\+/ Tales From Night City \+/ Chapter 75 - Is This Me
The dilated pupil of Zaunya's eye, in full focus, stares deeply at itself in the mirror. The various softened footsteps on carpeted floor is heard outside the door as Audrey and BugBear chat and move about the hideout. The focus on Zaunya's pupil slowly zooms out… revealing her beautiful emerald green eyes.
The zoom out finishes… for the first time, revealing Zaunya dressed in traditional Night City street clothes… staring at herself in the mirror. Her long, jet black hair was braided up in a stylish fashion… her vibrant colored clothes really dripped with confidence and the perfect amount of skin showing… her calf-high boots complimented her long, and otherwise bare legs… her make-up was perfect. This looks nothing like the Zaunya we've grown to know… a person in the mirror unrecognizable to not only us… but even herself. She stares at the mirror in a slight trance… she can't help but carry the feeling that shes wearing a disguise at best and at worst a fucking costume. She's of course…. as beautiful as ever…. But she struggles…. unable to see it. Almost as if her beauty is something she never really understood… as far as she understands… its only ever been a curse.
As Zaunya stares at herself in the mirror, BugBear and Audrey's laughs, along with the mellow house music playing becomes muffled as she recalls a memory of the prior night's events:
BugBear somewhere deep in the city shoves a corpo suit hard onto a couch.. knocking the wind out of him. Dressed in an incredibly sexy and revealing outfit she jumps on top of his thighs straddling him. As they begin to kiss, he's overwhelmed by the intense, spontaneous engagement causing him to pull away. He looks up at her sexy, alluring body as she looks down at him with a smile, recognizing the nervousness on his face.
"Mmm.. Whats wrong babe? Never picked up a local Night City girl before?" She seductively says as she grinds on him and plays with his hair.
"N-no!- uh, uhm! I- i mean y-yeah!" He says nerviously before quickly glancing past Bear's body on top of him at his drink on the table. He quickly reaches past her and slams his nearly full glass of liquor in an attempt to calm himself.
She giggles "Aww.. don't be nervous baby… you don't gotta worry…. I don't bite… unless you ASK me to." She whispers through her teeth as she rips open his dress shirt exposing his chest and causing him to gasp.
=Yeeowza… Buggie's really going for it isn't she.= Audrey giggles to Zaunya over comms.
=tch.. you'd think she was Petro spec-opps being this thorough. Though shes never really been one to half ass a job. I don't need to remind you about that Biotechnica thing from back in the day do I?= Zaunya replies as you see her hidden in the shadows of a PetroChem facility somewhere deep in the city with her back against a wall. She occasionally peeks out checking her surroundings for patrolling security.
=god.. how can I forget. Still gives me the chills everytime I think about what she did to that runner. Corpo special agent ice cracks hard once it finally gives… Some of those sounds are pretty unforgettable.=
The corpo quickly tries to sit up but BugBear shoves him back into the couch hard while still on top and kissing him.
=I… kinda want to say she seems…. distant…? But honestly shes pretty focused these days… i guess maybe a little too focused. She even got the deets to the Choo2 warehouse you're in pretty damn quickly considering how many of them PetroChem has… hm… Haven't really payed enough attention honestly leading up to this thing.=
=Hmm.. might be shutting something out… avoiding something. You know how she gets. Runners gonna run after all... You should probably talk to her about it.=
=Uhhmm.. me?"
=Uhhmm, yeah? I mean.. I know we call her mama bear every now and then… but you know you've been the maternal hand we've both held onto over the years.=
=Yeah, sure…. right.=
=But seriously Audrey... after this is over… talk to her… please…. I'm starting to get worried.=
=I guess… yeah… Roger that=
BugBear moans loud in ecstasy as she snaps her head back, looking up at the ceiling while grinding on him. The corpo suit watches her overwhelmed before his vision begins to blur. As his grip on her hips loosens and his eyelids become heavy BugBear leans in and whispers in his ear with her eyes closed.
"aww, cmon' baby… please don't fall asleep on meee…. not yyehht." She says as he loses control of his head and begins to pass out.
"Pleeaasse…." She whispers again in his ear while opening and revealing her red eyes as she begins to run a jammer. The corpo conks out with his dress shirt ripped open while sunken into the couch. BugBear promptly hops off of him and walks over to the front door and slides it open. Audrey stood casually waiting there with her back up against the wall promptly walks in. BugBear hands Audrey back a small medical container she used to spike the corpos drink as they both make their way over to him passed out on the couch. The ladies both struggle to carry the corpo over to the bathroom before thumping him down onto the linoleum hard as he lands on the back of his head. The impact of the chrome in his head meets the floor of the bathroom with a loud clunk.
"Fat fuck…" Audrey mutters through her teeth before she walks over to a terminal they have setup and tosses a chair out into the living room they had prepared for him but no longer need. As she sets up, she looks over and sees BugBear stripping naked.. hesitant to speak.
"Still uhm... haven't told me why you didn't wanna use your jumpsuit?"
BugBear doesn't respond as she finishes removing her clothes and takes a deep breath… she steps into the bathtub filled with ice.
"Bear.." Audrey says uneasy in a tone of disappointment… wanting an answer badly in hopes of getting at least some insight... knowing she wasn't likely to.
"Don't unplug me until I ping you." BugBear responds in a dead tone as she lays down into the bathtub. The ice clinks together along with the light sloshing of the water as she settles into the quiet bathroom. As she stares up at the cieling in a trance... deep thoughts heavy on her mind... the words pull themselves out of her.
"Audrey.." She says in a soft, tranced tone.
"Yeah babe?" Audrey quickly says in a hopeful tone turning around to look at her over her shoulder.
BugBear doesn't respond...
BugBear's state of mind has had a shift since we've last seen her. Although uncertain of why.. the ladies find themselves in both a pressing and precarious situation having been on a serious run of events leading up to this moment. There's simply no time for it. BugBear takes another deep breath while looking up at the ceiling. Audrey jack's the unconscious corpo into the central terminal before walking over and crouching next to BugBear in the tub. She firmly kisses BugBear's forehead as they exchange a look of determination with each other in the eyes... sharing a moment. BugBear nods before Audrey jacks her in.. causing her body to momentarily tense up before relaxing with the back of her head dangling limp slightly over the edge of the head of the tub.
=Jammer's down Zaunya.. Timers on. Move your ass. Now!=
=Copy.= She responds before leaving cover headed deeper into the facility. As she maintains a light jogging pace she glances around at the various cameras Bear took the time to shut off. She abruptly slams into a corpo security guard turning a corner making them grunt and sending the two of them to the ground with a hard thud. The weight of Zaunya's chromed body crushes his pelvis... pinning the guard underneath her as she instinctually presses her forearm to his throat before covering his mouth… silently suffocating him and attempting to crush his wind pipe. After a frantic struggle, his body goes limp and his vision fades as the last thing he sees is her masked face. She then drags his body into an open storage container before closing the lid.
She uses the guard's access card to enter a sliding door, deeper into the well lit warehouse. She enters a large room filled with various equipment used for Choo2 production and distribution. This gives her pause after thinking back to the warehouse her and Brian hit... as her mind quickly flashes a memory of the expression Brian had on his face when she pointed her iron toward him. She recalls the neon glowing green choo in those special barrels and cannisters from back at the original warehouse.. being sure to note seeing no signs of it. She continues through various doorways with the guards access card barely avoiding detection frantically in search.
BugBear's pink avatar, deep in the corpo's neural network is seen traversing various databanks and stored memories present throughout his subconscious. After some time, she locates the memory bank storing the information they're after. Shes met with a PetroChem ice wall... it whofted with a smoky yellow hue towering over her and causing her to take a few steps back. She immediately begins to hack it as her hyperstylised runner interface begins to quickly flow with code and whimsical animations.
Audrey paces back and forth antsy with her arms crossed. The anxiety in her stomach grabs ahold of her tightly as she occasionally glances out of the window in the living room. She re-enters the bathroom to check on Bear, seeing the corpo layed unconscious with the occasional twitch from muscle reflex. Suddenly, she glances at the corpos wet, twitching neck and sees his blue blinking S.O.S shard begin to blink green in his neuroport. "Shit.." She whispers to herself through her teeth causing her to rush back into the living room and look out the window again in all directions. She then glances back into the bathroom. "Come on Buggie…" She whispers to herself again.
After dispatching several more guards Zaunya finds herself in a research office of the warehouse clearing the room efficiently. She sees countless schematics… blueprints… tools that didn't look to have any car or machinery use. She sees months of research and work cascaded about involving the use and creation of Choo2.. nothing out of the ordinary. In all her years spent amongst corpos, she knows 'ordinary' tends to always be an obnoxious afront with them. She uses her custom Kiroshis to scan the room, briefly turning them golden yellow offering her vision able to spot even the highest qualities of active camo. Her scan picks up the outline of a hidden door frame behind shelving. She quietly lifts the shelving out of the way just enough for her to slip past. She tries to use the access card but gets an invalid beep on the door.
= Found it!= She shouts through comms to Audrey.
Audrey finishes injecting another heavy dose of anaesthetic into the rat before rushing back over to the window. She looks down and sees 2 unmarked corpo SUVs pull up and park in front of the building alongside the sounds of an approaching Trauma Team AV.
Audrey's adrenaline starts to surge as she feels the walls of the room slowly begin closing in. She rushes back into the bathroom, falls to her knees and cradles BugBear's unconscious head with her open red eyes flowing with code. "Come on babe!… PLEASE!" Audrey frantically shouts cracking her voice.
BugBear hears the feint, muffled sounds of Audrey's panicked voice in cyberspace but remains completely detached… in deep focus in front of the yellow hued, towering Petro ice wall.
"Come on girl… relax… relax…" BugBear whispers to herself in an experienced tone focusing on the task at hand... finishing the hack and cracking the ice.
She outstretches her arms in front of her... crossing them over one another with the palms of her hands facing the cracked ice wall. With an intense look of focus on her face she slowly moves her hands in a circular motion counter-clockwise while straining hard and gritting her teeth. The wall gradually cracks open slowly down the center to the slow, circular motion of her hands before she violently gestures ripping it open like double doors... Her eyes open wide at the sight.
Zaunya waiting restless at the hidden door with her adrenaline surging decides to try and use the access card again to open the door… An extremely loud siren goes off causing her to flinch with her eyes wide open. "Shit!" She shouts through her teeth before looking back into the warehouse and hearing the sounds of shouts and heavy footsteps approaching from all angles. She draws her iron, and presses her back against the sealed hidden door... ready for a fight.
BugBear looks on at this spattering of files, code and well documented information in the quiet voids of a neural network seeing almost an endless stream of seemingly random stored memories... some only 1 to 2 seconds long. She opens the first file at the top of the stack containing a message and nothing else. The message popped up in large roman styled lettering covering the various data almost like a lock screen.
BugBear reads the message to herself under her breath in full focus….
"The blood that's spilled... often filled with sorrow.
The suffering of those not likely to see tomorrow.
The traumas of a past we can't yet make.
Souls in a prison… lies thought fake.
The pain of those we do indeed tax…
Slowly melting away… like candle wax.
Boundless energy derived from resistance…
Gradual ascension to an absolute existence.
4796049"
The tips of BugBear's fingers glow neon yellow before she touches the message with her hand and swipes it out of the way. She then immediately jacks in to a virtual port attached to the data and begins to rip it as her virtual eyes begin to flow rapidly with code.. bypassing various spoofing and encryption. A timer is triggered as a result of her jacking in.. beginning a 10 second countdown.
Zaunya with her iron trained on the door leading into her room receives a text from Bear that pops up on her interface immediately. The text contains the number sequence she found and nothing more. Zaunya immediately turns around and enters the series of numbers. 4796049
The door slides open and Zaunya enters a small room no bigger than the size of a closet. Confused at the sight… she looks on at a messy gathering of photos, printed bio-monitor data and piles of datashards scattered about. There were various maps and schematics of various districts, apartment complexes and commonly frequented civilian businesses around Night City. Amongst the countless headshots of unknown people tacked to a wall sat one posted higher than them all…. Almost as if sitting at the top of an information pyramid. The woman in the photo looked no different than anyone else you'd come across in NC. Just another face among a sea of them you may happen by on any given day. The photo of this woman was also the only photo that carried a name underneath it.
"Marsalla DeNarsee..?" She whispers to herself confused while gazing directly into the woman's eyes in the photo. Not seeing anything of note about her. Zaunya starts to swipe as many datashards as she can from the table while glancing at documents and recording with her Kiroshis.
Audrey hears the sound of loud pounding on the door causing her to gasp and look back over her shoulder at the entrance in a panic.
"Mr. SILVER! MR. SILVER! CAN YOU HEAR ME!? SIR!?" A loud booming voice screams on the other side of the door before they begin to smash it down with the weight and intensity of a battering ram but the speed of thrown punches.
"Come on Bear…! PLEASE!" Audrey shouts through her teeth while cradling an unconscious BugBear. The corpo rat begins to groan and stir awake with his ripped open dress shirt, bleeding head and fucked up hair.
BugBear jacks out of the virtual terminal and glances up at the timer after finishing the rip and taking a few steps back as the entire virtual space begins to intensely distort.
3….2…1..
She stares at the yellow hued memory vault gradually close.. stunned and overwhelmed at the various things she saw.
"BEAR!" Audrey desperately screams in a panic causing BugBear to hear it in the voids of cyberspace snapping her out of her trance..… she immediately pings Audrey…
Audrey immediately jacks her out to the extremely loud sirens, whirs and sounds of a loudly approaching Trauma Team AV outside and a heavy banging at the door. BugBear's eyes open wide as she gasps deeply as if resurfacing from underwater after nearly drowning. A loud crash smashes through the glass of the living room windows as a Trauma Team AV sends X-22s and various other grenades flying in. The front door is then blasted open with booming force as PetroChem huscle storm in from the other side. Audrey still cradling BugBear in her arms turns around with her Liberty in one hand.. clicking the safety off and firing a single shot….
Zaunya, frantically finishes grabbing the various intel she can. She takes a final glance up at the woman's picture plastered above the rest. "Marsalla DeNarsee.." She thinks to herself to the sounds of an obnoxiously loud buzzing siren. She snaps out of it to the sound of the door to the hidden room abruptly sliding open.. causing her to gasp. She turns to face the door… triggering her Sandevistan.
The loud boom of Audrey's iron firing off is immediately followed up by the loud blinding pop of a Trauma Team X-22 Flashbang going off. Audrey's shot hits the waiting target.. causing a loud, smoky boom.. triggering a daisy chain of placed explosives throughout the entire living space in rapid succession. Amidst pluming smoke and debris, Audrey dives into the tub on top of BugBear… pushing her down into the water in the process. The daisy chain explosion reaches the bathroom.. tearing the dazed corpos body into pieces and sending the entire bathroom floor down to the ground level. The impact blows the windows of the first floor out sending random civilians screaming and scattering, corpo huscle and Trauma Team scrambling, and setting off parked car alarms.
Through the blinding smoke, Audrey is seen facedown in the tub unconscious on top of BugBear. A blur passes by as the unconscious ladies vanish into thin air. Smoke and fire begins to settle in alongside sirens and the frantic chaos within the building.
Zaunya is next seen cradling Audrey and a naked BugBear in her arms as she flashes down the street weaving through street traffic and toward Audrey's car hidden away… ending the flashback.
Zaunya continuing to stare at herself in the mirror suddenly hears the frantic, muffled sounds of shouting and commotion in the living room of the hideout.. causing her to snap out of her trance and look back.
"Why the FUCK DIDN'T YOU ANSWER!?" Brian shouts at Audrey while carrying Carter in with his arm over his shoulder. Carter leaking pints of blood everywhere shrieks loudly in pain, barely conscious as Brian lowers him to the floor as gently as he can with Netty's help.
"WHA-!? WHAT DID- W-WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?!-" Audrey shouts back at Brian shocked.
"GET ME A TOWEL!" Netty yells to BugBear. BugBear, dolled up and looking as sexy as ever grabs a towel and falls to her knees next to Netty as the two coordinate together trying to help Carter.
"YOU WEREN'T AT THE FUCKIN' CLINIC!-"
"WE- WE WERE DOING!-"
"WE WERE FUCKING CALLING YOU!-"
" WELL WHERE THE FUCK WERE YOU GUYS!? THERE FUCKING WASN'T EVEN ANY!-"
"DON'T FUCKIN' START WITH ME! WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU!-"
The sound of Zaunya's room door sliding open causes a sudden break in the shouting match and chaos…
"Brian..?" Zaunya says in a calm, surprised tone..
Brian hears her voice for the first time in some time… he instinctually looks over…. He sees her…
Zaunya… looks at Brian with shock and building concern at the unfolding scene... The sight of her stuns him… completely throwing him off as he gazes at her in awe… in a light and appearance that hes never seen or even imagined before…
Her beauty is overwhelming as she stands there in her Night City streetwear that'd make even the most hardcore of fashionistas jealous. After having spent such time away from each other… the sight of her hits him hard in this moment… especially this sight of her… for countless different reasons.
She steps forward with panicked urgency…. Cutting to black.