\+/ Tales From Night City \+/ Chapter 72 – No Quarter
Molly and Manny continue down the block following behind this Rancho Coranado street thug under the hot sun. Manny's head remains on a swivel as he finds himself regularly looking over his shoulder with growing panic and paranoia. His intuition can't help but trigger his fight or flight instincts as his tension raises and he prepares his implants. Meanwhile Molly continues to just stare at the back of the ganger's head with her eyebrows wrinkled and a half smile of disbelief on her face.. Taken aback by his audacity. They make their way through several crowded streets back past their emperor and around the corner to a small yard area. It was surrounded by several tall buildings and littered with trash and dirt patches amongst the dead grass and shrubs away from prying eyes. They continue toward a door before being stopped in their tracks by the sounds of multiple windows sliding open and safeties being clicked off.
Manny reaches for his iron while quickly looking around at various windows being slid up and rifles being pointed out right at them. Molly glances up and squints her eyes realizing they're using the bright glare of the sun beaming down to hide the gunmen from their line of sight. She adjusts her Kiroshis to completely nullify the bright glare of the sun and shakes her head in disappointment as the ganger slowly turns around to face her. She speaks in a disappointed tone disconnected from the intensity of their situation while still looking up with a hand on her hip.
"You see.. no no... This isn't a sufficient kill box. You guys fucked it up... your angles are all off and there's too many points of escape."
"Sorry love.. but i bet your chrome and emperor can fetch far more than these fuckin' CREDCHIPS!"
As the ganger finishes, he quickly draws a knife and drives it into Molly's stomach with all of his strength. The knife barely punctures Molly's skin as it abruptly stops, unable to penetrate her chrome at all. The ganger quickly looks at Molly in disbelief before she grabs him by the throat and effortlessly raises him 6 inches off the ground. She again wrinkles her eyebrows with a look of disbelief and a smile on her face. As he's gradually raised into the air he struggles to breath and hopelessly uses both of his hands in an attempt to pry himself from Molly's death grip. A volley of various caliber gunshots begin to ring out... as Manny draws iron and returns fire, Molly casually engages her mantis blade with her free hand and shoves it through the gangers stomach causing him to belt out a death shriek. The impact of the blade piercing through causes blood to spray out of the gangers back as well as his mouth, covering Molly's face in blood.
She throws him off of her mantis blade with her choking hand and stands over him staring at his corpse as various caliber bullets hit various parts of her body with subtle force lightly jostling her around. Manny quickly wraps his big body around Molly with a bear hug as heavy volleys of high caliber and energy projectiles continue to rain down on his large frame. As the various weapons begin to run out of ammo and click dry, Manny turns and launches Molly like a football up to 3rd story of one of of the apartment complex's fire escapes. A huge 6 foot tall merc struggling to reload his MK.31 HMG looks up in disbelief to see Molly right in his face, soaring through the air toward him. He gets a brief look at her as she shoves her mantis blade directly through his face causing a loud boom that cuts through the air like a gunshot as the blade pierces his thick chrome fortified skull. She uses her momentum to barely grab a hold of the railing of the fire escape with her free hand to stop her weight from pulling the thug down over the railing. She struggles to free her mantis blade from the huge gangers face and instead uses it to stabilize her balance allowing her to let go of the railing and use her free hand to draw her iron. She begins to fire at the thugs who have now reloaded while swinging from the face of the dead ganger and landing multiple headshots. As the fire and projectiles begin to focus toward her alongside an incomings RPG, she retracts her blade back into her arm lodging it out of the gangers face and sending her falling back down to street level at a high speed.. barely dodging the explosion. Manny cradle catches her before the two refocus and go back to back using their kiroshis and enhanced aiming capabilities to begin dispatching the various assaulting gangers while taking heavy slugs themselves as scattered glass and building debris rains down on them.
In the midst of the firefight, Molly glances up at one of the roofs to see the kid she originally met on the block drop 2 EMP grenades down toward them. She looks in disbelief as she takes aim with her custom chrome gold Liberty. Before shes able to fire, another EMP grenade goes off right beside her and Manny from a closer vantage. The concussive, pulsing blast of the EMPs are quickly followed up by several X-22 Flashbangs tossed directly at them. The force of the various explosions overload their senses sending them to the ground with a hard force. As the dust and smoke from the various explosions, gunfire and debris being kicked up begins to settle, Molly, completely covered in it is seen stunned with her hair wild and blood seeping out of her mouth and ears. With a feral look on her face, she looks past Manny's unconscious body through the settling white dust to see another wave of gangers charging into the killbox towards her... Overconfident... Out of position... and most importantly... underestimated.
A high pitched ringing in Molly's ears renders her unable to hear... With her vision blurred she struggles to stand realizing her implants have been temporarily disabled. She puts her hands on Manny's unconscious body in a struggle to even rise to a knee before she is hit with a metal bat with full force. With her pain editor disabled she feels the full blunt force of the bat's impact on her face giving her true, sharp pain in a way that she hasn't felt in years and sending her flying onto her back with a hard thud.. further stunning her. The ganger then quickly raises the bat to bring it down onto Molly's head with both hands. She quickly kicks him in the nuts with her steel toe boot causing him to hunch over top of her before she then draws her combat knife and swings with all of her strength stabbing him in the side of his throat. The momentum of the stab sends blood squirting and the ganger slamming to the ground causing Molly, still holding onto the blade, to roll with his weight barely dodging several pistol shots from another ganger right behind him. As the shooter rushes over to take aim past his choom and at her head she lets out a feral scream while rolling back over and kicking the pistol out of his hand, sending it flying. He then kicks her hard in the face with the bottom of his boot causing her to let out a grunt of pain and sending the back of her head bouncing off of the dirty pavement.
"No!" Molly shrieks in a feral panic through her teeth in an unfamiliar tone. Her eyes open wide in pain as the shooter quickly pins her left arm to the ground by stepping on it with what felt like the weight of a truck. She screams as she helplessly struggles in complete fear while looking into the ganger's eyes. She doesn't see evil; she sees the feral nature of a human being committed to killing her without any hesitation… a look in the eye similar to that of a lion with its fangs in a zebra's neck... fully committed.. all in with no going back.
An intense but fleeting thought hits Molly hard… a thought she's had very few times over the course of her career causing her pupils to dilate: "Am I gonna die?".
The surging adrenaline of the life or death situation triggers a memory... causing her to see her gorgeous, petite Russian doll cradled in her arms. "Rachael..." she pleads to herself in a whisper... She gently strokes the doll's cheek with a comforting smile on her face as they lock eyes under the sun's rays... She hears Rachael's soft, feminine voice speak…
"Milaya…" She whispers in a gentle tone of satisfaction with a smile on her face as the two lean in for a kiss.
The loud booming sound of a shotgun rips through the air snapping Molly out of her trance and ripping a chunk out of the back of the ganger's skull right before hes able to stab her in the face. Molly looks over to see the gangers surrounding her begin to scramble and be lit up with high caliber rounds. As blood sprays out of their skulls and torsos she does her best to quickly scramble on top of Manny and cover his body while putting her hands over her head.
Molly, still shaking slowly uncovers her head and looks up into the sunlight. As her vision gradually comes back too and her implants come back online she looks around to see a squad of fully kitted operators storming the position. They move with tactical efficiency as they wipe the rest of the gangers that sprung the trap. The cracks, booms and screams of people dying and bullets flying slowly comes to a stop as you hear the stray sounds of car alarms and people screaming in fear off in the distance. The heavy weighted boots of a well equipped squadron secure the area as Molly still flustered is gingerly helped to her feet by a thick glove. She quickly takes a closer look and recognizes PetroChem insignias being sported on their gear giving her some sudden, much needed relief. As the squad floods and secures the area Molly gathers herself after another true near death experience. She turns her attention to the masked soldier who helped her up.
"Ffuck…" Molly exhales in relief... trying to catch her breath before continuing in a broken tone. "Didn't think ops response would be this quick.. or even reach out here for that matter. What outfit is this?"
The man looks at her without saying anything as the rest of the squad settles in the area after mopping up stray gangers. She continues after getting no response.
"Well? I'm sure you're all looking for commendations. No write up or clean up required even. I'll be sure to file with post op.. make sure you have some serious goodies waiting for ya."
The soldier, along with the gathered group of uniformed men slowly begin to chuckle amongst themselves. The reaction of the squadron trips Molly up... A look of hesitation and confusion quickly washes over her as their chuckles grow to laughs and the soldier steps back. Her deep feelings of relief and safety are quickly ripped away and replaced with uncertainty and tension. A voice shes never heard before breaks the tension and confusion of the moment causing her to turn around.
"It would appear that you've found yourself in an unfavorable predicament." The deep voice says with a tone of formality and decency causing her to look over. He continues.
"After the prior corpo mishap that occurred on this block I wondered when you'd all be back around. I'd say that waiting paid off but i guess that's yet to be seen."
"You're…. you're people have-"
"XPC-O9's. The latest kit and some of PetroChem's finest. I can assure you, it wasn't cheap. I, of course only deal in the best." He says as they hear Manny slowly beginning to stir awake causing Molly to rush over to his aid... dropping to her knees to help him.
"Who... who the hell are you?" She asks looking up at the man causing him to smirk not so different than the way she does herself. Her question gives him an instinctual reaction of accomplishment he seems to have been chasing for ages. He steps forward past some of his armed operatives while adjusting his tie.
"Anthony Carmone Escalante… Better known as... Aces. At your service. The pleasure is certainly mine my dear." He says with a slight bow of the head. The man was slender with a slightly taller than average frame with white slicked back hair. He sported a well put together suit that looked to be inspired by the red sets of a traditional deck of playing cards. A white suit jacket with red pin stripes that produced a sleek glimmer that made it look as if made of silk. Matching white dress pants and a pair of blood red alligator boots tucked away under the well fitted pant legs. With a small blood red handkerchief in his chest pocket, he wore a red ruby pin on his lapel with both aces of the red card suits: hearts and diamonds.
Molly gently lays Manny down and steps toward Aces to shake his hand.
"Molly Seeker." She says while taking the time to stealthily scan him. She sees several redacted files on his record and although he carried a pristine and somewhat delicate look, it was clear he was packing some expensive chrome. More than shes even willing to bother glossing through considering the amount of effort hes taken to assure it weaves well with his ganic.
"Although I've been made well aware of your presence in Night City, its truly a pleasure to finally associate a name with the face." He says as they finish their handshake.
"Cut the shit… you already knew my name… The hell do you want….. Fixer." Molly says condemningly… agitated with his veiled insult to her intelligence. She glances back to see Manny slowly being helped to his feet still in a haze and being tended to. Aces smiles before a brief pause and responding.
"I meant no disrespect of course…. I'd like to extinguish any growing doubts you're feeling so allow me to spare you from a daunting ordeal and present you a gift." Aces snaps his fingers and takes a step to the side. A man is dragged forward by two of his soldiers that has been clearly beaten badly and barely conscious. They toss him to the floor with a heavy thud before Molly's feet.
"This.. less than lustered gentleman's name here is Javier Gomez... However, He was ordered to present himself to you by the name of 'Angel' and tasked with saving your life here today with several other goons that I have already taken care of."
Molly and Manny stand over the half dead goon with a look of confusion while blood flows out of his nose and mouth onto the hot sunbaked concrete. The blood runs near Aces' boots, matching the color perfectly as he continues.
"What you don't know is that they were all mere pawns working for the same king. Attempting to weave a web of distrust and confusion along the path to obtaining their inevitable desire which is always the same... your chrome and data." He says while looking Molly in the eyes.
"Untangling this knot of deception surely won't be a simple endeavor... However i believe us working together can no doubt yield great results in both of our favor... if you so choose of course." He says as Molly and Manny look at him while he raises his arms.
"Welcome to Santo Domingo". He concludes with a smirk.
