It's About Saving Yourself Ch 26

Hey y'all, good afternoon...at least where I'm at.

I should probably just settle for saying good day? Some of y'all are on the other side of the pond and all.

...

Eh. I'll just stick to whatever time of day it is where I'm at, time is an odious concept.

Here is chapter, it shows a scene I've been trying to get to for a few chapters. Really excited to see how you lot react to it!

Not much to say right now, Writing Update...I'd say tomorrow, but we all know my track record with those, so instead I'll just say 'soon'. XD

I swear I can manage professionalism! I SWEAR!

Anyways, here is chapter 26. I hope you lot like it. Lemme know in a comment if you do...or don't.

=][=

Flavio dos Santos took a deep drag of his cigarette, not the filtered shit that the spineless young ones sucked, he smoked a man’s cigarette and worked the bits of burnt up tar and ash that accumulated in his mouth. He swore he could feel the blessed nicotine spread out through his lungs and into his head, making the splitting headache pounding in his skull more tolerable.

He took the cigarette out of his mouth and spat the ash and partially burnt tobacco leaves onto one of the corpses on the ground.

Twenty-six men and women, good, solid Sixth Streeters.

He still recalled Joe’s last call, celebrating that he’d snatched a big haul from a nomad group or another. He’d promised drinks would be on him.

That was four days ago.

Flavio should have sent someone to check on them sooner.

“We’ve checked the whole base sir.” Said George, walking up to him. “Everyone is dead, one shot through the head with a tech weapon, three flechettes each, even those who got their brains fried were shot. There’s nothing on the security station; the recording just cuts off while everyone was still alive and celebrating the haul.”

Flavio took another drag of his cigarette.

“It must have been that bastard Redeye.” George growled. “We’ll—!”

“No.”

“Sir?”

Flavio turned his eyes at George, who recoiled back. “We don’t know who this was. It’s a complete mystery.”

“Sir! There is only one asshole in the city who would do this and not take credit!” Snarled George.

“Yep.” Flavio said, taking a deep drag and chewing on the partially burnt tobacco leaves. “But we don’t know that for sure. We don’t have any evidence. So we don’t know who did it.”

“Sir, that’s horseshit!” Goerge snarled.

Flavio took a deep drag, so deep that most of the cigarette became ashes. So deep he could all but taste the flame. He then grabbed George by the scruff of the neck and brought him down to face-level. “Use that worthless meat between your ears, dumbass!” He snarled, spewing a cloud of blue-grey smoke onto George’s face, making the younger man cough. “This is Redeye! Nomads don’t have the money to hire Redeye’s services, meaning when Joe hit the convoy, he stole Redeye’s shit! Of course that psychopath retaliated by killing everyone! But he didn’t go on to hit every other facility in Santo Domingo, meanin’ he considers the matter closed! Would you have the Sixth Street become the next Animals!?”

He shoved the younger man back, who continued to hack and cough. Flavio spat another wad of ashy spit onto the ground. “We don’t know who did this. Matter’s closed.”

George managed to get a breath and glared at Flavio when he said. “Yes sir.”

“Good, now gather up the bodies, we need to take care of them before they stink up the place any worse.”

=][=

Yumiko Smith sighed. “I will repeat, Mister Faraday, that I cannot patch you through to Tanaka-sama, he is in an important meeting. I will schedule you for a meeting with him at first opportunity and personally ensure you receive notification of when that meeting will take place.” She cut communication with the obsequious man and heaved a deeper sigh as she heard more shouting from the meeting room at the same time that she received a list of changes she’d need to make to the schedule.

She made a note for her employer about the creepy sounding, obsequious man, and read through the list of notifications that she’d received from Tanaka-sama. After that, she sent an email to Delamain to set up another of her employer’s mysterious ‘drives’, he’d been taking a lot of those lately.

More shouting from the meeting room.

Yumiko read a report about an XBD that was confiscated from a student at Arasaka Academy. Apparently he'd refused to speak no matter what he was threatened with until someone agreed to an ‘off the record’ conversation.

“The worse you can do is expulsion and making my parents mad at me.” The teenager had said, fear evident in his eyes at the possible consequences. “But the guy that supplies these? He fought Redeye off, he’ll kill me and my whole family if I snitch!”

Redeye. A mercenary that Yumiko learned had been making a name for himself.

“Say nothing.” The cyclopean wraith threatened, his voice cold, distant, bored. “Listen, with utmost care.”

Yumiko shuddered, her skin breaking out into gooseflesh.

If a student had truly managed to fight that…that monster off, then they really should come forward, they’d have a happy future on Arasaka’s security forces.

Yumiko started to worry about the people in the meeting, maintaining that volume for that long was bound to be unhealthy.

She wondered what exactly had caused Tanaka-sama to redo his entire schedule…again. And on such a short time.

Another email by this ‘Faraday’ character. Yumiko suppressed the urge to send it to spam automatically.

The phone rang. Yumiko looked at the caller ID and picked up the receiver. “Kushinada-san, this is Yumiko Smith. You have my most sincere apologies, Tanaka-sama is currently in a meeting that is running rather long, I can reschedule your appointment if you’d like…Yes…Are you certain? That could be a long wait…very well.”

Yumiko placed Kushinada on hold, wondering what that was about. But ultimately shrugged and moved on to the next item on her to-do list.

Oh! Her son had won the Best Fiscal Case Study competition! What wonderful news, she’d need to buy him his favorite for dinner!

=][=

Whiskey Torres was going to die.

After twenty-two years in Night City, he was finally going to die.

He’d always known it was a matter of time. That, eventually, he’d catch a bullet meant for a gangster, or a Scav was going to kidnap him for his kidneys, or a Maelstromer would load him up with cyber-ware until he went psycho.

But of all the things, he’d never imagined it would be because a fucking cyber-psycho Edgerunner was going to decide to step inside Mic’s Mornin’ Moonin’ N’ More.

Sure, he was waiting in line, seemingly patiently, hiding his body behind the fat bulk of a guy carrying four bags of Dehydrated Scop.

He knew this guy. The actor from The Chronicles of Redeye. Whiskey had read all the rumors of how they made that XBD series. The guy making it was a high artsy type, clearly he’d sent his pet psychopath out to various places and had him kill everyone in sight.

His arms trembled as he finished scanning the items that the lady in front of him was purchasing. She paid, left, and the next guy stepped up, bringing the killer one step closer.

What should he do? What could he possibly do? He didn’t want to die, not yet. He had too many bills!

Should he go for his gun? No, Redeye was like, super-fast or something.

The guy finished and left, the man behind him stepped up. Bringing the killer even closer.

What could Whiskey do? Should he run away?

No, he needed the job.

Was the job worth his life?

…Maybe?

“Get down pendejos! This is a robbery!”

It was almost a relief when some kids came in, waving a few Slaught-O-Matics around, a red one, a blue one, a pink one, and a green one.

“You!” Red said, pointing the gun at him. “Empty the register!” He then waved the gun at everyone in line, most of whom were now kneeling and some of whom were trembling. “Everyone else! Gimme your wallet! Now!”

“Didn’t you fuckin’ hear him puta!?” Green shouted and slapped a woman in the line, thankfully not hitting her with the pistol, it would either get stuck and shoot the entire magazine, or it would break and no longer fire. It was hard to tell.

Huh…Whiskey wasn’t afraid, he thought he should be, but after spending what felt like a few hours staring at the star of The Chronicles of Redeye and knowing he was about to be killed to make an XBD, Whiskey felt that these kids weren’t all that intimidating.

“Oyes pendejo! Why you not started emptying the cash register yet!?” Blue shouted, her finger on the trigger as she swept her gun around.

“Oh right…uhh…sorry.” Whiskey said. “I was a little distracted.”

“Excuse me.” Said Redeye (when had he gotten there?) “But would you kindly fuck off?”

“The fuck you say to me you bitch!?” Blue shouted, swinging the gun around to point it at the psycho killer, and then there was a snapping sound, and then she didn’t have the gun anymore, her wrist was hanging weird on her arm, and all of her fingers were bending wrong.

She screeched and fell to the ground, cradling her hand.

“That was rude.” Redeye said, looking cool as a cucumber as he broke open the Slaught-O-Matic and extracted the bullets. Whiskey didn’t know what a cucumber was, but seeing as to there was a whole saying about it, they were cool indeed. “You shouldn’t be rude to people. The golden rule and all that.”

“You broke my wrist!” Formerly Blue screamed.

“Dislocated.” Redeye said, sounding bored. “I did break your fingers though. You should politely fuck off and get that taken care of.”

He turned to Pink who was trembling from head to toe, the moment the big Edgerunner turned to regard him, Pink’s legs gave out from under him, and a big wet stain spread out from his crotch.

Redeye looked at Pink for several seconds, the boy’s mouth opening and closing as tears began streaming from his eyes, then turned to Red who immediately placed the pistol on the counter, said. “Sorry.” Then turned around and ran away.

“Not…what I wanted, but I’ll take it.” Redeye muttered, turning to Green, who twitched, but continued to do his best impression of a statue. “You, if you could pick up your friends and leave, I’d be very appreciative.”

Formerly Blue lunged for the gun at the counter and with a screech of rage swung it at Redeye. The XBD star was suddenly in her space, he slapped her arm, making her lose hold of the gun, he grabbed her neck in his metal hand and there was a crackling snapping noise, he then dropped the corpse to the ground, its neck bent in at an awful looking angle.

He hadn’t even looked away from Green.

“If you could pick up your friend and leave, I’d be very appreciative.” Redeye said.

“Y-Yes sir, Mr. Redeye sir. I’m sorry, sir. It won’t happen again, Mr. Redeye, sir.” Green said, continuing to mutter apologies as he grabbed Pink and dragged the insensate boy outside.

Redeye took a deep breath, let it out, then calmly walked back to the exact spot he’d been at when the wannabe thieves had come in.

“Uhh…” Whiskey couldn’t look away from the corpse of Formerly Blue, now Formerly Red. He forced himself to tear his eyes away from her…away from it. “S-Sir? W-Would you like to move forward? I’ll take care of you first.”

Redeye shook his head. “I’m fourth in line. I wouldn’t want to inconvenience anyone, I’ll wait.”

“R-Right.” Whiskey said.

Eventually, the other people in the store got back up, and giving the Edgerunner terrified glances, got back in line, paid for their stuff, and left. The four people in front of Redeye went quickly, each taking a wide berth around the corpse of the girl as they exited the store.

Redeye stepped up and plopped down a greasy bag of Mic’o’s, Mic’s Mornin’ Moonin’ N’ More’s off-brand deep-fried Oreos. The owner, Jacob, made them in the back every day. They were actually really good, cheap, and sold out every day. Whiskey rang him out, he paid, and he stepped over the corpse on his way out the door.

After he left, Whiskey and the customers who hadn’t left all took a few moments to exist and deal.

Then Whiskey had an epiphany.

He’d just been in an episode of the Chronicles of Redeye! Whiskey felt his face split into a huge grin. “I’m going to be famous!”

=][=

Kiwi disconnected from the Net, her senses slowly pouring out from her Net Avatar and into her meatspace body. She heaved herself out of her bathtub, the ice and ice-cold water falling from her skin and leaving a wet trail on her floor as she walked to the door, but paused at the threshold, looking at the fluffy pink bathrobe Alex had given her. With a sigh, she pulled it on and tied it closed and moved into her living room, walking up to her windows to stare out into the city.

She probably could have moved to a better apartment by now, but she was a creature of habit. Besides, it would be a pain in the ass to uninstall the ceiling turret.

She caught her own reflection in the glass and stared at the lower two-thirds of her face, at the line of her jaw.

It was a perfect recreation of her face before…before a cybered-up brute with Gorilla Arms tore her lower jaw off. The memories of the years spent as a doll rose up unbidden, she grit new teeth and shoved the memories back down.

Alex had been as good as his word, better, even. All he’d asked for had been a picture to base the implant off of, he’d personally sculpted the cyber-ware and installed it, free of charge. Refusing payment when she’d tried to compensate him, citing her word that this was the price of her going to his ‘happily ever after’ with him, Lucy, and Rebecca.

The corner of Kiwi’s new mouth twitched.

Infuriating man.

Alex would likely be happy to come to her apartment and dismantle the turret for her, move it to a new location, and reinstall it. Free of charge in that gonk way of his. Putting her in his debt and holding onto the marker.

She refused to believe that anyone who was that good at killing could be as naïve as Alex portrayed himself to be.

Everyone wanted something from someone else. Never trust a soul in Night City.

Kiwi picked up her cigarettes and drew one out, but her hand paused as it brought the death stick to her new lips, as, unbidden, a different memory came.

[Talk to me Kiwi.] Alex said, his voice steady, calm, unhurried.

As the seconds stretched, Kiwi closed her eyes, sighed, and bitterly accepted her defeat. “I need a picku—gah!” Something had lifted her into the air. That something was Alex.

Kiwi shook her head and tossed the unlit cigarette onto her mostly empty ashtray.

And that gonk kid still hadn’t brought up the favor she now owed him.

The possibility existed, of course, that he was telling the truth, that he saw her as a comrade, that he would always have her back so long as she had his.

But every time Kiwi thought over his words, she remembered the…the automaton that slaughtered Animals and Scavs alike. The monster that, for good reason, was feared among their circles in Night City.

Could someone who was that ruthless, truly be that naïve?

Her ringtone indicated she had a call, and looking at the caller ID, Kiwi blinked in surprise.

It had been months since she’d heard from Faraday. Frankly, he could no longer afford her services. The benefits of running with Redeye, Rogue Amendiare’s apparent sweetheart. Frankly speaking, Faraday was a minor league Fixer, and Kiwi rubbed shoulders with the elites.

Still, she would hear him out, she wouldn’t say no to easy money, and she could always say no.

She picked up the pink mask that Alex had gifted her when he’d installed her jaw and face and slipped it on. She had appearances to keep, after all.

[Kiwi, it has been too long.] Faraday’s unctuous voice slid greasily into her auditory nerves, his four eyes cold even as he smiled warmly at her. [How have you been?]

“Quite busy.” Kiwi said, reaching back for her unlit cigarette and lifting it to the intake port on her mask. “What do you need, Faraday?”

“No.”

[So heartless, but that is what I like most about you, Kiwi. Very well, to business.] Faraday’s face split into an oily smile that raised the hairs on the back of Kiwi’s neck. [It would appear that one of your colleagues, Redeye, has made some enemies in Arasaka. Enemies that would pay quite handsomely to see to him…personally.]

Kiwi’s hand paused an instant before she placed the cigarette on her mask’s intake port.

[What I would need from you, Kiwi.] Faraday continued. [Would be your assistance in securing both Redeye, and your erstwhile apprentice, Lucy. For a handsome reward.]

Kiwi found herself working her jaw, turning Faraday’s words over and over in her head. “How big a reward?”

Faraday’s grin grew. [Why, Kiwi…you would never work another day in your life.]

Kiwi thought long and hard on the offer, before she sighed, and crushed the cigarette in her palm, and resolutely said. “Never trust a soul in Night City.”

On the screen in her HUD, Faraday smiled his agreement.