's head, wrapped it tightly around the neck, and pulled. The cutting edge of the wire dug deep into flesh and chrome, cooking and sizzling both. Any attempt to scream was nothing but a fairytale wish, while the heat the wire generated cauterized the wound. All in all, a silent kill with almost no mess whatsoever; the downside was the vomit-inducing smell that lingered in the air.
With the scav dead, V lowered the body quietly and gave Jackie a single nod.
"So, I'm countin' at least six in the rooms ahead," T-Bug said. "But no sign of our target."
"Got it," V replied quietly. "We're moving to clear. Keep the rest off our asses."
"Doors and elevators are locked. No chance you'll get unexpected company."
Creeping down the hall, both men huddled together and considered their next move. Six inside the room, spacious as it may have been, meant a fight would break out no matter what they did. They tensed when they heard the scavs talking about Sandra's preem corpo implants, but grew even more concerned when the voices grew louder. They raised their iron and prepared to take the scavvers down.
The gangoons didn't see them. They rounded the corner and went down the hall, oblivious to the two intruders tucked in a corner.
V and Jackie quickly stalked them.
Once again, V took out one ganger with his monowire. Nearby, he could hear Jackie savagely snap the other's neck.
Three left in the next room. Fortunately, none of them were interested in something as boring and mundane as a hall. Not when they thought they were safe. V took out the one closest before moving on to his next potential victim. Jackie crept towards the last. On an unspoken signal, both men were able to drop their targets quietly.
One left.
Scav was a big one, too, likely modified with all manner of street tech.
Let's hope it's all brawn and no brains.
Tapping into his cyberdeck, V remotely caused a nearby terminal to go on the fritz. As he had hoped, the scav turned to look. V was quick to capitalize, darted into the room, wrapped the monowire around the neck, and pulled. This time, there was no restraint, and the head came clean off before the gangoon had a chance to make a sound.
"Don't see any movement on the sensors. Looks like you got 'im. You're clear to go," T-Bug announced.
"Shit, where the hell's our target?!" V asked. He couldn't smell any corpses, but that didn't mean Sandra was alive, either.
"Look around, gotta be there somewhere," she answered urgently.
"Guau, ese. Flat out doubted we could be that sneaky," Jackie muttered. "Well, that's not my favorite way to roll, but… nova anyway."
"I'm used to it," V replied. He looked around the room before discarding the idea that Sandra was there. There was enough tech and camera access for Bug to see. "Wherever our girl is, she has to be someplace where Bug can't see her."
"Bathroom?" Jackie suggested. He pointed at a closed door in the next room.
V quickly opened it and peered inside. "Jesus fuckin' Christ…"
Jackie's idea was right on the money. Scavvers had turned the bathroom into a makeshift morgue to preserve the bodies. It was cold, the AC cranked up to the max, and the tub in the corner was filled with ice… and bodies.
Approaching the tub, V instantly clocked two inside, a man—long since dead—and most importantly, a woman.
Pushing the man's body aside, V sat on the edge of the tub and pulled the naked woman up and out of the frigid water. A quick check of her pulse and mouth showed she was still beatin' and breathin'.
"Think I got her. Got our target," V said. He pried open an eyelid and saw that her iris was glowing blue, indicating that she was attempting to holo someone, but it wasn't connecting. It was a good sign, showing that her chrome was still functioning, at least, and still in connection with her skull sponge.
"We make it? She alive?"
"For now," V muttered. Sandra was ice-cold and non-responsive.
"This does not look good…" Jackie said.
"V, jack into her biomon. Need to know what we're dealin' with," Bug ordered.
"Jackin' in," V said.
Extending his left wrist and ejecting his Personal Link hidden at the base of his hand, he pulled out the wire and connected directly into Sandra's neuroport. His visual HUD showed a quick progression bar before he gained access to Sandra's MedTech biomonitor and quickly read out the relevant information.
"Sandra Dorsett. NC570442. Trauma Team Platinum," V said.
"Platinum? Shit, Trauma shoulda swooped in if she sneezed," Jackie replied.
V had to agree. Trauma Team specialized in both rapid recovery and aggressive protection in under seven minutes of getting a call. Swooping in with a Zetatech Atlus aerodyne armed with heavy machine gun turrets, a team of military-trained medics armed to the gills, and enough tech, meds, and drugs to pull someone from the brink, Sandra should have been safe from scavs the moment they'd laid hands on her.
Realizing something, V started checking her outgoing and ongoing attempt to buzz someone. As he'd suspected, her TT Platinum package in her biomon was trying to get a signal out, but it kept spitting out errors, either failing to establish comms or relaying a GPS signal.
"Guessin' they jammed the transmitter sig," Bug said. "Lookin' at a hacked biomon, firmware reconfig, or a neurovirus…"
"Carajo, T-Bug! You ain't seein' this place," Jackie grumbled. "This is tubs, ice, hooks, and cleavers."
V scoffed at all of her ideas. "Giving the scavs way too much credit, Bug. You're overthinking the problem."
"Hmm… Scopmuncher's hack, huh," T-Bug muttered. "Got an idea. Check her neuroport. Find a shard? Yeah, pull it—that'll be what's muting the biomon."
"Low-tech, that sounds more like it," V said. He adjusted his grip on Sandra and spotted the culprit right behind her right ear. "Found the shard. Removing now."
"Check the biomon. Anything change?"
After tossing the shard away, V could hear the biomon attempting to communicate with Sandra. "Greetings, Sandra. If you are conscious, assume recovery position now."
The TT window reappeared. GPS and SOS were both sent and received.
"An emergency evacuation unit has been dispatched and is due to arrive at your location in 180 seconds," the biomon said.
"Biomon claims Trauma'll be here in three minutes," V said.
"Good, let them take her off our hands. Saves us the stress," Jackie replied. "Ay, pobrecita. Let's get her off that ice."
"Your premium plan will cover 90% of the projected costs of your rescue and treatment," the biomon added.
Not to mention our fees, too.
"Jack, look sharp, not done yet," V ordered. "Don't know who's out there."
Jackie held his position at the doorway, guns drawn. "Locked an' ready, hermano. Do your thing."
Flexing his fist, V disconnected his personal link and hooked his arms beneath their target. As he was lifting her out of the tub, Sandra began convulsing.
"Aw, fuck!" he shouted. He quickly brought her down onto the tiled floor so he wouldn't accidentally drop her.
"She's flatlinin'!" Jackie exclaimed.
"V, need to know what's goin' on!" Bug said.
V ignored her and turned to his choom. "Jackie, airhypo! Fuck, this is bad!"
"Ey, catch, vato!"
Jackie tossed the hypodermic to him. V caught it and jabbed the business end right into Sandra's heart. She promptly took a shuddering but deep breath. Her convulsions stopped not too long after. A quick check showed she was still fighting.
"I think…! Holy shit, it worked!" V said, relieved.
"Fuera, cabrón. Get her outside!" Jackie replied.
"Exterior cams showing the scavs are loadin' up and drivin' off as fast as they can," Bug said. "Looks like you're in the clear."
"Hmm… Scavrats abandoning ship. Musta seen Trauma, decided to cut their losses," Jackie replied.
"Well, if Trauma is coming, badges usually aren't far behind," V said. He adjusted his grip on the naked woman in his arms. "Least this saves us a trip."
"And finishes the job."
V stayed inside the apartment until he could finally hear the siren wails of TT arriving.
"They're here, finally," Jackie said. "Fuera, get 'er out! Terrace."
Nodding, V carefully carried Sandra outside to the terrace while Jackie remained hidden out of sight just within the doorway.
The AV started blaring out its automated message as it hovered next to the ledge. "Landing, stand clear! Initiating security protocol. Follow all instructions."
A four-man team quickly exited the AV. Two of them were armed with SMGs, while the other two had pistols. Their iron was all pointed at V—and unless they were crack marksmen, Sandra as well. One of them deployed a stretcher on the ground.
"Place the patient on the ground!" he ordered.
"Yeah, yeah, I got it," V said. He carefully placed her on the stretcher. "Careful with what you give her. She was flatlinin', and I had to give her an airhypo. One shot, standard dose."
One of the medics promptly pushed V away. "Acknowledged. One standard dose of air hypodermic. Stay back!"
"Five steps back. Now," one of the medics/soldiers ordered.
V kept his face impassive and tried not to take the rough treatment personally. TT guys were deployed to hotspots all the time, fighting to keep patients alive under fire, and doing it all under a massive time crunch. He could afford to let it slide.
Keeping his distance and his hands empty to ensure the two medics with the iron wouldn't have a reason to shoot him—and giving Jackie a reason to pop out and shoot back—the other two medics on the ground started to administer emergency care to Sandra. Once she was stable, they picked up the stretcher and took her into the AV. The two medics with bigger guns kept their iron trained on V as they shuffled back until they entered the AV last.
With the 'standoff' over, V exhaled and glanced back at Jackie.
"Time to delta," Jackie said.
"Good work. Shitshow's over," T-Bug added. "Unlockin' doors and elevators for you. Cuttin' my wires now. See ya in the near future."
V was about to question what she meant by that last part when he received a system message.
System Malfunction
Groaning slightly, he dismissed the notification while T-Bug disconnected. He avoided looking at the bathroom and the body within or the joytoy that had been in the process of being gutted—likely put on pause when Sandra had been brought in.
"Place creeps me out," V muttered. "I mean, we just saved one… leaving all the others to glare at our black, worthless souls…"
"Whoa, vato, that's kinda bleak," Jackie said. "We didn't kill them, the scavs did. Saving one is plenty. You ain't out to save the city, so you gotta take your wins when you can, eh?"
"Sure, Jack."
"You gotta blow off some steam. You gonna be around tomorrow?"
"Guess so. Where else would I be?"
Jackie looked over his shoulder and frowned at V. "Still working like a corporat. Thought you would have mellowed out a bit by now."
"It's probably the reason I'm still alive," V retorted.
"I worry about you, hermano," Jackie said. "You know, you gotta let yourself go sometimes, live a little! If you do go on a bender, don't go too dark, eh? We got a good thing goin' here, you an' me."
They entered the hallway and proceeded to the elevator.
"See Misty's bein' a positive influence on you," V replied, half-joking, half-serious.
Jackie perked up. "Oh, speaking of Misty, listen, mano, I got this thing. Mind if I borrow your wheels?"
Once they were in the elevator, V leaned back against the side opposite to Jackie and pretended to think about it. "Hmm…"
"I got a date with Misty, but… heh, I can't take the metro! How's that gonna look for me?" Jackie asked.
"Won't leave you hangin', Jack," V answered before smirking. "But don't get used to it."
Jackie grinned. "Ah, savin' my ass, V. Thank you. How about I drive you home, eh?"
"She's all yours. I'm beat as it is."
"Oh, almost forgot. Should get Wakako on the holo—tell her the job's done," Jackie said.
V nodded and buzzed Wakako Okada, the fixer of Westbrook who was somehow well respected and deeply feared at the same time.
"Ahem! V? How did it go? Our client is alive and well?" the old woman asked in her clipped, no-nonsense tone.
Jackie hit the button for the parking garage.
" 'Course she's alive and well. That's what we agreed, isn't it?" V asked, feigning a mix of being affronted by her question and self-assured confidence.
"Splendid. Closing the contract and releasing your payment," Wakako said. "I suppose home is the only place you wish to be now. The NCPD has surrounded Watson. The district is closed. If you are to make it past the cordon, you must move fast."
That casual statement was a perfect example of Wakako's charm and source of fear. She may act like a concerned grandmother, but lower your guard around her, and she would slip a dagger right between your ribs.
"Thanks for the heads-up. See you when we see you, then," V replied before hanging up. At Jackie's curious look, V said, "Word's out the NCPD's gonna put Watson on lockdown. If I'm gonna sleep in my own bed tonight, we better put it in fifth."
Jackie nodded. "Leave it to me, mano. I'm drivin'."
"And I'm supposed to feel relieved?"
"Kiss my ass, puta."
~o~O~o~
Location: Westbrook / Japantown, 9:00 PM
The Hella cruised through Japantown heading north to the eastbound bridge that would take them into Watson. V stared out the window, letting the jitters from their gig drain out of his body. He momentarily reflected on Jackie's words and decided his choom was right. Sure, they couldn't save everyone, but they had managed to save one, and that counted for something. Just as importantly, there were fewer scavvers preying in NC, so that was another win he could take.
Jackie clicked on the radio, and 101.9 The Dirge started playing Kyubik's 'GR4VES'. The Heywood boy immediately started tapping his hands against the wheel to the beat.
Then, out of the blue, he said, "Can't stop diggin' Night City."
"City like any other. Just bigger," V noncommittedly replied.
"Nah, mano. Not just any other city," Jackie said. "Morgan Blackhand, Andrew Weyland, Adam Smasher. Legends are born here."
V finally looked away from the window to face him and skeptically asked, "Aren't they all dead?"
"But not forgotten," Jackie replied in a 'sagely' tone, causing V to scoff and look back out the window again. "Man, I'm starvin'. Let's grab a tight-bite. Whaddaya say?"
V sighed. "Jackie, they're locking down Watson, 'member?"
"Ah, shit. You're right…"
The way Jackie trailed off caused V to look back at him. Jackie was staring intently at the rearview mirror.
"Is it just me, or…" Jackie muttered.
V looked over his shoulder and spotted a pair of headlights changing lanes to the right of them. It was a little past nine PM by now, so it was hard to see what it was. When the van—a nondescript white-paneled Villefort Columbus—pulled up next to them, V tensed up. It was driving beside them now, not trying to overtake them just yet.
"Agh, fuckin' knew it! Van on our ass—tailin' us," Jackie muttered. "Chingado. I don't like this, V. Not one tiny bit."
V drew his Lexington. "Slow down, let them go ahead of us."
Jackie did so. His hands were gripping the steering wheel tightly. V rolled down his window.
The van abruptly changed lanes to cut them off. The back doors opened, and there were two armed gangoons taking aim.
"Scavs! ¡Hijos de puta!" Jackie shouted.
V had already taken aim and flicked the firing switch to full-auto while the scavs started spraying lead. One scav was riddled with holes and fell into the van. By some strange stroke of luck, his rifle continued to go off and killed his choom, too. That body fell out of the van, and Jackie inevitably ran over it. The van promptly accelerated.
Wrapping the seatbelt around his left arm to keep himself steady, V crawled out of the window until he was seated on top of the door. "Fuckin' drive, Jackie!"
The van swerved and made a hard right.
Jackie followed in hot pursuit. "Come on, V, shoot!"
The turn forced V to clutch the seatbelt so he wouldn't get thrown out of the Hella. "Can't! Keep her steady!"
The moment they were roaring down a straightaway, V started shooting again, hoping to tag the driver, but the way it was moving, the bumps in the road, other cars, and pedestrians, everything served to spoil his aim.
A reckless car made a turn in front of the van. Dumb gonk nearly got himself flatlined, but the van swerved left. Jackie spotted the incoming danger and jerked the wheel to the right.
"Hold tight, V!" Jackie yelled.
Gripping the seatbelt and taking his finger off the trig, V grunted when his chest met the car's roof as he tried desperately not to be thrown off. The Hella managed to avoid collision, but Jackie had to drive onto the sidewalk. He narrowly avoided splattering a woman that dove out of the way.
"Holy fuck!"
"¡Mierda, perdón!"
Whatever side street the van had driven on, it managed to find its way back to the Hella. Jackie swerved away to avoid colliding, but it was close enough that V took aim and waited until he could spot the wheelman.
The side door of the van opened this time. V turned his iron and zero'd the scav before he could shoot Jackie.
"Got you, assholes!" Jackie shouted.
The new opening afforded V the opportunity to sink lead into the wheelman's skull sponge. The van swerved and crashed into a light post while the Hella left it in its rearview mirror.
Sighing in relief, V slid back into the passenger's seat and swapped mags. He spotted the bullet holes in his windshield and growled.
He did not want to know what the rest of his ride looked like.
Jackie glanced at the damage and winced. "Scratched your baby up pretty bad. Sorry, V."
"It's okay, it can wait. Let's just focus on gettin' home," V muttered.
Despite the furious car chase and exchange of lead, no badges were chasing them. Jackie made the turn toward the bridge that would take them back to Watson, NC's northernmost district.
They had only gotten about three quarters of the way when they spotted the cordon, and it was bigger than they had thought. Concrete rails, a Militech Minotaur, and a pair of Chevillon Emperor 720 NCPD Ironclads were all blocking the way in. And just as importantly, ensuring that whoever they were after couldn't get out.
"Damn. They're pullin' out all the stops," Jackie muttered.
V nodded. "Mhm."
They pulled up slowly. Either they'd get lucky and be let in, or V would have to get to bed in a couple of hours when they drove all the way down south to Heywood and to Mamá Welles's place.
~o~O~o~
Location: Watson / Chinatown, 10:00 PM
Jackie rolled down his window as he brought the Hella to a halt next to a badge. She walked up to the driver's-side window.
"Watson's on lockdown till further notice," the badge said. "Necessary security measure."
"Officer, ma'am! Damn are we ever lucky we ran into you," Jackie said, smiling widely.
"Really… What's it that makes me so special?" she asked skeptically.
V tuned out the convo when his biomonitor spat out another warning; same error message as before. He frowned when his vision spazzed out a bit.
System Malfunction
Fuck, hope I didn't get spiked with something.
Only way to get past his personal ICE was through his personal link. And the last thing he'd jacked into was—
Sandra Dorsett. After she was spiked by the scavs. Damn shard must have had a neurovirus on it to prevent her from calling for help, too.
"I mean, I'm tryin' to be a stand-up guy. She's giving me a chance, waiting," Jackie pleaded.
"Stand-up guy, huh?" the badge asked skeptically. She lifted her shades to inspect the new bullet holes on V's Archer Hella.
Dismissing the message and seeing her clearly, V blinked when recognition came to him. He lowered his head and asked, "Chang? Is that you?"
Chang looked startled and dipped her head lower to see into the passenger's side. "V? What are you doing—oh, on a job, huh?"
"Well, the cracked windshield wasn't a design choice," V muttered. "Scav haunt. All sorted out."
"Hunting?"
"Saving and saved, actually. Your Japantown chooms still have work to do with the other victims, though."
Chang nodded and looked speculative. "On your way home, then?"
"Pretty beat," V answered. "Life-and-death gigs get pretty tense. You sorta pucker up the entire way. You know what I'm talking about."
"I do indeed," Chang said. She glanced at both men before coming to a decision. She turned to the other badges and waved at them. "Let them through. But they're the last."
V sighed. "Thanks, Chang."
"Take care, V," Chang said. "Your choom, too. On your way."
Jackie looked at V curiously before smiling widely at Chang. "You have a good evening now, Officer Chang."
Chang laughed and rapped her knuckles on the car before gesturing Jackie to burn some CHOOH2.
Once they had gotten some distance, Jackie asked his burning question: "You know that badge?"
"Hmm, just helped her and her choombas once when Tygers started sending lead at them outside my megabuilding. The badges walked away, the Claws not so much," V answered. "Didn't even charge 'em. She was thankful enough."
Whatever further questions Jackie had were put on hold when they spotted an NCPD Militech Manticore aerodyne swoop in from the sky, stopping to hover above an intersection.
"… Check it out, V. Shit's goin' down," Jackie whispered.
Three gangers were attempting to carjack some poor gonk's ride. When the Manticore showed up, they panicked and started shooting wildly at it.
"Doesn't look like your average bust…" V commented.
Two well-armored and well-armed badges jumped from the AV, landed, and started swapping lead with the gangers fearlessly. Two gonks went down immediately, while one staggered back behind the car.
" 'Cause they ain't your average badges," Jackie said grimly. "That's MaxTac—NCPD's apex predators."
They were living up to their rep. The last ganger tried to get up, but one badge armed with a high-caliber revolver merely took slow, measured steps closer and blew giant holes in the gonk's chest.
"MTac rolls in when things fly outta hand," Jackie added. "Gonks out there, though, just a midday snack for 'em."
"Makes you wonder why NCPD is locking down Watson, calling in MaxTac on top of that," V murmured. "It's not just for some kind of cyberpsycho, is it?"
"Might be worse; might be a cyberpsycho serial killer," Jackie teased. "Sure you want to go home?"
"Fuck you, choom."
The AV came in for a landing. One of the MaxTac badges spotted their Hella just chillin' there and ordered them to drive on.
"Welp, show's over. Poor bastards… but they had it comin'," Jackie said. He turned the car right and drove northbound.
V's megatower was minutes away. Once again, he felt the exhaustion creep into his muscles, and he resisted the urge to yawn.
"Made it. Almost at your place," Jackie announced. He drove into the adjacent parking structure.
"What about you? Not likely to make it back to Heywood now…" V said.
"Chill, V. They'll let me through."
"Sure about that?"
"Oh, yeah. I'll play nice Jackie again."
"So you can be nice when you feel like it," V said in mock surprise.
"When am I not nice?" Jackie asked, affronted.
"Um… always?"
Jackie scowled. "I'm always never not nice."
Impressed that Jackie had gotten the double negative correct, V grinned and stepped out of the Hella once it was parked.
"Sweet dreams, then," Jackie said.
V slapped hands and bumped fists with him. "Tell Misty I said, 'Hi'."
"I will. Ahí luego."
Letting Jackie speed off with his wheels, V wearily walked up to the elevator and ascended to his floor. Once inside his apartment, V left his Lexington on top of the coffee table, threw his clothes haphazardly onto the floor, and took a shower. His mind wandered a bit as the water sluiced down his body.
For some reason, he ended up reminiscing about the major milestones in his life. An orphaned kid that had gotten lucky enough to be picked up by some nomads in the Badlands. Wandering the streets of Night City as a teenager, only to get selected to attend Arasaka Academy because he had managed to impress the right suit. He'd managed to demonstrate to all the corpo-nepo babies that he was better than them by graduating with top honors and getting shunted right into Arasaka at nineteen years young. V had spent the next four years navigating the cutthroat corporate world, made even more dangerous by displaying the right aptitude for counterintel, where he had spent two years working under his sponsor, Arthur Jenkins. His star had been on the rise, only for all of that to come crashing down when Jenkins had aimed for heights he couldn't reach and ensured that V went burning down with him.
Now twenty-three, the events of the previous half year almost felt like a blur yet remained crystal clear.
Jackie inviting him to stay with him and Mamá Welles at Casa de Welles in Heywood. Taking on some gigs for Heywood's fixer, Padre Sebastian Ibarra. Scraping together the eddies to do more than just survive…
Of the two, V was the one that was savvy with eddies and knew how to invest and utilize alternative means to generate income besides gigs thanks to his stint in the corporate world as a corporat. Armed with that knowledge, on top of the cold hard cash V had taken from his former boss, Arthur Jenkins, as startup capital, V had been able to restart his life when his career had come crashing down.
If only the Bakkers could see me now.
In a few short months, with plenty of help from Jackie and Mamá Welles, V had managed to land on his feet quickly, unlock his corpo chrome, and purchase reliable weapons, a decent car, and an apartment inside a megabuilding.
Since then, he and Jackie had been dead set on trying to make their marks as mercs in Night City.
When he felt better, cleaner, V shut off the shower and dried himself off. Walking up to the bathroom mirror, he quickly inspected his appearance.
He was pale—living in the corporate world could do that to someone—standing at a natural 6′ 1″. His dark hair was cropped short, faded tight at the sides to ensure ease of care and low maintenance. There were a few days of stubble on his jaw that gave him just enough edge to pass for a merc, given his youthful age. His heterochromatic 'ganic eyes—one blue, one green—stood out against the sharpness of his features, a natural mismatch he'd gotten used to people commenting on. No implants there just yet, only the usual neuroports tucked behind his ears.
Ever since parting ways with his previous life and entering merc work, he'd started hitting the gym nearby in his megabuilding. He wasn't as big as Jackie, but he'd managed to develop some 'ganic muscle. It would have to do until he could afford some preem chrome to help elevate his rep in this new cutthroat world he'd decided to try.
Once again, exhaustion made itself known with a vengeance, ending his introspection. Yawning widely and walking around his apartment naked, he crawled into bed and fell into a deep REM.
~o~O~o~
Author's Notes:
For any that are interested, here are the sliders for my V:
Skin Type – 01
Hair – 01
Color – Black
Eyes – 01
Color – Blue and green
Mod: Heterochromia
Brows – 05
Color – Black
Nose – 7
Mouth – 01
Jaw – 11
Ears – 7
Beard – 01
Mod: Now That's What I Call Stubble - Dark