Chapter 1: Just Another Gig
Notes:
Precursor Glossary...
- Neural/Personal Link and Jacking In: basically everyone has a neural link, tech in their brain that connects to their nervous system. Data can be slotted in and uploaded or downloaded. Most people also have interface plugs via a cable near their wrist, which can be used to “jack in” to other tech, giving a direct link for uploading/downloading data and hacking.
- Eddies: Currency in Night City, short for Eurodollars
- Chrome: slang for Cyberware/Cybernetic Implants. This kind of tech is what makes Cyberpunk... cyberpunk :D
- Ripper Doc: folks who install Cyberware into people. These are the primary doctors these days because literally every part of the body can be made synthetically.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Gooooood morning, Night City! Yesterday’s body count came out to an impressively mediocre fifteen—only six from Heywood, but don’t let that fool you, the Chembarons and the Firelights are just as heated as ever! Westbrook’s Pilties took down two officers, and I’d steer clear while the NCPD does their best to hunt the culprits down one by one! City Center’s Bolbok Industries got hit with another outage, netrunners popping vulnerabilities in their tech like it’s bubble wrap! And down in Pacifica—well, you know, Pacifica is still Pacifica. As always, this has been your man, Stan! Join me for another day in our City of Dreams!”
The radio show host’s voice disappeared into the rhythmic synth beats being played by 92.2 Night FM, and Vi tossed in her bed, her groan getting lost in the stiff pillow she buried her face into. Her holey sleep shirt was sticking to the sweat on her back, the surprisingly harsh sun glaring through the windows doing nothing to help the usual already warm temperature of her apartment. “Fuck me,” she grumbled, peeling her face out of her off-white pillow case. Immediately, a wave of nausea came over her and her head pounded. Last night came back to her in flashes of tequila shots downed, strippers flaunting their asses, and sweaty bodies massed on a crowded dance floor.
Not for the first time, Vi swore that she was never going out again as she dragged herself off of her bed and beelined it for the bathroom to empty her stomach.
She was standing in the shower, tepid water barely even trying to wash away her sins, when her phone rang horrendously from the main room. Hoping whoever it was would settle for a text or a voicemail, Vi didn’t even move other than to tilt her head up and let the water slam directly into her face. The phone stopped ringing, but a beat later, it started again, and Vi huffed as she slammed the handle for the shower to turn it off.
Not caring that she was dripping onto her already stained linoleum floors, Vi padded to where her phone sat charging, unplugging it and sighing with relief when she saw the caller id. “What’s up?” she asked as soon as she tapped the button to answer.
Her sister’s voice immediately burst out from the speaker as Vi finally moved to go towel off. “Guess what I just got delivered!” Jinx asked, clearly trying to tempt her, although it was way too early for Vi to have any clue what she was trying to get Vi to think of.
“Uh, lemme guess,” Vi said, scratching the towel over her pink undercut, across her neck, reaching around to her back as best as she could, “new chrome?”
Jinx snorted with a mix of humor and discontent. “Wow, Vi, sharp as ever. Do you even remember what we talked about last week, or did your weekend off wipe your memory?”
Doing her best to ignore her aching head, Vi shut her eyes and thought back to last week, sitting in Jinx’s clinic. She remembered leaning back in Jinx’s rolling chair, her sister talking animatedly. Vi had been looking at her hands, clenching and unclenching them into fists. “Oh, shit,” she murmured, recalling, “those new gorilla arm things?”
“So she does have a working memory!” Jinx chimed, pleased. “Tell you what, sis, I’ll give you a discount if you let me test ‘em on you today!”
Vi snickered, tossing her towel into the laundry hamper and going over to her lacking closet. She only had a few options to actually consider, so it was easy to select a black tank top with a huge middle finger on it and a pair of black and purple motorcycle pants. “You always give me a discount anyway,” she reminded her younger sister, tugging the clothes on, followed by boots that hadn’t seen better days in years.
“Oh come on, you know you’re excited to get out there and punch things even harder than normal! Maybe tear open some doors, skip the sleuthing?”
“Wasn’t really planning on going under for half the day, though,” Vi responded. She pressed a flickering button on her coffee machine, the only proper appliance in the depressing excuse for a kitchen that her apartment sported, and watched it stutter out a cup of brown-black sludge.
She was cringing as she threw it back like a shot, chugging and trying her best to ignore the taste. “Oh yeah?” Jinx was asking. “And what exactly were your grand plans today, oh sister of mine?”
“Probably make back all the eddies I spent this weekend,” Vi muttered, picking up her phone and switching it off of speaker before she grabbed the small backpack that she never went anywhere without and left her apartment. The busy sounds of Megabuilding H7 might’ve overwhelmed her if she didn’t face them day in and day out. It was all too easy to tune out the bickering of neighbors, the cops questioning a handful of stupid teenagers lingering near the entry of the apartments level, and the market sounds of the services area.
“You can spare a few for your sis, though, right? I’ll even let you pay me back later! I’ve done all the prep I can without just trying it out, and I seriously doubt my daily clientele is going to want these monsters.”
“What if you fuck up?” Vi asked, knowing that there was no way in hell that her sister would ever mess up a cyberware installation bad enough that she couldn’t just fix it before her patient woke up.
“Then you’ll owe me nothin’!”
Vi chuckled and rolled her eyes, sidling up to a small food stall and making eye contact with the brunette working it. With a smile, a wink, and a wave of her hand, Vi transferred her a few Eurodollars, and the younger woman giggled before offering her a paper wrapped sandwich made with whatever synthetic meat was all the rage these days. Vi never paid attention. She gave the woman an appreciative nod and started into her sandwich as she continued toward the elevator down to the street.
“Oh, also,” Jinx said, either giving up on convincing Vi or having determined that she’d already done so, “Clagg says we should all go to The Last Drop tonight, see Vander. Guess the chaos of Vista del Rey is grindin’ on him.”
“And Claggor thinks the lot of us crowding his bar will help with the chaos problem?” Vi asked through bites of her sandwich.
Jinx huffed. “Can you not talk while you chew, Vi, seriously?”
“As if you don’t do the same fucking—”
“But anyway, Claggor, Mylo and I will be there, and y’know he’d love to see you. Always complains that you don’t come around enough. Would actually save me a headache if you showed, even for ten or fifteen minutes.”
Vi sighed, chewing through the tough synthetic meat of her sandwich as she leaned against the wall of the elevator taking her down many floors to the street. The sounds of the busy service level faded and she enjoyed a brief moment of quiet before the noise of the street took their place. “Fine, ‘s long as you’re buying me a drink.”
“Deal! And the gorilla arms?”
“Guess since I don’t have anything in my inbox, I can spare another day off. I’ll just hit up Finn or Benzo tomorrow.”
Jinx practically squealed on the other end of the line, and Vi grimaced, pulling the device away from her ear. In moments like this, it was actually really nice to not have a holograph communication implant. Sometimes she wanted the speaker of her phone to be far the fuck away when on the phone with her sister. “When will you be here?”
“Gimme an hour or so. Need to work off this hangover.”
“By drinking water or by punching shit?”
“You really gotta ask?”
Jinx snickered. “Alright. Well don’t take too long, I’m closing up shop so I don’t get any other customers, but if you no-show me—”
“An hour, J,” Vi said, rolling her eyes. “See you.” She ended the call and pocketed the device, rolling her shoulders, tilting her head back and forth with a crack. The elevator gate slid open at the street level, and Vi headed in the direction of her favorite boxing gym.
Her attempt at a shower was rendered useless by the time she left forty minutes later, tank top sticking to her abs, biceps glistening, hair a little damp. She would’ve rinsed off in the gym’s locker room if their water wasn’t out this week. The receptionist cited routine maintenance, but Vi was pretty sure the gym’s owner was slipping into debt. Again.
She kept her eyes peeled for other gym options, just in case, as she walked the twenty minutes from Rancho Coronado into Arroyo where Jinx’s hole in the wall clinic was nestled at the corner of a busy intersection. It was next door to a shop that Vi knew sold mostly worthless junk, and across the street from the latest factory to have been bulldozed. Even as the rubble was being cleared, something else was already taking its place. Vi barely spared it a glance as she dodged a group of factory workers taking up the whole sidewalk and then slipped into her sister’s clinic.
“We’re closed!” Jinx’s voice echoed from the back room, the door to which was propped open across the tiny waiting room. Vi smirked and crossed the space, pushing open the door to glimpse her sister’s look of annoyance before she realized who it was.
Jinx was surprisingly good at glaring down the assholes of Night City despite her slender, pale frame and long blue braids. She was on the short side, multiple inches shorter than Vi, but she was Heywood born and raised, and no one could question it. Like Vi, she was inked all across her pale skin, except where Vi’s tattoos were all black, cogs and factory imagery, Jinx’s skin featured blue clouds intermingled with obscure figures and images. Jinx had done all her own tattoos, for the most part. Vi’d had hers professionally done, although she’d meticulously designed them during her teenage years.
As soon as Jinx realized who her client was, she relaxed, threatening frustration being replaced by bemused annoyance as she glanced at the digital clock. “An hour and ten,” she noted, “not bad. You stink, though.”
“Gym’s water is busted,” Vi explained with a half shrug, dropping her backpack next to her sister’s desk. “Can I—“
“Ugh, yes, just make it quick. This ain’t gonna be a simple implant swap, you know?”
Vi didn’t bother to answer, going straight for the door labeled “No Entry” and taking the stairs behind it two at a time to get to Jinx’s apartment. She tapped the digital screen in the intercom, the tech recognizing her identity instantly and unlocking the door.
Jinx’s place was a little more cramped than Vi’s, a kinda funky shape thanks to the fact that it was the upstairs to her little clinic. Its single window had a shitty view of the destroyed factory, but it was actually a less noisy and chaotic feeling than Vi’s megabuilding apartment. It was also much more nicely decorated, with posters on the walls and a synthetic plush rug sprawled in the space between the nook for the bed and the nook of the kitchen. The bathroom was the same size as Vi’s, though, and she made quick work of undressing, rinsing off for the second time today, and drying herself. Jinx got better hot water at this place than she did, at least.
Jinx was visibly impatient when Vi returned back downstairs, all of her tools already lined up perfectly on the sterile metal table standing next to the reclined patient chair. “Finally!” She sounded even more exasperated than she looked.
“How much these gorilla arms going for, anyway?” Vi wondered, sliding comfortably into the familiar seat. Jinx was the only Ripper Doc she let touch her chrome at this point. Of course, her younger sister hadn’t done her initial implants, but Vi had seen enough docs by now to know that Jinx was the best.
“Eh, twenty thousand or so,” Jinx answered, prepping a vial of anesthetic and grabbing an alcohol pad.
The cold alcohol rubbing on her skin made her shiver. “Shit,” she muttered, “how do they work, exactly? Must be a big deal?”
“So, the main implants will be sub-dermal, almost meshing with your armor plates. You’ll truly have forearms of steel, sis.”
Vi smirked. “You said the main implants? What’ll be visible?”
“Some around your fingers,” Jinx answered, pausing to trace her own index finger over Vi’s to show her where. “Reinforcing the bone structure. You really will be able to rip a heavy ass door off its hinges with these things.”
“And aesthetically? Gonna fuck with my tattoos or anything?”
“Nah. Like I said, slightly robotic fingers, other than that just a few visible bits around your wrist. And if you hate it, we can always do synth skin over it.” Jinx shrugged and Vi copied the movement.
It’d been a while since she got any completely new cybernetic implants. Usually, Jinx was updating the operating system chip in her head, or patching her optics, or occasionally reinforcing her sub-dermal armor if it got damaged. Vi didn’t really love the idea of externally visible chrome—both aesthetically and tactically. It was better that she look as fleshy as possible, helped her get the drop on people who might underestimate her.
But she’d looked into the gorilla arms implants quite a bit, and Jinx had been trying for months to get all the shit she needed to install them herself. This would make a world of a difference in Vi’s line of work.
“Alrighty, see ya on the flip side, sis,” Jinx told her with a lopsided grin as she pressed the anesthetic injector into Vi’s arm.
“Don’t fuck up,” Vi joked, before her eyelids got heavy and she drifted off to sleep.
When she woke up, Vi immediately noticed the soreness in her fingers, and she groaned as she wiggled them, feeling the new metal pieces clicking a little. It took a second for her to blink her eyes open and look down at the matte black metal lining her fingers. It was impossible to tell how exactly they worked just by looking at them, but her hands definitely looked a lot more robotic than they did earlier. Just as Jinx had explained.
Speaking of Jinx, her sister was sitting in her rolling chair, feet propped up on her desk, eyes glowing red-violet as she engaged with some tech in her head.
“You didn’t fuck me up, did ya Doc?” Vi asked to draw her sister’s attention.
Jinx blinked, eyes settling back to blue as she looked over with a proud grin. “Who d’ya think you’re talking to? Everything went smooth. Sore?”
“Just a little.” Vi flexed her fingers, bending them carefully, and rolled her wrists. She could feel how reinforced they were. “Feels like I could punch through a brick wall.”
“Can’t guarantee that won’t still hurt like a bitch, but you probably could,” Jinx told her goofily.
“What’s the time?”
“Almost five. Took a while, these things are no joke. Your phone pinged a few times.” Vi grunted, getting up and going over to her backpack to grab said device. “Y’know, I’ve got plenty of holos, including old cheap models I could practically give you for free. Honestly, your chrome’s probably good enough I can just install one quick and easy.”
“I’m good,” Vi insisted, though free tech was always tempting, pulling out her phone and checking her messages. She had a couple from some girl whose name she didn’t recognize—probably someone from her outing last night—and one of actual interest.
Benzo
Vi, got a job for you. Gimme a call.
Benzo always texted Vi first, and that was one of the many reasons that she loved getting jobs from him.
“What time we meeting at The Last Drop?” Vi wondered, slinging her bag over her shoulder with a little more strength than she meant to. The new chrome would take some getting used to.
“Eight-ish?” Jinx shrugged.
“Cool. I’ll be there.” Jinx looked pleased to hear it. “How much I owe you?”
“We’ll call it 8k?” Jinx offered.
“Sure,” Vi agreed, and with a thoughtful look and a flick of her wrist, she sent half the cost over to her sister. “I’ll get you the rest in a week or two?”
“Works! Thanks, Vi.”
“Nah, thank you. I’d never get new chrome like this if it weren’t for you.”
Jinx grinned. “See you later, sis.”
As Vi started her walk home, she tapped Benzo’s contact and listened to the call ring twice before he picked up.
“Vi, thanks for calling.”
“As if I’d ghost my favorite fixer,” Vi told him charmingly, dodging a stumbling passerby who seemed to have started their drinking a bit early today. “What’s up?”
“Need a merc for a sensitive job,” Benzo started. “Client is high profile, doesn’t wanna talk much via holo. They’re looking to meet tomorrow morning, give the details then. What I can tell ya now is that they need someone… well rounded. I know you don’t got netrunning on your resume—“
“No worries,” Vi interrupted, “I got Mylo.”
“Great.”
“High profile, highly sensitive—what kinda eddies we talking?”
“Twenty five thousand, at least,” Benzo told her. “Your cut, anyway.”
Vi nodded to herself as she rounded a corner, crossing into her subdistrict and eyeing the massive megabuilding that housed her apartment. “Sounds good. Tomorrow morning?”
“Yep, don’t bring Mylo. Client wants as little exposure as possible. I’ll flick you the coords.”
“Cool, thanks, Benz.”
“Keep me in the loop after you meet with them. No texting, calls only.”
“Got it.”
The call ended and Vi received a location transferred straight to her neural system, giving her the instant knowledge of where she was supposed to meet the client tomorrow. Some kind of office building on Corpo Plaza, which tracked for a high profile client wanting discretion.
Deciding to try to enjoy her bonus day off as much as possible, Vi settled into her stiff couch and clicked through some programs on TV. After determining that most of her usual channels were currently riddled with news about the upcoming mayoral election, she let it become background noise and grabbed her laptop to click through some pages on the net—browsing listings for new bikes, mostly.
She did end up on an article talking about holos versus phone usage in Night City, tempting her a little bit to consider Jinx’s offer. Not having to carry around a physical phone would probably help with her jobs, and every other merc she knew had the holo implant. And the more she read about it, the less invasive it sounded.
Ugh. Maybe it was time she get with the program. She should’ve just let Jinx install the firmware when she was in the chair earlier.
Vi
Still got time to install me a holo before drinks?
Jinx
Hell yea!
Your hardware is already good for the tech, so it’ll be quick!
Drop by asap!
Vi smiled to herself, grabbed her stuff and left her apartment. After her familiar walk through the megabuilding, she made her way to the garage, found her slightly beat up black and silver ARCH Nazaré, and swung her leg over it. It took barely more than half a second before she was zooming out of the garage on her bike.
Her stop at Jinx’s place was brief, her sister slotting a chip into the base of her skull. Vi saw the tell tale software interface floating in her vision, watched the data upload and sync with her neural system, then blinked her vision clear when the text disappeared. Jinx walked her through using the holo and Vi found herself pleasantly surprised about how simple it all was. Jinx also assured her that since it was linked directly into her system and synced perfectly, sisterly squealing and other such loud noises would adjust automatically so that it wouldn’t overwhelm her.
“Huh,” Vi said at that, Jinx snickering, “guess it might be a little bit of an improvement, then.”
They left Jinx’s place with their respective vehicles, Vi on her bike and Jinx in her extremely personalized and revamped Thorton truck. Jinx was well versed in pretty much every kind of tech—from prosthetics cyberware, to neuralware, to cars. Vi always said her little sister had gotten the smarts from the parents that they could barely remember, while she’d gotten the drive and the physical strength.
Her musculature was really her biggest source of pride. She’d worked hard her whole life to stay in peak physical condition. It started as a means to protect herself and her younger sister, purely a defensive measure, but became the central component of her reputation as a merc when she reached her teenage years. Now, pushing thirty and with nearly fifteen years of experience under her belt, Vi was well known among fixers as a merc who was not only quick on her feet with steady nerves, but as one who could punch her way out of any job gone sideways if need be. One way or another, whether because of a smooth job done or cuts and bruises on her knuckles, her clients ended up happy, with both her and her fixers’ pockets lined thick with eddies.
Vi pulled her bike into the dilapidated parking lot down the street from The Last Drop, situated in the center of Vista del Rey, the poorest subdistrict of her home district of Heywood. She’d grown up between here and the Glen, living in a small apartment somewhere when her parents were still alive, in the streets with Jinx once they weren’t, but under Vander’s roof after he took them in when she was about eleven years old.
Part of her had been hesitant to leave Heywood. No other part of Night City was exactly the same as the streets she was intimately familiar with. The Firelights, the gang that dominated in the district, had always been friendly with her as a kid—as friendly at people got in Night City, anyway. She felt safe even in the worst parts of the district simply because she knew it inside and out. But she’d moved out from Vander’s place almost a decade ago, to get some space from her adoptive father, moving two subdistricts away, into Rancho Coronado, the residential area of Santo Domingo. She’d had plenty of time to get familiar and comfortable with her new home district, and the militaristic Void gang who ruled its streets. Jinx had sort of followed her when she’d gotten old enough to get a place of her own too, ending up in SanDom’s Arroyo subdistrict.
Vander disapproved of them leaving Heywood, though, and his inability to drop his grudge over it was one of the reasons that Vi rarely stopped into his bar these days.
Jinx parked in the spot next to Vi and the two walked over to the bar through the busy streets. Cars honked in the dense traffic as pedestrians jaywalked between the too small sidewalks. Some NCPD officers were huddled on one street corner, and Vi spotted a group of Firelights on a balcony above them, trying to act casual as they leaned over and eavesdropped. They’d almost reached the bar when a bulky car zipped through a red light, causing three cars to slam on their breaks, its Chembaron occupants hooting and hollering as one of them stuck an assault rifle out the window and pointed it right at the Firelights on the balcony.
Vi barely even flinched as the rounds fired off, the Firelights ducking with precision, one of them pulling out a pistol and firing a perfect shot at the car’s tire, causing it to spin out of control. It slammed into another vehicle which then smashed into a light post. The pedestrians on that side of the street screeched and broke into runs as the NCPD officers whipped out their guns and started firing at the Chembaron goons. From everything Vi had been hearing on the radio, the Chembarons—the biggest gang in the southernmost district, Pacifica—were making a very big push to take control of the streets in the neighboring districts.
The gang members were apprehended by the officers by the time Vi and Jinx reached the entrance of The Last Drop, the Firelights on the balcony having already disappeared inside. Vi exchanged a look with her sister. At the same time, the two of them agreed with matching shrugs, “Heywood.”
Claggor and Mylo were already perched at the bar, the former with an arm slung over a skimpily dressed, blonde woman that Vi didn’t recognize, and the latter laughing at something being said by a third man sitting next to him. He was easily identifiable by the white dreads gathered atop his head, and before Vi could even think, Jinx was scoffing with a muttered, “Of course Ekko had to be here too.”
Vi chuckled. “Thought you two had buried the hatchet… again.”
“It got dug up again,” Jinx huffed out, although as they walked up to the bar, she plastered on a nice enough smile as she slotted herself between Mylo and Ekko. “Hey, boys. Ekko, figured you’d be at your clinic still, tryna figure out how to install mark one Subdermal Armor.” Vi easily recognized the most basic type of cyberware for the integumentary system.
Ekko smirked at her with a clap on her back. “Jinx, if I’m ever staying late at the clinic, it’s cuz I’ve got customers lining up outside my door. I’m sure you’ll know what that’s like one day.”
Jinx didn’t bat an eyelash. “Guess this turf war is good for your business, seeing as the Firelights don’t got any other gang sponsored options to choose from. If any of your chooms ever feel like getting some real quality chrome, you know my address.”
Vi snickered and rolled her eyes at their bickering, slipping between Mylo and Claggor and swinging her arms over their shoulders. “Sup, guys?” She eyed Claggor’s girl, plastering on her most charming smile. “Don’t think we’ve met, gorgeous, I’m Vi.”
The woman blushed and tucked some of her golden locks behind her ear, revealing silver strips along her jawline, indication of whatever cyberware she had on deck. “Lena,” she introduced back as Claggor glared dryly at Vi, who promptly ignored him.
“Pretty name for an even prettier girl,” Vi purred.
Claggor grunted, shoving Vi off of him and looking apologetically at Lena. “Flick me your contact info,” he told her, “and I’ll let you know when I’m free of these hooligans.”
Lena gave a slight shrug and a small smile, green eyes glowing gold for a split second as she sent the requested data to Claggor. “Nice meeting you,” she said, gaze starting on Claggor and then shifting to Vi, whose new holo saw its first action as a new contact appeared. Vi smirked and winked as Claggor released his loose grasp on the woman and she sauntered off.
“You’re a dick, Vi,” Claggor grouched, Mylo cackling next to him as Vi took Lena’s abandoned spot at the bar, leaning on one elbow to look down the row at her little found family.
“Eh, if she’s lookin’ for love, she’ll end up in your arms,” Vi told him with a shrug, “even if she makes a pitstop in my bed, first.”
“As if I would date someone you’d slept with,” Claggor scoffed.
Smirking, Mylo chimed in, “Damn, better cross off half the girls in Heywood and another half in Santo Domingo.”
“What can I say, boys? When you got it, you got it.”
“Well, look who it is.” Vi looked up at the hulking, scruffy man who’d taken her in two decades ago, smiling at her with a surprising warmth. “Been a few months since you had time to drop in.”
“Yeah, well, figured I should pay my old man a visit,” she told him playfully, “since he’s actually getting real old now.”
Vander just snickered, grabbing some glasses from behind the bar and starting to pour two drinks for the arrival of his adoptive daughters. “How’re things, Vi?”
“Good,” she answered, purposefully as vague as possible, knowing that Vander didn’t want to hear about either her work or her nightlife. Not unless it had something to do with finally agreeing to work with him, learn to take over running The Last Drop. Bussing tables and mixing drinks and keeping the peace between everyone who entered its doors, regardless of their affiliation.
“Keeping busy?” Vander asked, just as vague, proving Vi correct.
“Yep. Jinx got me some new chrome today,” she said, extending her hands and flexing her fingers, showing off the matte black of the gorilla arm implants. “Arm wrestling with me just got a whole lot more dangerous.”
“Oh, shit, preem.” Claggor leaned closer to inspect it.
Mylo raised an eyebrow. “Remind me not to piss you off, shit.”
“As if she couldn’t have knocked your scrawny ass out before,” Jinx butted in, apparently done squawking back and forth with Ekko, who was now sipping something bright blue in a glass.
“Always with the bickering,” Vander said with a heavy laugh, setting two new glasses on the counter. Vi took hers, recognizing her favorite bourbon by sight and smell alone, and took a long pull from it. “Sometimes, it’s like you’re all still a bunch of immature teenagers.”
“These four might’ve aged out of teenager, but they never got the memo on maturity, Vander,” Ekko snarked, getting a sharp elbow in the side from Jinx in response. He barely flinched and Jinx seemed not to care either way as she sipped her own drink.
“You’re telling me, kid,” Vander laughed out. “Always a nice surprise when you all stop by to see me, though. Makes an old man feel appreciated.”
“Aw, gross, you getting sentimental on us, Vander?” Jinx teased, shaking her head and causing one of her braids to smack Mylo, who scoffed and swatted at it with annoyance. “If that’s what maturity does to someone, thank fuck I’m avoidin’ it!”
Vander gave her a pointed look. “If you all dropped in more often, maybe I wouldn’t get all choked up.”
Mylo cleared his throat and looked over at Vi, who braced herself for whatever bullshit he was about to spew. “Huh, Vi—maybe you should stop by the next time you finally get a few days off. Oh no, wait, you didn’t have any work this weekend, did you? And two weeks ago, didn’t you get a couple days to rest, too?”
“Alright, don’t act like you didn’t have those same days off,” Vi shot back.
“I was here two days ago, and two weeks ago,” Mylo countered, and Vi clamped her mouth shut, grunting and looking down at her bourbon for a second before throwing the rest of it back.
Vander chuckled quietly, although Vi could easily read into his wrinkled face, identify the way his smile wasn’t quite as wide as it should’ve been. He had to know already that Vi was avoiding him, but hearing it aloud probably didn’t help. She knew it hurt him. Still, he hid it well as he collected her empty glass and quickly replaced it with another full one.
“Thanks,” she muttered, “but no more for me after this. Got a meeting the morning.”
“Anything interesting?” Claggor wondered. The smile he gave her told Vi that he was trying to be helpful, changing the topic, but Vi thought talking about work around Vander was even worse than talking about her avoiding him.
“Not sure yet,” she admitted. “Haven’t got all the details. But oh, Mylo, don’t make plans. Gonna need your ‘running expertise.”
Jinx audibly spluttered, the latest sip of her drink almost spewing out of her mouth as she held back a laugh. Once she swallowed, with Mylo already glaring at her, she said, “Expertise? Please, Ekko could figure out netrunning better than Mylo.”
Ekko scoffed. “What’s that supposed to—”
“I’m not a shit netrunner,” Mylo growled out. “Do I still got things to learn? Duh, but that’s only cuz of the pressure. You get a nice little isolated office to work from, meanwhile I gotta get shit done hunched behind a counter in a warehouse full of gangoons while this one is barely holding back from running in fists swinging.” He jerked his head at Vi, who fought a smirk.
“Mylo’s a great partner,” she insisted, although she didn’t have experience working with many other netrunners. She was more than experienced getting jobs done without having to hook into the net or hack anything, but when it was needed, Mylo had always gotten the job done.
“Thank you!” Mylo huffed out. “So, you need me tomorrow morning, then?”
“Nah, client wants to meet one on one. I’ll call you once I have more details afterward, though.”
“She’ll call you on her new holo,” Jinx interjected, swiftly moving on from pissing off Mylo. “Finally talked some sense into her about getting one.”
“Oh sweet, so she can’t ignore my calls anymore?” Mylo asked with an excited grin.
“I’ll still ignore them if I’m busy, jackass,” Vi told him.
Mylo had his mouth open to bark something back, but Vander’s laugh interrupted, and they looked over to see him shaking his head with fond amusement. “Always a circus when you’re all together.”
They moved to a table after a while, Vander insisting that they were scaring away paying customers. He brought them some pizza with their refills a while later, bringing a cola for Vi, and the five of them caught up on the goings on of their lives, interspersed with a healthy dose of teasing and shit-talking. Ekko was the first to excuse himself, citing Firelights business, and Vi made herself the second about ten minutes later. If she stayed too late, Vander would undoubtedly catch her with a long conversation before she could escape.
Somehow, he managed to do so anyway, calling her name for the brief moment she was in his line of sight on her way out the door. With a sigh, she found herself navigating back to the bar, resting her elbows on its top and leaning forward. “I really gotta delta, Vander, early morning meeting across the city. What’s up?”
“Your thirtieth is coming up.” Vi grunted, looking down at her hands. “You know well enough how many up’n’coming mercs are taking to the streets, rivaling the experienced with their impassioned youth.”
“I’m in my prime still, Vander,” Vi argued, looking back up at him with as steely a gaze as she could muster. “And chrome these days keeps you younger than ever. I’ve got a good thing going, a great thing even. I’m saving up to get out of my megabuilding place. Thinking about Japantown, not too far and nicer than Rancho Coronado. Lots of business over there, of all kinds.”
Vander frowned. “Lots of business down here too, Vi,” he told her pointedly. “Heywood needs help right now. You could do a lot of good with all your skills, help keep the peace—or bring it back, more like. The gang wars are only getting worse, half the NCPD officers are paid off to let it happen and the other half can barely hold their own when street violence breaks out. Even closer to City Center, things are getting rough, it’s not just the Vista. I don’t got it in me anymore to get in between people, calm ‘em down when things get heated. I can keep The Last Drop a safe, neutral space, but it’s not getting easier. Could really use you here.”
“I’m happy to help, honest,” Vi assured him, “it’s just—I gotta pay the bills.”
“You could move back in with me. No bills.”
“Vander…”
“Please, just think about it.” Vi was adamantly avoiding his gaze as she felt it bore into her. “I know I can’t pay you like those fixers can, but you’d be doing good by helping me out around here.”
Vi let out a long exhale, debating what to say, whether to lie and say she would consider it, or be honest in that she wouldn’t. She wasn’t ready to give up her life. She liked her work, liked the fast and intense life she lived, raking in the eddies and building a solid reputation for herself. Her own youthful ambition hadn’t gone anywhere. She knew the names of every Night City legend, yearned to be among them. She wanted to drive up to Little China in Watson, be let into the Afterlife club without a second glance, see a drink on the menu with her name by it. She wanted to be one of the legends, as naïve a dream as it might’ve been. Finally, she said, “I really gotta delta. Nice seeing you, Vander.”
She didn’t let him get another word in before she turned on heel and practically bolted out of the bar.
As soon as she was back at her apartment, she buried her face in her pillow and wished she’d just gotten plastered so sleep would come easier.
Corpo Plaza was an impressive place to say the least. The skyscrapers that towered over the wide, well maintained streets glimmered with sleek, modern designs. There were hardly any graffiti tags visible, and the only ads on the plaza billboards were boasting about mayoral candidates. The cops patrolling the streets didn’t appear nearly as threatening as most other parts of the city, even deigning to smile at some passersby dressed in stiff suits. The cars on the road were spotless and shiny, and the morning’s urban ambiance was pleasantly lacking in gunshots.
Vi stuck out like a sore thumb in her plain black t-shirt and baggy grey pants. She’d limited the street paraphernalia that some of her clothing sported, but with the tattoos snaking up her exposed arms and the one displaying her name under her left eye, it was clear that she wasn’t exactly a corpo employee.
Still, she walked with her head held high, only one hand stuffed in her pants pocket as she made her way to the building where her meeting was supposed to take place.
The front door was a thick and solid glass thing that slid open as soon as she approached, leading to a wide lobby with a desk in one corner, manned by a woman in a fitted but respectable black dress and her hair in a ponytail. She looked up as soon as Vi walked in, already assessing.
“Can I help you?”
Vi gave her a confident smile. “Hey, got a meeting on the sixteenth floor.”
“Elevators are just around the corner. Mind the scanners.”
Vi nodded and followed the woman’s direction. A camera mounted high on the wall flickered on with blue light as it scanned her, and Vi didn’t pause in her stride to the button to summon the elevator. Since the scanner didn’t make any heinous noises, and the receptionist didn’t call out to her, she assumed she’d passed whatever inspection it’d done.
Inside the elevator, she punched the button for floor sixteen, leaned back and basked in the unfamiliar quiet. It was kind of peaceful, if not a little unnerving.
On the sixteenth floor, there was a singular door off of a small sitting area, guarded by a man with solid metal hands and a visor over his eyes, although Vi knew better than to assume he couldn’t see her. She stayed confident as she approached him. “Hey, got a meeting on this floor.”
“Your name?”
“Vi.”
He nodded, looking down and off to the side a little for a second before saying, “Right this way.” The door behind him slid open and he guided her through a maze of hallways. The floor seemed to be filled with individual offices and meeting rooms, not one cohesive theme or purpose tying them together. She couldn’t help but observe the hallway, noting all of its cameras, the doors labeled for emergency staircases, and the occasional window. Not that she was expecting anything to go badly at a meeting with a client, but it never hurt to be prepared.
They reached one door in particular and the man rapped his knuckles on it before it slid open and he gestured for her to go inside. The door promptly closed behind her, leaving Vi alone in an office with a desk and computer setup at one end and a small conference table filling the rest of the space. Seated at the conference table was a pair of well-manicured people, one a man with blue-black hair and slanted eyes, the other a woman with a familiar, narrow, and pointed face and a pout that was somehow professional. It only took Vi a second to place where she’d seen the woman before—on the billboards, on the news. One of the mayoral candidates for the upcoming election.
High profile, indeed.
“Good morning,” the woman greeted, standing and offering a hand in greeting. Vi gave her a half smile, approaching the other side of the table and shaking the proffered hand politely. “You must be the merc Benzo contacted.”
“That’d be me,” Vi confirmed, pocketing her hand again and sliding into one of the chairs as the other woman sat back down. “Vi. And you—Kiramman, right? Running for mayor.”
The woman gave her a thin smile. “Yes, Cassandra Kiramman, pleased to meet you. This is my husband, Tobias. Apologies for such an obscure meeting place, this is an office of a friend of a friend. We—well, we wanted to keep this…”
“Under wraps,” Vi finished for her, nodding with understanding. “No worries, I get it, it’s part of the biz. What’s this about?”
Cassandra and Tobias exchanged a look, and the husband was the one to sit up a bit straighter and start speaking, “As I’m sure you’re aware, former mayor of Night City—Heimerdinger—passed away last month, hence the last minute election.”
Vi nodded, recalling the incident thanks to how much it had been on the news and talked about on every radio station. She wasn’t really one to follow politics, but that event had been unavoidable. “Sure, I remember. Bad heart or something, right?”
“The official report cites it as a heart attack,” Cassandra confirmed.
Vi quirked an eyebrow. “That you saying you don’t buy it?”
“NCPD arrived on the scene along with Trauma Team and they confirmed it was a heart attack,” Cassandra clarified, “but… well, you see, I was quite familiar with the former mayor, we often joined him for dinner, and he had never had any health problems. Wasn’t even very old, even if you don’t consider the tech extending his life.”
Vi nodded slowly. “So… you think it was an unnatural heart attack? Like, something caused it on purpose?” Cassandra and Tobias exchanged another look before they both nodded tentatively, like they were worried about admitting it to someone else. Vi understood—it wasn’t nothing, suggesting that someone might’ve murdered the mayor. “Alright… mind if I ask why you care? You’re gunning for his seat, aren’t you?”
Cassandra blew out a breath, looking like she was recalling a prepared answer. “I am, as it was always my intention to run in the next election just as I ran in the previous one. The reason I care how the mayor’s seat was vacated however…” Her body language seemed nervous, stiff posture, her hands fidgeting in her lap where she thought Vi might not notice, even though her face stayed hard, focused. It read like she was used to talking to people through a box showing only her face, which, Vi didn’t know, maybe virtual meetings were the norm for politicians. “Are you familiar, Vi, with the other candidates in the mayoral race?”
Vi thought back to the news and the posters, remembering a few faces vaguely, another couple of names coming to her after a second. “Medarda and Hoskel?”
Cassandra nodded, her frown deeper. “Ambessa Medarda, former CEO of Medarda Banking, is a recent newcomer to the Night City political landscape, and she’s made quite a commotion amongst voters. She appeared to have a very good relationship with Heimerdinger, even ending up in his cabinet within the last year. However, I believe that this was all a front, and that she had the late mayor killed in order to run for his seat.”
“Huh.” Vi chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully. “If she supposedly had a great relationship with him, was already making the big strides, what motive would she have for that?”
“A wonderful question,” Tobias spoke up, producing a small electronic chip from his pocket and sliding it across the table to Vi. “If you would?” Vi accepted the chip and slotted it into her neural port. Immediately, a visual appeared in her view, a series of documents and then a few recorded conversation, accounts of Ambessa arguing with Heimerdinger over funding, specifically a large portion of the city’s money being funneled into Night City University. Ambessa seemed to want to repurpose it for a new military mission with the goal of reincorporating Dogtown, a combat zone district practically seceded from Night City and controlled by a militaristic separatist regime. Heimerdinger would not budge on his stance that Dogtown was a lost cause, and the recorded conversation and written correspondence made it clear that Ambessa was not happy with that.
“Alright,” Vi murmured, “so she wants to invade Dogtown with—what, the NCPD? They can barely even keep the streets they actually control in check.”
Cassandra nodded in agreement. “Hence the need for funding. It wouldn’t be a short-term project, that’s for sure. Ambessa has always been vocal about her fears that the NUSA want to reacquire Night City, and getting Dogtown under control, reorganizing the police department into a city sponsored military, that’s what she thinks will help keep the city independent.”
Vi just blinked. She never thought twice about this kind of thing, barely even thought outside of the two districts she’d lived in for her whole life. Fighting and death was the everyday experience of folks in the streets of Night City, it was already a constant war, and she knew better than to think any governmental shifts could really change that. “Okay,” she finally said dumbly. “So, okay, the job. You want me to find out what happened to old Heim. Lemme just ask, why not go to the NCPD with this?”
“Trust us, Vi,” Tobias said, “we have tried every avenue with the NCPD and the corporate council, as well as with the interim, and former deputy, mayor Hoskel. We would not have gone to Benzo if we believed there was any legal avenue that could and would properly handle it,” Tobias explained.
Vi nodded, lips twisting a little in thought. The cops either didn’t care or were covering something up, based on how Tobias was speaking. Corrupt cops were common in the streets, so Vi supposed it made sense that it’d be no different even for the rich and powerful. If the enemy was wealthier, plenty of cops would turn their jackets in a heartbeat. “Right,” she finally mumbled, tapping a finger on the table. “Okay. Got any idea where I might start looking? I’ll figure it out if not, but anything else that might be helpful?”
“I have an access card to Heimerdinger’s old office,” Cassandra said, producing said card from a pocket hidden in her blazer. “From talking with Hoskel, it sounds like it hasn’t been cleared out yet. I can send you the location of the office within City Hall, and this should get you into the room itself, but the building does have high security, of course.”
Vi nodded, taking the access card and not worrying about the security bit for now. “Cool, thanks.” Detecting that this was the end of their meeting, Vi stood up and slid the card into her pocket, where she left her hand to fidget with it. “I’ll get to work, then, let you know whatever I find.”
“Thank you, Vi. And—I’m sure Benzo mentioned, but discretion is very important to us.” Tobias was looking at her pointedly and Vi just gave him her best reassuring smile.
“No worries, sir, Benz told me. I’m good at what I do. Nothin’ will point back to you.” The couple nodded, and Vi gave them a slight wave before heading for the exit. Two new contacts popped into her holo as she left, each of the Kirammans, and she sent hers back. Despite the maze of hallways, she managed to backtrack to the elevator herself, nodding to the guard on her way out.
She used her fancy new holo to call Mylo on the ride down, and he picked up on the first ring. “What?” he snapped, clearly cranky first thing in the morning.
“City Hall, meet me there tonight—ten-ish. I’ve got an access card for the office we need into.”
“City Hall?” Mylo asked back with a groan.
“What, your netrunning skills not up to it?”
“No, no, we’ll be fine,” Mylo muttered. “See you tonight.”
Vi leaned against the fence surrounding the City Hall, waiting on Mylo to finish his loop around the building, scanning with his fancy cyberdeck to find entry points, determine what the security looked like, and all the other stuff a netrunner was good for. Vi peered up at the huge building that towered over most of the rest of Heywood. She’d walked past this place countless times, but had never even thought to go inside, had never had a reason to. Political figures didn’t often get involved with mercs.
A scuff of a boot drew Vi’s attention as she started, only to relax when she realized it was Mylo. “Service entrance in the back,” he said, “probably our best bet. Not sure I can hack it open but you might be able to brute force it. I already shut off the cameras back there.”
“Cool,” Vi said with a quick nod, “let’s get going then.”
They moved with quiet steps around the building, avoiding the security guards patrolling the front part courtyard and the entryway. Hopping the fence behind the building was easy for Vi, and with her help, Mylo managed to clamber over easily enough as well. They ducked behind a dumpster as Mylo pointed out the service entrance, the camera above it powered off. A single security guard was leaning near it, clearly unfocused as he read something on a tablet in his hand.
“I’ll take him out,” Vi murmured, getting a nod from Mylo. Crouching low, she silently made her way around the dumpster, sticking as close to the fence as possible. If the guard looked up, she’d be right in his line of sight, but he was clearly distracted, and the cover of darkness helped.
Once she was past him, she made her way right behind him, and in a single, swift, practiced movement, she grabbed him in a tight chokehold. He tried to gasp for breath, one hand flying toward his holstered gun, but Vi used her other arm to immobilize him for the few seconds it took for him to go limp in her arms.
She dragged his unconscious body over toward the dumpster, propping him up against it as Mylo eyed him warily. “Let’s go,” Vi said, nudging him and heading back toward the door. The digital keypad next to it awaited a code to slide the door open, but Vi just cracked her knuckles. “Time to see if these gorilla arm things are worth the price.”
They were, in fact, very much worth the price. Vi slid her fingers into the slit where the sliding door butted against its frame, her implants locking them into place securely, and the effort it took to force it open was minimal. She opened it just wide enough for Mylo to slip in, then followed him quickly, letting the door snap shut behind them. Immediately, Mylo was scanning the room they’d stumbled into, his eyes glowing a little red as he used the tech in his head to do… something or another. “We’re clear of cameras,” he told her.
It took them about twenty minutes to navigate through the building, crouching low, avoiding security guards, Mylo shutting off cameras as they came close to them. When they reached the main elevator, Mylo was able to hack it to let them in and up to the top floor. And when they finally reached the door to Heimerdinger’s old office, Vi procured her access card, scanning it over the keypad. It flashed a pleasant green and the door slid open to let them in. Within a second, Mylo had the room’s security camera shut off, and they were safe to explore.
Despite it being about a month since the former mayor’s death, the office looked as though he might’ve been using it just earlier today. A news tablet was sat on the desk in front of two huge computer monitors that were prompting for a password, and a few old school paper booklets were stacked next to it. Shelves lined with unidentifiable tech and boxes were messily lining one wall of the office. A sleek, faux leather couch sat on the other wall, a blanket strewn messily over it. The only thing that indicated the place had been untouched for a while was the layer of dust over some of the surfaces.
“This the old mayor’s office?” Mylo asked in realization. “What exactly are we doing here?”
“We’re looking into his death,” Vi explained, grabbing the tablet off of the desk and turning it on to see it was just displaying a collection of month old news articles. She set it back down with disinterest. “Client thinks that one of the running candidates—Ambessa Medarda—was somehow behind it, that the heart attack wasn’t natural.”
“Alright,” Mylo murmured, hunching over in front of the computer. He grabbed the interfacing plug of his personal link from his wrist, pulling out the small cable and jacking it into the device. Vi busied herself with rifling through the papers on the desk as the netrunner hacked into the computer, but after a few seconds, the login screen was bypassed. “Take a look,” he said, disconnecting his plug and stepping back.
Vi clicked through various emails between the former mayor and people whose names she didn’t recognize, skimming for anything related to Ambessa, the funding she wanted to use for Dogtown, and anything else that might be relevant. She found one email thread between the two of them, only to recognize it as some of the same correspondence that the Kirammans already had in the chip they’d shared with her. She clicked away from the emails to look through Heimerdinger’s files instead.
“Anything good?” Mylo wondered, poking around in some of the boxes on the shelves. Vi glanced over and rolled her eyes when she noticed him pocketing something or another he’d found in one of them.
“Not much yet,” she muttered, clicking on the first file in the list, finding a signed memo about some NCPD official’s retirement. The next file was equally irrelevant. Seeing the third, she quirked an eyebrow. “Looks like Heim kept a pretty meticulous day to day itinerary. He had quite a few meetings in the days before his death.” She looked at the day of his death, noting that there was only one meeting scheduled that day. “Do you know what his time of death was?”
Mylo scanned through whatever data was in his head before he said, “News broke at three, about half an hour after he was pronounced dead.”
“Looks like he had a meeting at two that day,” Vi murmured.
“Trauma Team would’ve been a bit late to the scene, and since it was a heart attack, he might’ve been alive a little longer after it happened?” Mylo offered, following her train of thought. “Who was the meeting with?”
“Doesn’t say. Most of the meetings he has documented have clear locations and people listed, but this one isn’t labeled at all.” She straightened up a little, pulling her own link from her wrist and plugging it into the computer, initiating a download of the itinerary in completion. She quickly queued up a search through the data. “Looks like he’s got this same sort of unlabeled meeting in his calendar regularly, once every three months or so.”
“Maybe an appointment with a doc or something?” Mylo offered. “If he was having heart problems, maybe he was getting some kind of treatment?”
Vi hummed thoughtfully. “Maybe. Impossible to know from this, though.”
“So what, dead end?”
“Here, maybe,” Vi agreed, jacking out from the computer now that she had what she needed. “But if Ambessa did have something to do with his death, and he died right after or maybe even during a meeting, I definitely wanna see if she had any awareness of it.”
“So, next step, we gotta—”
A thump outside the door shut Mylo up in a second, and Vi blinked, looking over at it in alarm. The door was still firmly closed, but— “Shit,” she hissed, “the camera.”
Mylo’s eyes widened as he realized what she’d just realized—the office’s camera was back on. Mylo quickly shut it back down and whispered, “If that was City Hall security, they’d be all over us by now.”
“Who else could it have been?” Vi demanded, moving to peek out sole window in the room and confirming that it was not a feasible escape route.
“No fucking clue, I’m just saying, we passed what, three guards between here and the elevator? They’d be on us already!”
Vi made her way back to the door, clenching her left fist. “Well, something’s out there, we heard it,” she whispered. “Stay behind me.” Mylo followed her instructions without complaint, moving to the side of the door, safely behind her. She took a breath, hovered her hand over the trigger to open the door. When she opened it, before it had even slid all the way open, she darted out of the room. She almost sensed the person before she saw them, crouched next to the door, and she quickly apprehended them, forearm pressing against their jugular, holding them firmly against the wall.
Wide, intense, and surprisingly unfazed blue eyes stared at her from the slim face of a woman with dark blue hair, a scarf covering the bottom half of her face. She was dressed in nondescript, black clothing, no indication of her affiliation anywhere. Vi blinked in confusion at how unstartled she was, only to realize that the barrel of a gun was pressed against her abdomen, between the two of them.
She didn’t flinch, even as her heart sped up. “Who the fuck are you?”
The woman just raised an eyebrow into a perfect arch and said, “Your netrunner could use some practice.”
Notes:
Chapter 1 Glossary
- Holo: holographic communication device. Basically a phone you can text/call with in your brain.
- Choom: friend/buddy/pal (can be genuine or sarcastic)
- Preem: premium/high-quality/nice
- Netrunners: folks who have the tech and skill to do quick hacks (without jacking in)
- Merc: short for mercenary, folks for hire (under the table, of course)
- Fixers: middlemen between clients and mercs
- Delta: to leave or depart
- Gangoon: goons in a gang
- Corpo: related to the mega corporations that dominate Night City and the world
- Trauma Team: emergency medical services usually only available to wealthy folksLastly, and this is optional, but since I am using the Night City map with mostly accurate locations, if you're curious, you can look at it here: https://maps.piggyback.com/cyberpunk-2077/maps/night-city
Ask any questions if you have 'em! I'm happy to answer! CaitVi and Cyberpunk 2077 are my two hyperfixations at the moment so seriously, could talk about this fic for ages!
Chapter 2: The Rogue Netrunner
Notes:
Good evening my friends!! I am so happy that there are multiple people stoked for this Cyberpunk CaitVi AU! And I am suuuuper excited for y'all to get Caitlyn's proper introduction this chapter hehe!
Also I lied, the rest of the glossaries are little so have this one upfront!
- Nova: cool/awesomeEnjoy!! <3
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Vi stared in disbelief at the woman, processing her words and opening her mouth to say something—she wasn’t sure what—in response, but she was interrupted by Mylo coming out the door with his revolver in hand, pointed at the woman Vi had pinned against the wall. The three of them breathed heavily for a moment, each taking stock of the situation. Vi could crush this woman’s throat with ease, but it wouldn’t be fast enough for her not to get shot in the stomach. Mylo could easily get a shot off on the other woman, but unless he took her out in one hit—which would depend both on his aim and her chrome—she would still have time to take Vi with her.
Vi glanced up at the nearest hallway camera, finding it was still turned off, unlike the one in the office that had turned back on. Her gaze met those unwavering blue eyes, piecing it together. “You were watching us in there?”
“You’re not exactly in the position to be demanding answers,” the woman drawled, her voice smooth with a hard edge. Dangerously confident.
“Put down your gun,” Mylo growled, “or I fire.” The woman’s eyes flicked over to Mylo for half a second before moving back to Vi, as if he wasn’t even a concern. But Vi noticed the way the center of her irises, right around her pupils, glowed an unnatural purple in the same beat. Before she could react, Mylo gasped, dropping his revolver straight on the floor and hissing as if burned, shaking his hands. “Fuck! My smart link is overheating—”
“Shit,” Vi growled.
“Lower your arm,” the woman instructed evenly, her accented voice firm and commanding, “and I’ll lower my gun. Best if we slipped inside the late mayor’s office before our little Q&A, hm? So we don’t draw any unwanted attention.”
Vi knew when she was made, knew that she needed to be strategic about how to proceed, so she nodded and took a small step back as she released the woman. Mylo was still hissing at the burning pain in his hands, shaking them out and rubbing them against his pants like that might help. Vi gave him a worried glance as she raised her palms to either side of her head, and the woman answered by slowly moving aside the pistol she had in hand. She tilted her head toward the door, not holstering the gun, and Vi grimaced, grabbing Mylo’s arm and tugging him back into the office. Behind her, the stranger scooped up Mylo’s revolver and followed them inside, triggering the door to close behind them. She turned the gun over in her hand as Vi watched her, relaxing a little when she set it down on the desk and finally holstered her own sidearm.
“You followed us in here,” Vi accused, as Mylo finally began to breathe evenly again. The other netrunner clearly hadn’t intended to cause any lasting damage, thankfully. “Who sent you?”
“Nobody sent me,” the stranger said, eyeing Vi with her steady gaze. Vi wished she would move the scarf covering half of her face, give her the full picture. It wasn’t like hiding her face would stop high tech scanners from detecting who she was, anyway. Mylo might already know, even, with his netrunner tech. “And yes, I did follow you. You made it quite easy, actually. Sloppy technique on the cameras.”
Mylo was glaring hatefully at the woman. “Never caused me any problems before. Who the fuck are you?” Well, that answered whether or not he had any idea of the woman’s identity.
“Now you’re asking the right questions,” the woman complimented tersely, and Vi clenched her jaw, glancing down at the woman’s holstered pistol. She wondered if she could act quick enough to get it off of her, or if it would be more effective to grab the knife she kept concealed in the deep pockets of her pants. Her aim wasn’t too bad, she could probably hit the woman in the arm at least and then get the jump on her.
“And?” Vi snapped, still undecided. “Are you going to answer, or not?”
“Call me an… interested party,” the woman decided.
Vi scoffed. “Interested in what, exactly?”
“The possible murder of Mayor Heimerdinger,” the woman answered like it was obvious, reaching for the papers that Vi had been shuffling with on the desk earlier. She didn’t seem to be actually looking at any of them, though, and Vi noticed her gaze shift over to the computer, eyes glowing purple again as she used whatever fancy netrunner tech she had to scan it. Vi honestly had no clue how it all worked, and she usually didn’t care, but meeting a rogue netrunner who outmatched Mylo and who’d had a gun to her stomach just a minute ago suddenly had her both unnerved and interested.
“The mayor died from a heart attack,” Vi stated dumbly.
The netrunner rolled her eyes as they returned to brilliant blue. “You can drop the act, I know who you are and what you’re doing here, Vi.” Vi bristled, clenching her fists. “I know who hired you, and I know what information you’re after. It just so happens that I’m after the same thing.”
“Why?” Vi demanded.
The woman sighed, her hand raising toward the scarf over the bottom half of her face, but before she could pull it away, there was a shout somewhere down the hallway, and all three of them snapped to attention. The time for interrogation was over. “Shit,” Mylo grumbled, reaching for his revolver, the other netrunner letting him take it.
The woman was taller than Vi, thinner and more delicate looking, but not scrawny like Mylo. She moved with a strange grace as she drew her pistol even has her eyes glowed purple again, trained on the camera for a second before she got a faraway look on her face. Vi had no clue what was happening, but then the woman said, “There are two of them coming from the right end of the hallway. Guns drawn. They seem to suspect something, but they haven’t called for backup. We take them out quietly, then get out of here, assuming you’ve gotten everything you came for.”
Vi scoffed and was about to argue against following this random woman’s orders, but the footsteps in the hallway were getting heavier, closer, and she huffed. “Alright, cupcake,” she muttered, “you want quiet, don’t shoot that thing.”
“It has a state of the art silencer, and what did you just call me—”
“Just let me handle it,” Vi snapped, taking a single breath before opening the door, bolting out and ducking at just the right time to barrel into one of the security guards, tackling him to the ground and knocking his gun out of his grasp. While he scrambled for a moment, Vi stood up straight to slam her fist into the other guard’s jaw, his neck whipping to the side as he fell, off balanced, into the wall. She then lowered to the ground, hitting the guard there hard enough to knock him out, and when she looked up, the netrunner had taken care of the other guard with the butt of her pistol. Mylo was just staring at both of them with wide eyes, clearly not having done anything to contribute. Not that Vi had expected him to, but she was equally surprised seeing a clearly very skilled netrunner handle a weapon so efficiently.
The woman just looked between them dryly before saying, “We shouldn’t hang around, let’s go.”
They silently backtracked to the main elevator, but the unfamiliar netrunner punched the parking level button instead of the ground floor. “The fuck are you doing?” Vi snapped, getting even more fed up.
“My car is waiting for me, and you two are coming with if you want answers to your questions.”
Vi and Mylo exchanged incredulous looks, her partner likely equally confused as to how they’d ended up in this position. But Vi needed to know who this person was, and how she knew about the Kirammans’ job for her, especially considering her clients’ desire for discretion. She’d barely even started this gig, she didn’t need it to be fucked up already. “Fine,” Vi snapped, raising a hand to silence Mylo when he opened his mouth to object.
The parking level was quiet, cameras all already shut off, and the woman led them to where a sleek, black sedan was parked. It looked all sorts of bougie, practically screamed corpo, and Vi didn’t doubt that Jinx would know the exact make and model in one glance at it. She, however, had no clue what exactly it was as its lights blinked on, the woman unlocking it. “Get in,” she instructed, voice flat, almost uninterested. Vi fought another eyeroll as she went for the passenger seat, Mylo grumbling as he opened the back door and slid inside as well.
The car came to life around them with all dark purple lighting, and as the woman pulled it out of its spot and started for the parking exit, Vi kept an eye out for security guards. The only one she spotted was sitting in a booth next to the open parking gate, but he was slumped in his chair, thoroughly knocked out. “Damn,” Mylo muttered. “You smash his skull in, too?”
“Didn’t have to,” the woman answered without hesitation as she drove through the gate, swiftly exiting the building and then the property via another electronic gate that opened for her seamlessly, “I remotely hacked and, essentially, shut down his system. He’ll be fine, though, once his shift replacement comes and calls Trauma Team to help boot it back up.”
Vi grunted. “This is why I fucking hate netrunners.”
“Because our entire society is based around cyberware?” the woman snapped back. “Don’t hate the player, Vi, hate the game.”
Vi ground her teeth together. “You clearly know who I am—”
“And your friend here with the… interesting mustache, Mylo.”
Mylo balked. “The fuck—”
Vi cut him off, still glaring as she continued, “—so you gonna give us a name to call you? ‘Specially since we’re going along with whatever bullshit this is.”
The woman tutted, shaking her head a little. “You could try just asking.”
“We asked you who you were—”
“And I told you, I’m an interested party.”
Vi clenched her jaw, took a breath, rolled her shoulders back. “What’s your name?”
Stopping at a red light, the woman finally lifted her hand to her scarf, tugging it away and revealing the rest of her face, her sharp cheekbones and jaw line, slightly pouty lips. As she met Vi’s eyes, arching another eyebrow, Vi realized that the only cyberware visible over her face was a little stripe of silver metal through her left eye, almost like a scar, stretching diagonally through her eyebrow, disappearing around her eyelid and then protruding again underneath her eye. Other than that, there were silver glints coming from the sides of her neck, still mostly hidden by her hair and the scarf that now rested over her collarbone. “Caitlyn,” she finally said. “I apologize for our inconvenient meeting. Well, in truth, I didn’t intend for us to meet at all, but it seems that not eating all day makes me a little unsteady on my feet.”
The light turned green, and this Caitlyn stepped on the gas again, driving exactly the speed limit as she took them northeast.
“This is you unsteady on your feet?” Mylo demanded, and Vi realized that Caitlyn was referring to whatever thump sound they’d heard before catching her spying on them. If she’d been peering through the camera, focusing on them, her physical body must’ve slumped into the door or something.
“Hope you don’t mind,” Caitlyn said, not acknowledging his question, “but there’s a lovely little diner open twenty-four seven in Japantown. It’s not a far drive.”
Vi groaned, her head thunking back against the headrest. “Look, Caitlyn, can you just tell us what the fuck you were doing following us, why you give a shit about what happened to Heimerdinger? So we can just work this shit out, make a deal, and go our separate ways?”
“A deal?” Caitlyn asked, glancing at her out of the side of her eye as she drove her car onto the highway going through Vista del Rey toward Westbrook, the district where Japantown was. “What kind of deal do you expect me to agree to, exactly?”
“The kind where you get whatever it is you want in exchange for dropping this shit and letting us get back to work,” Vi huffed.
“Oh, no, you’ve misunderstood,” Caitlyn told her, voice still infuriatingly even. “What I want is to know the result of your investigation.”
Vi narrowed her eyes into a glare. “So is this a job? You’re just another merc after some eddies? Who hired you?”
Caitlyn looked affronted at the accusation. “I am not a merc,” she scoffed in obvious offense, the most emotion she’d let slip through her tone since their meeting. “No one hired me, this is most certainly not a job of any kind. It’s a personal investigation.”
“What stake you got in Heimerdinger?”
The steady netrunner was finally not completely unwavering, cutting an annoyed look at Vi. “It’s not about something I have to gain. I simply want to know what really happened.” Vi opened her mouth to once again ask why, but Caitlyn stopped her by saying, “Look, I am actually quite famished, so if we could take a break on the questions until I’ve eaten, that’d be preem.”
Vi snickered at the slang coming from the woman’s accent, the sound of it making it clear just how high-class and corpo she sounded. That worried Vi a little bit, but she didn’t want to let it show. She really hoped some mega-corp wasn’t trying to solve this same case, wouldn’t get in the way of her job.
She acquiesced, though, staying quiet for the rest of the drive through Heywood and into Westbrook. She eyed the river as they drove alongside it, until Caitlyn pulled her car into a parallel parking spot in one of the quieter parts of Japantown, which Vi was mostly familiar with thanks to its vibrant nightlife. When they all three exited Caitlyn’s car, the echos of sounds of said nightlife a few blocks away could be heard through the crisp evening, but this area was relatively quiet.
Vi and Mylo followed as Caitlyn waltzed into a diner nestled on the first floor of one of the huge buildings, immediately waving down a waiter and collapsing into a stiff looking booth. Vi exchanged a look with her partner before letting him slide in to the other side first, taking the outside. A waiter with a kind smile came over, and Caitlyn ordered herself a coffee and a plate of yakitori before looking over at Mylo and Vi, who both just asked for a cola. The waiter walked off, and the three of them sat in an awkward silence until he returned with their drinks.
Caitlyn was taking a long, desperate drink from her cup, and Vi glanced at Mylo to see him staring out the window at the car they’d been riding in. When he sat up straighter and turned his head abruptly, Vi saw the telltale glow of red fading from his eyes—he’d been scanning her vehicle. “Caitlyn Kiramman,” he blurted, and Vi’s eyes went wide as she looked accusatorially at Caitlyn, who was lowering her coffee cup with an unamused look. “Aren’t you NCPD?”
Vi went from shocked to panicked in an instant, already sitting up straighter, ready to dive right across the table into the other side of the booth to incapacitate the woman. “Wait, you’re a fucking cop?”
Caitlyn looked irritated as she answered, “Technically, I’m on leave… for an indefinite amount of time.”
Vi relaxed only a little. “So, like, what, you got suspended?”
“Something like that.”
Vi leaned back in her seat again, although she was still wary of the other woman and what else she might not be sharing. “Didn’t realize the NCPD was hiring netrunners,” Vi grunted.
“They didn’t hire me for my netrunning expertise,” Caitlyn informed her, taking another sip from her coffee as the waiter approached with her plate of yakitori. She immediately dove in for one of the skewers, sliding a chunk of grilled synthetic meat off and moaning at the taste as she slowly chewed, eyes falling closed. Vi shifted a little uncomfortably, not looking at Mylo, keeping her eyes on the former cop. When she finally swallowed her food, her eyes flickered back open, meeting Vi’s gaze levelly. “You can consider me multifaceted.”
“Yeah, sounds like a merc,” Vi said, mostly to piss her off. Caitlyn’s expression soured predictably, but she seemed to shake it off as she ate another bite of her yakitori.
Mylo’s stomach grumbled watching her eat, and Vi glared at him. “What?” he snapped. “I had dinner hours ago!”
“Please feel free to order something,” Caitlyn invited, “on me.”
Mylo looked like he wanted to accept, but Vi glared him down until he just groaned and relaxed back into the booth. Vi looked back to Caitlyn. “So, you weren’t in City Hall on behalf of the cops. You were there because you’re a Kiramman, you want this shit figured out same as your parents.”
“Your clients, yes,” Caitlyn agreed, and Vi ignored the look of surprise that Mylo gave her, since she hadn’t actually shared that detail with him in the interest of discretion.
“So how come your parents went to a fixer if they’ve got some expert netrunner and former cop who could do this shit for them?”
Caitlyn frowned, chewing on her third bite quietly for a moment. “They don’t want me involved.” She sighed, finally dropping her air of unshakeable confidence. “I was on the team the NCPD put together to investigate the mayor’s death after my mother filed a request for investigation, but it was called off after barely a day. In the time I did have, I noticed that the incident reports from the day of were incomplete, but my authority to look into it got revoked when the investigation was dissolved. I approached my superior officer about it, and was waved off. I approached her superior officer, and the next day, I’m getting a holo call about taking a mandatory leave with a to-be-determined end date, citing my being overstressed.” Her tone went from annoyed to straight up pissed, and then she took her fourth bite, finishing off the first skewer.
Vi hummed with interest, less concerned now about Caitlyn and more intrigued about her information, trying to use it to piece together the next steps of her own plan. “That happen often?” Vi wondered. “Cases getting dropped?”
“Of course,” Caitlyn answered, “but not usually when the case concerns a figure as prominent as the mayor. For some reason, my superior officers were adamant that there was no need for an investigation since the cause of death was obvious and thus there was no indication of a committed crime.” Caitlyn paused to start on her second skewer, and Vi took a sip of her cola. “I know my parents must have a reason to suspect something, or else they wouldn’t have requested an investigation. I asked my mother directly, and she told me to leave it be.”
“She doesn’t want you getting in trouble,” Vi extrapolated.
“Right,” Caitlyn huffed, “although seeing as I’m basically out a job, I’d argue I’m already there.”
“So, you’re not even doing this for your parents’ benefit?” Vi asked. “You don’t know who they think did it, so you don’t know why they care. This is just about… what? Solving a puzzle?”
Caitlyn shrugged. “Solving a puzzle to expose the fact that superior officers in the force are corrupt, covering something up, yes.”
Mylo and Vi both snickered at that, and when the other woman gave them a pointed frown, eyebrows furrowed, Vi said, “Cupcake, everyone knows the NCPD is corrupt as shit. If those shitheads have friends in high places, no doubt they’ll cover anything up for some eddies. This is Night City.”
“Stop calling me that,” Caitlyn huffed, finishing off her second skewer. There was one left on the plate, and, either full or uninterested, she slid it over to Mylo, who didn’t hesitate to jump on it. Vi resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “Not everyone knows that. A lot of people on the force want to do good, and I want to find out who was involved, what actually happened and who covered it up, and take it straight to the top. So yes, I found out that my mother contacted a fixer, I followed them this morning to where they met with you, tracked you afterward and followed you to City Hall. I want to know what my parents gave you as their lead.”
Vi crossed her arms over her chest, considering the other woman’s words, and ignored Mylo’s eating noises next to her. Caitlyn cooly kept their gazes locked. Vi mulled her thoughts over in her head to decide the right response. Anyone who didn’t know with certainty that the police were as corrupt as every other group in the city was either grossly sheltered or extremely naïve. Vi almost wanted to just say as much and delta the fuck out of this diner, but she knew that Caitlyn would just continue to follow behind her throughout this investigation. She was clearly a very capable netrunner, and Vi wasn’t exactly equipped to do anything about it.
An idea started to formulate in her head. “So, your plan was to go behind your mom’s back, stalk us on our job, learn the truth and borrow whatever we uncover to bring back to the PD?”
Caitlyn gave a half-hearted shrug. “More like, figure out what the lead you’re following is, and then follow it on my own, along with what I already have from my brief time on the investigation.”
“And what’ll you do if I go back to the bosses and tell ‘em their daughter is going rogue, might fuck up the job?”
Caitlyn scoffed. “I wouldn’t fuck up anything.”
“Maybe not, but with two of us going at this separately, we’re way more likely to get caught. And I bet your parents wouldn’t be very happy with you if they found out you went behind their back.” Caitlyn narrowed her eyes, recognizing the threat behind Vi’s words.
“If you don’t tell me your lead, I’ll find out one way or another anyway. Whether or not you tell my parents.”
Vi couldn’t help the amused smile that slipped onto her lips. This woman was fiery, and as annoying as it was, now that she could sit back and take it all in without panic, she found that she kind of liked it, admired it maybe. “How ‘bout this,” Vi said, resting her elbows on the table and leaning forward. “I’ll tell you what my lead is, and I won’t even tell your parents what you’re up to. In exchange, you give me what you got from the NCPD.”
Caitlyn looked rightfully suspicious at the proposal. “And you’ll just… let me continue my investigation?”
Vi pushed her arms against the table, straightening her back, hearing it give a quiet pop. “Sure, with me.”
“Hold on, what?” Mylo demanded, Caitlyn looking equally surprised.
“I’m not going to work with a merc,” she spat, shaking her head. “Especially not one who clearly prefers to handle things in the exact opposite way I do.” She gestured vaguely to Vi’s muscles and fists. “I’ll be safer on my own.”
“That so? And what happens when you get a little too close, and you’re suddenly swarmed by ten big guys with assault rifles?”
“I have—”
“I’m sure you’re a great shot with that pistol, but you step into the wrong place, wrong time, and you’re dead. You might shoot a couple down, take a few out with your fancy netrunning shit, but this isn’t some murder mystery party, babe. Someone put in the time and effort to kill the mayor of Night City, covered it up real good. You don’t think those people are ready for someone to go poking? You might be smart, you might even be fast and have good aim, but you said it yourself, you’re not a merc.” Vi finished her words with a smug smirk. “This kinda shit is my day job, cupcake. So, you work with me, or I tell your folks what you’re up to and continue to make things as hard for you as possible.”
Caitlyn’s jaw looked clenched tight as she tried to stare Vi down, but Vi didn’t falter at all in her conviction. Having two separate parties following the same lead would only make this more difficult, making it more likely that they stepped on each other’s toes and got caught. Plus, Caitlyn was clearly very skilled at what she did. As much as Vi might hate to admit it, sometimes netrunners really were just necessary, and as great as Mylo was… well, this former cop was clearly much better.
After a few tense moments, Caitlyn visibly ground her teeth and then huffed, lowering her gaze down to the table. “Fine. But I have one additional condition.” She looked to Mylo. “Having two netrunners on the job is only going to make things more difficult.” And back at Vi. “So just us two.”
Mylo scoffed, speaking before Vi could, “Shit, you think that’s a big ask? I’m happy to sit out, this shit is clearly outta my league.”
Vi raised an eyebrow at him, and after a beat decided, “I’m telling Jinx you said that.” Mylo clearly took offense, but Vi ignored his grumbling as she offered a hand to Caitlyn. “You got yourself a deal, Cait.”
“My name is Caitlyn,” the woman snapped, even as she took Vi’s hand, shaking on it. Vi couldn’t help but notice the lack of chrome around her hands too, aside from her personal link at her left wrist and a similar smart link at the base of her right palm, for linking with fancy smart and tech weapons. Other than that, her skin was bare, smooth, not marked with tattoos or scars either.
“I know,” she said with a smirk, not using Caitlyn’s full name aloud. It was her own fault, really. Vi found that pissed off little scowl-pout combo to be far too entertaining. She took a sip of her cola and then used her holo to send her contact info over to Caitlyn, who did the same in return.
Mylo, who had finished off Caitlyn’s extra yakitori already, stretched his arms and said, “Well, if I’m no longer needed, cool if I bounce?” Vi jerked her head in a nod before getting up to let him out.
She caught his arm before he could fully escape, and muttered, “Not a word about any of this, alright?” He nodded, muttering “duh” under his breath, and barely spared her a wave before leaving the diner. Vi sat back down and looked across at Caitlyn, who seemed a little more relaxed now as she lounged back in the booth and took a drink from her coffee, blue eyes lingering on Vi. She waited for them to glow purple, waited for Caitlyn to read off whatever data her tech could glean, but they didn’t. Vi figured she’d probably already done so before Vi and Mylo had even caught her.
“So,” Caitlyn finally said, her mug empty now. “The lead my mother gave you?”
“Ambessa Medarda,” Vi answered, keeping her voice low, “who’s running against your mom?”
“Yes,” Caitlyn recalled easily, lips turning downward at the ends. “But why would she—”
“Apparently there’s some money tied up in NCU that she’d rather use to assault Dogtown, build up a militia or something, separate from NCPD. Things got heated between her and Heim a few times in the weeks before his death.”
Caitlyn’s eyebrows furrowed, the sliver of chrome slicing through her left eyebrow staying perfectly straight despite the movement. “Heated enough that she’d kill him?”
“For the chance to take his place?” Vi shrugged. “Sounds like she’s got a decent following, right? I mean—probably corpo bastards mostly, folks who’ll make money in a war.” Caitlyn still didn’t look totally convinced. “Anyway, that’s my gig. I’m only planning on taking this all the way through if I can actually find a trail to start on, one that connects Ambessa to the death.”
“And what did you find? At City Hall, I mean?”
“Looks like the mayor had a blank meeting in his calendar right around the time he died, something recurring.”
“If it was blank, how is it going to help?”
Vi scoffed. “Sorry, but I didn’t have much time to think about that before I got busy with this stuck-up former cop with a detective kink.” Caitlyn’s jaw dropped as her cheeks flushed, but Vi just continued with, “What d’you got, from your abandoned investigation?”
Caitlyn took a second to recover from Vi’s comment, and Vi watched with amusement as the redness in her face faded away. Caitlyn cleared her throat. “Like I said, I have suspicion that there was involvement from some of the high level officers of the NCPD, but it sounds like you aren’t surprised to hear that.”
“That it?”
“Pretty much. I barely got a chance to look at the incomplete files before they dropped it, but before I lost access, I was able to download the original incident report—here.” Her eyes glowed, and Vi suddenly received a data transfer request. Upon accepting, she saw the document in her vision, reading the sparse report on Heimerdinger’s death, the time and the cause the only noteworthy items filled in despite the various other fields on the form. “See, they didn’t write down the names of the witnesses, even though someone called Trauma Team, and—”
“Wait, someone had to call Trauma Team?”
“Yes, I believe it was whichever security guard was with him—”
“You telling me the mayor didn’t have insurance—the kind that calls Trauma Team as soon as somethin’ goes wrong?”
Caitlyn frowned, the fact only seeming to just now occur to her. Down in the streets, Trauma Team didn’t show up for anyone, but corpo agents, politicians, rich folk? They all had the fancy coverage. Trauma Team should’ve been notified the exact instant that Heimerdinger’s heart started to act up. “He must’ve, but… I don’t know, that is odd, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, real weird,” Vi agreed. “Whatever fucked with his heart must’ve also powered off a lot of his implants, but that’s not mentioned in this report.”
“A lot more is excluded from this report than is included, yes,” Caitlyn agreed. “But if we have no idea who the mayor was meeting with, and we don’t know who was there with him at the time or where they even were…”
Vi chewed on her bottom lip. “Guess we start from the other end.”
“With Ambessa?” Vi nodded. “Well, perhaps I can be of more help, then. I may have, ah, run some unauthorized background checks on my mother’s opponents—”
Vi snickered, and Caitlyn glared, although the ferocity in her gaze was either lessening with each sharp look, or Vi was already becoming immune. Caitlyn seemed to notice this, sighing with defeat.
“I have her home address, is what I was going to say,” she explained. “She lives in North Oak—”
“Oh, of course she does—”
“Although, of course, she works in City Center or at the City Hall during the day, so her home should be empty during the daytime.”
“She not have a family living there?”
“Her husband is deceased, her kids all grown and living on their own.”
Vi nodded. “Cool, so we go tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Caitlyn repeated, as Vi got to her feet, stretching her arms. “Should we… plan ahead more first?”
“What kind of planning were you thinking?” Vi wondered. “Can’t you just, fancy scan all the shit when we get there?” Caitlyn frowned at the wording, but her lack of disagreement told Vi that she was right. “Right, so, flick me the coords. We can meet at North Oak late morning?”
“Fine,” Caitlyn agreed, sending the coordinates as requested.
“Cool, anything else?” Caitlyn shook her head, although she still had a bit of a soured expression, not looking quite satisfied. Vi didn’t really care to figure out what that was about if she wasn’t just going to come out with it. “Nova, then guess I’ll catch you tomorrow, cupcake.”
“For the last time, it’s Cait—”
“—lyn,” Vi finished, “I know, but the more pissy you get about it, the more I wanna call you anything but that.” Before Caitlyn could argue, Vi gave a quick nod of her head, said, “Later,” and left the diner. Her bike was back in Heywood, so she headed for the metro to go and get it, eager to fall into bed and end this chaotic night.
“Ooh, North Oak, huh?” Jinx asked through the holo as Vi made her walk through Megabuilding H7 on her way out of her apartment. She had her usual breakfast sandwich in hand, chewing hastily to try and finish before reaching her bike in the garage. “One of the big ass mansions on the hill?”
“Not superstar big,” Vi said around her bite, “but yeah, somewhere there.”
“Damn. I heard they got robot guards at those houses.”
“Good thing I got a netrunner.”
“Yeah, about that, Mylo said he’s coming by my clinic in a little while. You get someone else?”
Vi frowned. “Yeah, there’s been a slight change of plans, Mylo’s out.”
“And who’s the replacement?”
“Better I don’t say, for the client’s sake.”
Jinx let out a pitiful whine. “But I’m your sister, don’t I get to know what other mercs you’re working with? Y’know, just in case you disappear and I need to hunt you down?”
“I’m not going to disappear,” Vi argued, shoving the last of her sandwich in her mouth and swallowing it as the building’s elevator finally reached the garage. “Anyway, Mylo knows who it is, and no, he’s not gonna tell you either, but if I straight up go off the radar, he knows who I was with.”
Jinx grunted. “Bet I can convince him to tell me.”
“C’mon, J, just leave it, it’s not a big deal,” Vi insisted, heading toward her bike.
The sigh that Jinx exhaled was extremely over-dramatized. “Fine,” she stretched out the word to show how disgruntled she was, before asking, “Was he upset getting replaced?”
Vi smirked. “Nah, said himself that this job is out of his league.”
Jinx barked out a surprised and satisfied laugh. “Oh fuck, that’s good shit. Damn, maybe that’s why he’s coming by today. Mentioned he wanted some upgrades.”
“Check on his smart link,” Vi told her, “it overheated yesterday. Maybe try and convince him to get some counter-hack stuff, if his OS can support it.”
“Did your new netrunner hack the shit out of him?” Jinx asked through an audible snicker.
“Maybe, but don’t tell him I told you that part.”
“No promises, you know I love to give him shit. Oh—sorry, gotta delta, customer just walked in. Good luck in rich people central.”
“Thanks,” Vi said with an eyeroll, “don’t short circuit anyone.”
“As if!” The call dropped and Vi chuckled softly at her sister’s antics, climbing onto her bike.
The drive to North Oak wasn’t too bad, about the same distance as driving over to Heywood, only instead of the buildings getting denser, things began to space out, and Vi eyed the curvy road up the huge North Oak hill as she drove closer to it. There was a big sign declaring the area’s name, and around and past it were mansions owned mostly by the richest celebrities in the city.
Ambessa Medarda’s house wasn’t all the way up the hill, but it was still at a spot with a good vantage point over the rest of Westbrook. Vi didn’t drive all the way to her gated property, though, instead parking in a small lot off the roundabout that served as the main entry point into the neighborhood. A black sedan was already parked in the same lot, bright blue eyes eyeing her through the driver side window as Vi shut off her motorcycle and smacked her foot into the kickstand.
“Shouldn’t you wear a helmet riding that thing?” was the first thing Caitlyn said, getting out of her car and tugging a messenger bag over her body.
“Eh. I got a thick skull—literally.” Caitlyn blinked, not getting it. “Chrome, babe.”
The taller woman’s cheeks flushed a little, visibly embarrassed as she crossed her arms. “Oh, I see.”
“Guess yours is more on the techie side,” Vi assumed, brushing her hands over her motorcycle jacket, rolling her shoulders back, standing a little awkwardly in front of Caitlyn, who stood stock still.
“Yes, I can’t say I prioritize reinforcing my skeleton,” Caitlyn muttered dryly. “Come on.”
“You should consider it, though,” Vi reasoned, following as Caitlyn started their trek up the hill and toward Ambessa’s house. “Breaking bones hurts like a bitch.”
“If I break a bone,” Caitlyn deadpanned, “I’ll replace it.”
“Not if you break your skull and flatline before you get the chance.”
Caitlyn flashed her a glare. “My apologies if I’m not interested in replacing every organic piece of my body.”
Vi raised her palms in defense. “Whoa, hey, I didn’t say you should. I got my own hesitations about some implants, too. I think real hard before adding anything new to the mix. It may all be easy as shit to install nowadays, but doesn’t make it any less of a big deal.” Caitlyn hummed, sounding less defensive herself. “What’s your beef with it?”
“I’ve seen what happens when a person basically turns completely into a computer,” Caitlyn stated, although Vi didn’t feel it really answered her question. Still, she decided not to push as she followed Caitlyn along a bend in the road. Then the netrunner started to cut through the foliage on the hill, Vi still on her heel, the two of them having to scale rocky, bush covered terrain to get to the back wall of Ambessa’s property. They’d agreed on this approach via holo text earlier this morning, apparently satisfying Caitlyn’s need for a plan in advance.
They were quiet as they approached the high, stone wall, which rose at least two feet taller than Caitlyn. Vi could easily make the jump, but she glanced at Caitlyn first. “Want me to give you a boost? Don’t really wanna hop over without knowing what I’m getting into.”
“Fine,” Caitlyn agreed, and Vi squatted, slotting her fingers together to make a little step for her. Caitlyn only hesitated a second before stepping on it, and Vi immediately stood, Caitlyn squealing quietly as she teetered for the time it took for her to finally grasp the top of the wall. She peered over the edge as Vi easily supported her, not even breaking a sweat.
“What’re we looking at?”
Caitlyn hummed dismissively, and Vi rolled her eyes, resigned herself to waiting. After about a minute, Caitlyn finally murmured, “Cameras are off now. I took a look through the security system first, and the house appears empty, but there are automated defensive turrets around the building. I’ll need to jack into an access point to shut them down and also to unlock the door.”
Vi lowered Caitlyn to the ground, the woman brushing her clothes off as if they’d gotten dirty from the little lift. “Any idea where we find an access point you can use?”
“There’s one on the roof, which is flat, so that should work,” Caitlyn answered, nodding.
“So… we need to get you on the roof without getting shot by automated turrets?”
Caitlyn nodded again. “Preferably without having to blow them up, also. Do you carry a gun, by the way, or are you only good with your fists?”
Vi’s lips turned down in an unamused frown. “I have a knife—”
Caitlyn tutted, tongue against her teeth, reaching around into her back, and pulled out a second holster and a pistol not unlike the one already at her hip. “I thought you’d say that,” she said, offering the sidearm to Vi, who just blinked. “It’s a smart pistol, you don’t even need to have good aim. You have a smart link, don’t you?” Vi did, it was pretty standard to have one just in case in her line of work.
She took the gun, putting the holster around her waist and turning the device over in her hand. Unconfidently, she attached her smart link to the gun, and blinked in surprise as a targeting system came over her vision. She pointed the gun at a brownish shrub, watching as the self-aim locked on by itself.
“Nice, right?”
“I thought you didn’t want us to shoot at those things?” Vi muttered, unlinking herself from the gun and slotting it in the holster instead.
“Well, ideally, we don’t, but if one starts shooting at us, you’ll probably struggle to get close enough to do any damage with your fists.”
“I can get us around some turrets without being seen,” Vi insisted, unable to help taking offense at the statement. “Can we go over here without getting spotted by one?”
“I think so,” Caitlyn said with a nod, and so Vi offered her hands as a step again, and this time she helped boost Caitlyn all the way up and over the wall, before jumping, grabbing the top of it and hoisting herself over as well.
They crouched on the other side, behind some much more nicely maintained bushes that lined Ambessa’s yard. Vi peeked over them to see the layout of the property, but then a data transfer request came through from Caitlyn, and as it downloaded, she saw a map of the property in her vision. She quickly pinpointed where they were and noted the location of the six turrets surrounding the house. She almost couldn’t believe that someone would have military grade, automated turrets on their home property, but then she remembered what Jinx had said about some people in North Oak having robot guards, and she thanked the stars that these turrets at least didn’t move around, only rotated.
Caitlyn opened her mouth to say something, but Vi cut her off, not wanting to take any more orders from the netrunner. “Come on,” she murmured, peering out behind the bush again, eyeing the closest turret as it rotated away from them, and making a break for the edge of a flagstone patio lined with outdoor couches. She felt Caitlyn right behind her as they darted behind one of the couches, ducking behind it with multiple seconds to spare before the turret rotated back to face them, the couch blocking them from its sensors.
The next time the turret was faced away, they sneaked over to hide between an outdoor kitchen and a massive stone column that supported the sturdy, overhanging ceiling covering this part of the patio. Vi reviewed the map in her head, noting the trash bins behind the house. They wouldn’t be tall enough to get them fully onto the roof, not with a fancy, high-ceiling house like this one, but it was probably their best bet.
Another few well-timed dashes had them crossing the manicured lawn, avoiding a third turret’s sensors and finally ducking behind the trash bins. Vi looked up along the smooth wall of the house, no handholds marking the perfectly maintained clay siding. But there was a window centered in the upper half of the wall, with edges just barely wide enough to grip with fingers. “Think you can hoist yourself up with those window ledges?” Vi asked Caitlyn, who looked at her incredulously.
“No, Vi, not all of us have fingers of steel,” she bit out, glancing down at Vi’s hands.
“Please, I just got these two days ago,” Vi said, wiggling her chrome lined fingers, Caitlyn snapping her gaze away in response to the movement, “and I could’ve still easily gotten myself up there before them.”
“Well, I am the one who needs to get to the roof, unless you’re adept at breaking into security system access points?” Caitlyn’s gaze was narrow, pointed, clearly not wanting to entertain Vi’s teasing.
Vi rolled her eyes, looking at the fence wall nearby, where it got closest to the corner of the house. Staying tight to the wall, she moved over to it, peering around the corner to see only a small, person-sized gap between the house and the wall. She looked up, judging the distance between the top of the stone wall and the roof of the house. She could easily jump it, but…
“What about jumping from the wall to the roof?” Vi wondered, glancing over her shoulder at Caitlyn, who was still a few feet away by the trash bins. Caitlyn got closer to her, still crouched, following her previous eye line up the wall.
“Maybe,” Caitlyn murmured nervously, “but we’ll be in free sight of that turret while we’re on the wall.”
Vi nodded. “Takes, what, ten seconds for them to rotate back around? If we time it right, go one at a time, you should be able to get up there in that time.” Caitlyn looked seriously doubtful, but surprised Vi by nodding anyway. Vi made a platform with her hands again, and Caitlyn shook a little as she stepped onto it. “Okay, remember, you gotta jump right away. If you don’t think you can make it, at least jump back down. Too soon in this operation for you to get shot.”
Caitlyn huffed, nodding.
“I’ll be right behind you.” She glanced back at the turret, peering around their cover just enough to see it, ducked back as soon as it pointed in their direction, and then as soon as it should’ve rotated past, she put all her strength in boosting Caitlyn upward.
Caitlyn, to her credit, seemed to shelve her nerves as she swiftly got atop the wall, stood to her full height, bent her legs and pushed off with obvious strength, her hands barely catching the edge of the roof. “Shit,” she hissed, her boot scuffing the wall, looking fruitlessly for a foothold.
“Hang on, Cait,” Vi breathed out, “turret can’t see you there, just gimme a sec and I’ll get you up.”
Caitlyn grunted, and as soon as the coast was clear again, Vi launched herself up onto the wall. She’d barely stood on top of it before she rocketed toward the roof, pulling herself up, a little sweaty now as she quickly gripped Caitlyn’s wrist. The woman immediately grasped onto her, and she helped pull her up onto the roof with a quiet noise of effort that was hidden by Caitlyn’s panicked gasping as she knelt on the roof, catching her breath, hands shaking a little either from exertion or nerves. Nerves, Vi had to guess, because even though Caitlyn was clearly not as strong as her, she had been a cop, and it was obvious that she wasn’t weak.
“Hey, you’re okay,” Vi soothed her, tentative, resting a hand awkwardly on the woman’s back. “You did good, cupcake.”
That seemed to break Caitlyn out of her stupor, and she looked up at Vi, expression twisting unhappily. “Would you stop calling me that?” she huffed out, still a little breathless as she pulled away from Vi’s touch and got to her feet.
“Aw, but you’re just so sweet,” Vi teased sarcastically, “like a—”
Caitlyn ineffectively shoved her, Vi cutting off with a laugh, before starting a trek across the roof to where some kind of electrical panel was mounted on a big, metal box, a few antennae coming out of its top. Caitlyn didn’t hesitate to connect her personal link to the panel, eyes purple and glazed over as she worked. Vi crouched next to her, surveying the yard, and blew out a breath of relief when she saw all the turrets shut down at the same time, their lights going off, stopping their rotational surveying. After another few seconds, Caitlyn blinked, eyes going blue again as she disconnected. “Door’s unlocked, come on.”
Getting off of the roof was a little less of an ordeal, although Caitlyn only begrudgingly agreed to let Vi drop down first and then catch her. Vi made the whole thing as quick as possible, trying not to linger on the few seconds that she had her arms circled around Caitlyn’s waist, catching her before her feet could come in harsh impact with the concrete. It was a little difficult not to, because Caitlyn’s body was warm and firm, but Vi did her best to push the thought away. Caitlyn brushed her clothes flat as soon as she was released, and Vi said nothing as they navigated to the front door, which slid open for them as soon as Caitlyn tapped its handle.
Vi couldn’t help but pause to take in the luxurious house they found themselves standing in. The ceilings in the open living area were tall, as she’d been able to tell from outside, and plush rugs covered the hardwood floors between a massive half circle couch and the giant TV screen it faced. The dining table surrounded by big windows could seat ten, and the kitchen appeared to be as big as Vi’s whole apartment, even just from what she could barely see from the entrance.
“We need to find her office,” Caitlyn told Vi, glancing back at her to catch her ogling. “Vi?”
“Sorry,” Vi apologized, focusing again and nodding at Caitlyn. “It’s not every day I see how the one percent lives.”
Caitlyn’s lips turned down in a slight frown, and Vi realized that Caitlyn was probably used to seeing houses like this. Her mother was running for mayor, after all, and only the wealthy had the means to do that. The taller woman said nothing as she turned forward and headed toward a hallway, peering down it. “I think it was this way, from what I saw on the cameras.”
Vi followed, still turning over the thoughts in her head. Finally, she asked, “You grow up in a house like this?”
“What?” Caitlyn huffed out, although Vi was pretty sure she was only pretending to have not heard her, hoping Vi would drop it.
She didn’t. “Kirammans are loaded, aren’t they?”
Caitlyn gave her a look of irritation before opening a door in the hallway, glancing into a small bathroom, and moving on to the next door. Only once she’d identified the office and led them inside did she finally say, “I grew up in Charter Hill, actually.”
Vi resisted the urge to scoff at the distinction—Charter Hill was yet another rich area of Westbrook that she’d literally driven through to get to North Oak. “In a penthouse, no doubt.”
“Not a penthouse,” Caitlyn denied, “but it was a rather large apartment, yes. I spent a lot of time in Japantown, though. That’s where my father’s office was before he retired when my mother became Night City’s district attorney.”
Vi blinked in surprise, not having even realized that Cassandra Kiramman held that position. She really did not follow politics. “What was your dad? A corpo agent?”
Caitlyn didn’t deign to look at Vi as she deposited herself in the comfortable looking desk chair in front of Ambessa’s computer. As she prepared to jack into it, she said, “Actually, he was a lawyer as well, privately practicing. He worked with the city’s worker unions, mostly.”
Vi frowned, trying to think of what she knew about the worker unions. “Aren’t half of those unions basically run by the Pilties?” Pilties, the dominant gang in Westbrook. Vi had had plenty of run ins with them over the years, and what they lacked in numbers, they drastically made up for in gear and tech.
“Yes,” Caitlyn stated plainly, plugging in her link, “but that doesn’t mean there aren’t still people in them who need help.”
Caitlyn’s eyes glazed over with purple and Vi skulked around the office, eyeing the fancy décor lining the glass shelves. She couldn’t identify a single item in the room besides the computer that was functional—this was how some people lived, surrounded by nice things just because they could have them. She scoffed, making herself feel better by grabbing a little metal wolf decoration. She planned to pocket it, sell it to some junk shop for a few extra eddies, but Caitlyn had apparently come out of her focus on the computer, tutting.
“Put that back.”
“Why? Not like she needs it or can’t just fucking replace it. You see this place?”
Caitlyn ignored the second question and answered the first. “In case someone finds it on you before you have time to offload it.” Vi bristled hearing the kinda decent point and replaced the wolf model on the shelf.
“Find anything?”
“A lot,” Caitlyn started, before huffing and pushing the chair back from the desk, arms crossed, “of nothing. She keeps nothing but the bare minimum on this system, nothing for work at all. Her email is empty except for upcoming due bills, only house security cam footage in her files.”
Vi frowned, defeated, and rested her hands on her hips. “Maybe she deleted it all afterward?”
“Maybe,” Caitlyn agreed, “but for a plan like this to have worked? There must’ve been multiple people involved. She can’t have deleted everything. Someone has to have something.”
“You said it yourself,” Vi huffed, “system’s got nothin’.”
Caitlyn raised an eyebrow. “This system. She has an office on Corpo Plaza.” Caitlyn stood, stretching her back. “But, everyone knows where that is.”
“So she wouldn’t keep sensitive shit there.”
“Right, well, I mentioned the bill notifications in her email? Looks like she’s paying for a old space in Northside, as recently as last week if she paid her last bill. And that I hadn’t heard about or even found in her background check.”
Despite perking up a little at the news, Vi glared and said, “You couldn’t have started with that? Geez, had me worried for a sec.”
“You’re the only one who gets to have a little fun?” Caitlyn quipped, her tone of voice changing, suddenly becoming playful as she took a step closer to the door, closer to Vi.
Feeling a little disarmed, Vi shifted awkwardly and tried, “Nah, but that was cold.”
“Aw, but I thought I was just so sweet?” the taller woman echoed, leaning close enough that Vi got a whiff of something like vanilla perfume. “Like a cupcake?” Vi opened her mouth to say anything at all, but no words left her lips. She had no coherent thoughts for the moment, and Caitlyn’s eyes practically sparkled—not from her netrunning tech, either, just from the brightening of her face, the slight pull of a genuine smile at the edges of her lips. Vi caught the tiniest glimpse of the first imperfection she’d seen on this woman—a gap in her teeth. Vi felt something turn in her gut, something warm that only belonged there when Vi was wasted with some nobody’s ass in her hands.
She swallowed and tore her gaze away from Caitlyn, turning her body away for good measure. “That bill have an address?”
“Yes,” Caitlyn answered after a beat, stepping around Vi, their arms brushing, and leaving the office. “I used the computer to tell the system to turn everything back on in ten minutes. We need to delta before that happens.”
“And head to Northside?”
“Not yet,” Caitlyn said, heading for the front door with Vi now on her tail. “Tomorrow, hopefully. We need to get eyes on Ambessa, make sure she won’t be there at the same time as us.”
“Oh, yeah, easy, just track one of the biggest public figures in NC.”
Caitlyn flashed her another smile, this one more teasing than soft but no less pretty. “Don’t worry, we’ll go old school. I’ll follow her tomorrow, when she leaves North Oak, and make sure she gets to City Center. Once she arrives, I’ll call you and we meet at Northside?”
“If you’re already gonna be at Corpo Plaza, might as well carpool. I can meet you in Heywood, The Last Drop, you know it?”
“Mm, I don’t think so.”
“Flick you the coords. Unless you’re gonna make me commute ‘cross the city?”
Caitlyn let a little huff but didn’t sound disappointed. “Alright, I’ll ping you when I’m headed there tomorrow.”
“Sounds good.”
They trekked back down to their vehicles in a surprisingly companionable silence, and only once Vi was approaching her bike did she remember she still had Caitlyn’s gun at her waist.
“Oh, this is yours—“
Caitlyn interrupted her when she’d hardly even touched the pistol. “Keep it for now. It might turn out to be useful.”
Vi just nodded and watched Caitlyn open her car door. “Guess I’ll see you tomorrow?” Her voice came out weird, why did she sound so unsure? She sounded like she was still disarmed from Caitlyn looking at her like that, up in Ambessa’s office.
“That you will. Have a nice day, Vi.”
With that, Caitlyn closed herself in her car, pulled out of her parking spot and zipped out of the lot.
Notes:
Sooooo... I wanna hear your thoughts!! A lot has happened already in these last two chapters! I wanna hear what you guys think about Caitlyn and what we know about her backstory so far... but there's more to discover about her so feel free to leave your guesses, but I will not be answering questions at this time :P Hehe I also wanna hear what you guys think from this chapter about Jinx and Vi's relationships, and also from last chapter, and also with all the guys?? I had way more fun writing all of the side characters than I expected, honestly!
Soo there ya have it! Chapter 3 will go up possibly tomorrow or possibly not until Wednesday depending on if my dnd group ends up meeting tomorrow. But you won't have to wait too long, promise <3 In the mean time, definitely leave me your thoughts, and hit me up on tumblr if you wanna! Thank you all so much for reading!! :D
Chapter 3: Steady, Don't Stop
Notes:
Goooood evening my friends!!! I am delighted to bring to you chapter 3 of this fic!! Although I love every fic I write from beginning to end, each one has a chapter that sort of helped it take off, and this is that chapter for The City of Dreams! I had all of this chapter rolling around in my head nonstop before I could finally sit down to write it. It was my first of many favorite chapters in this fic hehe. :D
Second to last glossary bit necessary for the fic:
- Shard: short for datashard (think similar to a USB, except this can slot into your neural link)
- Gonk: slang for idiotEnjoy!!! <3
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Vi dragged her feet a bit as her little group of three turned onto Jig-Jig Street, a crowded hub of shops, food stalls, and various adult entertainment options, squinting for a second to fight the neon lights cutting through the night’s darkness. This was the nightlife of Japantown that Vi was used to, folks huddled in alleyways smoking cigarettes or more illicit drugs, the sounds of people’s pleasure coming from second and third story windows cracked open, stall owners calling out to attract customers. All the while, the smell of beer, sweat, gaudy perfume, and delicious food hung over them, a classic scent to find in Night City.
“I can’t believe you convinced me to let you come out with us,” Jinx sneered at their third companion, Ekko just smirking knowingly as Jinx continued, “don’t you got your Firelight chooms to keep you company?”
“Didn’t you say I might be useful?” Ekko asked back, voice smug. Vi fought an eye-roll before her gaze caught on a stand selling some kind of fried synthetic chicken. Jinx and Ekko followed her when she drifted toward it.
“I guess,” Jinx drawled, “for when I’m still working on my tag, and Vi ends up drunk and chasing after joytoys.”
Vi scoffed at her sister. “Excuse you, I don’t gotta pay girls to hook up with me.” She leaned against the food stall, the employee grinning at her. “Take some of that synth chicken, please.”
“You got it, boss,” the employee said, scooping some onto a plate and sliding it to Vi as she transferred them the cost.
She dug into the meal and finally looked back at Jinx to add, “Can’t deny the drunk part, though. And we should get started on that part real quick.”
Jinx muttered something under her breath as she rolled her eyes, but she followed as Vi and Ekko led them to one of the clubs as soon as Vi had finished her food. A scantily dressed woman leaned into their space as they entered, whispering words of seduction, but Vi wasn’t really fazed as she beelined it for the bar.
“So how’s work been for you, Vi?” Ekko wondered, after they’d thrown back a round of shots and Vi was working on downing her old fashioned a little quicker than was necessary.
“It’s good,” Vi answered. “Been no shortage of gigs to grab lately. Just working on one right now, kinda slow going but making progress.”
Jinx snarked out, “You prefer the quick and dirty shit, in and out with your fists swinging, don’t ya sis?”
Vi smirked, finishing her drink and waving at the bartender for a second. “You know me so well, J.”
Ekko smirked, and Vi had a feeling he was about to start a volley with her sister. Sure enough, he said, “Quick and dirty? Sounds like how Jinx does her ripping.”
Jinx didn’t even bat an eye. “Like you’d know, never even been in my shop while I’m workin’. And, actually, y’know—you might learn somethin’ if you did stop by.”
“Oh, this you asking me to drop by?”
That got a scoff out of Jinx as she turned her head, braids smacking against both Vi and Ekko on either side of her. “You fuckin’ wish, boy wonder.” The nickname was said with aggressive sarcasm, and Vi hid a smile behind her third drink of the night.
Jinx dragged them out of the club after Vi’s fourth drink, and the lights were blurring pleasantly in her vision as she followed them into one of the emptier alleys nearby. Jinx dropped the bag she had with her to the ground and starting to pull cans of spray paint from it. Vi sat down against the wall opposite the one that Jinx was scoping out to tag, watching her and Ekko talk quietly about whatever her plan was.
Her thoughts drifted as she sat there, a jumbled mix of what she might do with the rest of the night and the fact that she had to be available at a reasonable time in the morning for when Caitlyn would call her, assuming Ambessa went to her City Center office as expected. Thinking about Caitlyn brought her back to this morning and the smoothly executed break in. It had actually been really convenient having such a skilled netrunner at her side, and Caitlyn hadn’t been too bad to work with.
Her mind surfaced that moment in Ambessa’s office, Caitlyn joking around, giving her that genuine smile. Her gut twisted and she fisted her hands into her pants, trying and failing to push the image out of her mind. She had no business thinking this rich, former cop was beautiful and interesting, especially not when they were working together. When she was also a cocky, bossy netrunner. When she was the daughter of her clients and one wrong move could fuck up this whole job. When Vi had been sober during that electric moment, and Caitlyn wasn’t some random in a club.
She sighed and rubbed a hand over her face, focusing back on her sister, who was already spray-painting on the wall, a large arc that Vi was pretty sure would be the top of her signature monkey’s head. Ekko leaned against the wall a few feet away, lips moving as he chatted with Jinx, Vi not absorbing any of it. After a beat, she jerked to stand, drawing her companions’ attention.
“You good, sis?” Jinx checked in, looking only a little concerned.
“Yeah. Gonna go home, I think.”
“Already?” Ekko asked, frowning.
“Yeah. Work to do in the mornin’, so.”
“Get home safe, Vi,” Jinx instructed, a hint of warmth in her voice, the most sincere she ever sounded, even though Vi knew that her sister loved her more than anything. They’d never been very good at emotions, the two of them, not spoken ones at least.
“Text ya,” Vi mumbled with a nod, before heading off in the direction of the nearest metro station.
There was a metro stop right by her megabuilding, so her need to walk was limited, thankfully. Even after sitting on the train for over half an hour, drinking so much in such a short period of time hadn’t done her balance any favors, and when she finally slipped inside her apartment, she practically collapsed onto the stiff couch with a groan.
She shot a message off to Jinx to let her know she was home safe, and then she stared up at her ceiling, the dim lights illuminating the room in a soft, orange glow. Her eyes unfocused as she debated whether to throw herself in the shower before she slept, but then a worse idea came to her mind. Without thinking much of it, she flicked her contact info over to one she already had. She told herself she’d give it ten minutes before giving up, showering and sleeping. It only took four for a message to come through.
Lena
Hey, Vi, it was nice meeting you the other day.
Vi waited, getting the feeling that another message was on its way. And sure enough…
You busy?
Barely another half hour later, Vi opened her door to let in the blonde bombshell whose attention she’d stolen from Claggor. They barely spoke before Vi had her pinned against the wall by her closet, their lips fused in a hot, messy kiss. Vi’s hands trailed along the woman’s curves, grasping at her thighs and then pressing under the tight fabric of her dress, pushing the hem up a minuscule amount. Lena arched into her, a dirty moan slipping out of her lips as Vi moved her lips to the woman’s neck. She barely even noticed the metal stripes hinting at implants between areas of soft, unmarred skin as she tasted and sucked and bit, ruining the other woman. The top of her dress was roughly pushed down as Vi moved her mouth to Lena’s nipple, briefly noticing the tattoos surrounding them but not caring to note what they were.
Before she knew it, she’d lifted the woman completely in her arms and started carrying her to her bed. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she recalled a moment from earlier today, when a different waist had been in her arms, when she’d caught Caitlyn hopping down from the roof—
She buried the thought by tossing the woman who was actually here with her—the shorter, curvier blonde woman—into her bed. Lena didn’t hesitate to peel her dress off, revealing her lack of underwear, giving Vi full access and a sultry look meant to tempt her. Vi didn’t squander the opportunity either, falling to her knees next to her bed and gripping Lena’s thighs, tugging her forward, the woman’s waiting cunt meeting her mouth.
She felt more sober, more in control, by the time she’d tired Lena out. “Should we do this again sometime?” Lena asked, breathless and hair a mess as she tugged her dress back on.
Vi took a few steps toward her bathroom. “I’m not really a two-night stand kinda girl.”
Lena frowned like that hadn’t been what she’d meant, and Vi had to keep herself from laughing. This woman knew nothing about her, except for that she was hot and gave great head. Maybe that was enough for some people to be interested in trying something more than a hookup, but Vi knew better than to think good sex at all correlated to a good relationship. “Oh, okay,” Lena finally said, before taking a breath, gathering courage maybe for her next question, “Not a date kind of person either?”
“Definitely not,” Vi answered, unable to stifle her chuckle now. “Was a good time, though. Thanks for coming by.”
Lena, still frowning, just nodded and got to her feet, wobbling a little. “Guess I’ll just…” She gestured to the apartment door and Vi nodded.
“Yeah. Get home okay.”
Lena nodded again before silently making her exit, hesitating for a beat while standing over the threshold before finally disappearing. Vi let out a sigh and slipped into her bathroom, stripping off her clothes that hadn’t even come off yet and throwing herself into the shower.
Vi’s headache was mostly gone by the time she reached The Last Drop in the morning, after having received a first ping from Caitlyn that she was tailing Ambessa out of North Oak. The little bit of it that remained was probably due more to stress than her drunken night, even after she’d tried to clear her mind during her metro ride here. She was trying to put the whole previous evening out of her mind. Vi was ready to throw herself into this job, hoping that whatever they managed to get from Ambessa’s secret office would lead them easily to a next step. She wanted to get this over with, this working with Caitlyn, so she could box up all memory of the woman these past few days and pack them away in the back of her mind forever.
Caitlyn pinged her that she’d seen Ambessa going into her Corpo Plaza office building and that she was headed to Vista del Rey to pick her up, and Vi sighed where she was leaning against the outside wall of Vander’s bar. It being so early, of course the place was closed, and the street was pretty quiet, too. Cars drove by, and folks heading to work begrudgingly ambled down the sidewalks, but Night City was still waking up.
Most of Night City, anyway.
Vi heard the gangoons before she saw them, raucous laughter at a disgusting joke that Vi only picked up the punchline of. She stood a little straighter, looking to her right as three men wearing Chembaron paraphernalia slipped out of an alleyway, one with a cigarette between his fingers and an assault rifle on a strap over his shoulder, the second with a long knife at his waist, and one also having what looked to Vi like a machete. Their eyes were reddened, like their wake time was coming to an end, and each sported a lot of obvious chrome on the parts of them that were visible. Knife guy had an entirely metallic arm, the one with the big gun had a shiny silver plate where his scalp should be, and the third had matte metal for a throat, extending up to his chin.
Vi didn’t move as the three gang members strolled in her direction, and she forced her gaze straight ahead before they could notice her. That didn’t stop them from quieting when they did, though, one of them whistling sharply as they came closer and then stopped in front of The Last Drop door next to her.
“Little bit early to be waiting for this shithole to open,” the guy with the assault rifle said, sucking off of his cigarette one more time before dropping it and grinding it into the concrete with his tattered boot. “Unless you been here since last night.”
Vi gave the gangoons a half second glance before saying flatly, “Fuck off.”
“Aw, what’s wrong, sweet thing?” the one with the machete asked, inching closer. “Haven’t seen you around these parts, you lost?”
Vi finally directed her full attention to them, observing their matching sneers. “If you haven’t seen me around, means you’re new here,” she told them, lowering her voice a little, keeping it rough. “You fuck with me, Vander might come outta retirement.”
They snickered, not taking her nearly as seriously as they should. Vi was used to people underestimating her, though, and regularly used it to her advantage. She was noticeably bulked up, that was no question, but with minimal visible chrome and no big, threatening gun, she looked like an easy mark. Even today, with Caitlyn’s pistol strapped to her thigh, leather jacket over a cropped white shirt, facial piercings and bits of her tattoos visible, this trio clearly thought she stood no chance against them.
That was the one potential downside of the fame Vi so desperately wanted in this city. The legendary mercs were recognizable to even the most isolated citizens of Night City, and while that meant people took them seriously, it also meant that no one ever underestimated them.
“Vander doesn’t have the balls,” the guy with the metal arm claimed. “Man barely leaves his little hideout these days. Like to see him try and stand up against the full force of the Chembarons.”
Vi rolled her eyes, pissing off the three men, who apparently decided to cut to the chase. “Eddies. Now,” the one with the assault rifle growled, stepping closer to her. Well, that was stupid. What use was a gun like that when Vi was within arm’s reach?
The other two guys barely had time to even think about reaching for their weapons by the time Vi had grabbed the gun, yanked it and the man it was attached to forward, kneed the guy straight in the nuts, and punched his jaw hard enough for him to have flown to the ground if Vi didn’t still have a hold on his gun strap.
The second guy had drawn his machete, and Vi blocked his swing with the gun, pushing back with the full force of her arm implants and causing the man to stumble back. While he caught his footing, she twisted perfectly to position the assault rifle guy between her and the metal arm guy, whose swinging knife ended up in his buddy’s shoulder instead of hers.
She stomped on the back of the guy’s knee as he cried out in pain, letting him crumple to the ground with his gun still on him, and dodged another swipe of a machete before landing two punches, one after the other, on each of the other two. Another punch to the metal arm guy had him on the ground, and Vi blocked the third machete swing with the palm her bare hand. It cut through the skin of her palm, but her armor and gorilla arm implants kept her hand in one piece as she brought her other forearm down hard across the man’s wrist, hearing it crack before he screamed and dropped the machete.
A car that Vi didn’t recognize was pulling up as all three men crumpled around her, and she was bracing herself for some more Chembarons before she noticed Caitlyn in the driver seat through the window that was rolling down. Caitlyn had both brows raised as she took in the scene, and Vi rolled her shoulders, stepping around the mess to get to the passenger seat. Metal arm guy reached for a fallen knife, but Vi kicked it away without a care in the world before swinging open the passenger side door, climbing in and saying, “Not your usual wheels.”
Caitlyn balked at her casual comment, peering past her at the Chembarons on the ground. “What—are you—”
“I’m fine, cupcake,” Vi said, rubbing her bloody palm over her pants, “let’s delta.”
Caitlyn didn’t argue, rolling up the window and pulling away from The Last Drop, starting the drive toward Northside. “You’re bleeding,” she said, stopping at a red light and glancing at her. “My bag should have some bandages in it.” She nodded to a bag sitting by Vi’s foot in the passenger side, and Vi leaned forward to dig around in it, the contents of it seeming pretty random. She found some ace bandages and used them to wrap the cut on her left hand tightly. She’d swing by Jinx’s place later, make sure the old machete wasn’t going to possibly give her an infection, but she’d be fine for now.
She said as much when Caitlyn asked if she was okay to continue with their plan for the day, and Caitlyn didn’t try to convince her otherwise.
“Who were those guys? What did they want with you?”
“Chembarons,” Vi answered, “eddies. Too bad they didn’t know who they were fucking with. What happens when you start getting cocky in enemy territory.”
Caitlyn glanced at Vi with furrowed eyebrows. “But you’re not a Firelight.”
“No,” Vi confirmed, “but I grew up on the streets of Heywood. My old man used to be a big merc when he was young, tried out being a fixer for a couple years, then retired altogether couple decades ago. He owns The Last Drop, everyone knows him, no one fucks with him. Firelights are smart enough to know his kids, too, but the Chembarons are gonks.”
Caitlyn hummed in quiet acknowledgement, not saying anything in response as she drove onto the highway.
Vi looked around the cabin of the car, finally taking in the old truck that didn’t look anything like Caitlyn’s fancy sedan. “What’s with the car? This yours?”
“No,” Caitlyn answered, not sounding as offended as Vi expected her to. “It’s a rental.”
“Your rental?”
Caitlyn pursed her lips. “No. I’m borrowing it.”
Vi couldn’t help but grin, sitting up a little straighter and leaning a little over the center console. “Hold on. Cait, did you steal a car?”
“No,” Caitlyn huffed, her cheeks turning a dark red that said otherwise. “I borrowed a rental car that wasn’t currently in use.”
“Pretty shitty rental car.”
“It was from some moving company in Arroyo that rents trucks out to people,” Caitlyn huffed out. “And shitty was the point. We’re under cover. I didn’t want to risk Ambessa spotting my car.”
“She didn’t catch you were following her, though, right?”
“Of course not. If she had, I’d have told you, and we wouldn’t be here right now.”
Vi nodded, leaning back in the passenger seat. “Good.”
They were driving across the river into Watson, the district Northside was in, Vi looking out at the bright sign for Megabuilding H10 at the edge of Little China, when Caitlyn spoke again. “So, you grew up in Heywood. Still live there, near your father’s bar?”
Vi glanced over at her, curious at the fact that she was just casually asking a question like that, but Caitlyn kept her gaze steady on the bridge ahead of her. “Nah,” she answered. “I’m in SanDom, now, Rancho Coronado. I’ve got preem digs, too—Megabuilding preem.” She said the last part sarcastically, guessing that Caitlyn probably had some fancy apartment near where she grew up.
“Ah, I see,” Caitlyn murmured, either thoughtful or distracted, Vi couldn’t exactly tell. After a second, though, she continued, “That’s the one on Oak, right? Seven? Biggest one in Night City?”
“That’s the one,” Vi confirmed. “Packed full, too. Soon as someone moves out, unit’s filled within a few days.”
“It’s convenient at least, I’d imagine? Given the market in the building, and how close it is to the metro?”
Vi laughed a little at Caitlyn pointing out upsides as if Vi was genuinely complaining. “Yeah, don’t get me wrong, it’s no Charter Hill apartment building, but it’s cheap and it’s safer than living under an overpass, so. Won’t hear me complain.”
Caitlyn nodded, quiet again, apparently done asking Vi questions for no reason. Vi bit on the inside of her lip, watched out the window at Kabuki passing them by, and wondered if she was entitled to ask one back now. She gave in after a second.
“Okay, I got a question for you now.”
Caitlyn gave her a wary look. “I can’t promise I’ll have an answer.”
“You said netrunning isn’t what got you onto the NCPD—also implied you didn’t learn your netrunning on the force. So, what’d you do before?” Vi highly doubted that Caitlyn had just casually learned the skill, not when she’d been raised by wealthy lawyers and probably had no reason or encouragement to do so.
The sigh Caitlyn exhaled warned Vi that maybe her suspicions were correct. “Before the NCPD, I worked for NetWatch.”
Vi blinked, having expected something a little different. Caitlyn’s whole vibe screamed corpo, and while NetWatch was a huge organization, it wasn’t exactly a greedy, scheming mega-corp. The global organization policed the Net, working against cybercrimes. Vi knew there was more to it, but she didn’t know enough about the Net, even, to know the details. “Huh, so you were a NetCop. Guess that makes sense. So how’d you end up a real cop with NCPD?”
Caitlyn’s lips twisted in a frown, but she only hesitated for a brief moment before answering. “I joined NetWatch because I wanted to do something that… helped people, I guess. I wanted to make a difference, like I saw my parents do, but I knew being a lawyer wasn’t for me, and in the state of this city… it feels like their jobs get less and less effective each year. So, I considered working for a corporation—”
Vi scoffed, and Caitlyn ignored her.
“—but quickly realized that even those that produce important technology are…”
“Skeevy motherfuckers?”
Caitlyn actually laughed a little at that, eyebrows knitting. “Yes, precisely. I went with NetWatch because cyberware and the Net is such a big part of society and I thought I could help protect people that way. But even NetWatch has its issues. I got really good at what I did, was working my way up the ranks surprisingly fast for someone my age, and ended up on a project working to keep people from crossing the Blackwall, and—”
“The fuck is the Blackwall?”
Caitlyn gave her a sideways glance, interest evident in her expression. “It’s a virtual firewall. NetWatch touts it as being so important since it prevents rogue AIs that infect the Net from breaking through all of cyberspace. But… it’s not that simple, and the stuff I learned working on that project—I didn’t like what I found. I’m not sure I should get into the details—”
“Probably wouldn’t understand them if you did.”
“Ah, right, well. Then I’ll leave it at that. I left NetWatch because, like I said, I just wanted to help people, and I didn’t feel like I was really doing that there.” Vi couldn’t help but let out a harsh chuckle at that, the cold sound turning a little warmer when Caitlyn practically pouted at her. “What?”
“I just—I know where this is going,” Vi told her, surprised at how soft her voice came out, “and I can’t believe there are people who really believe that the NCPD is this perfect group of good-doers.”
Caitlyn sighed. “I suppose I knew that the whole department couldn’t be perfect, I mean… nothing in Night City ever is. I knew the job would be gruesome, that people would get hurt, but I don’t know, I believed at the time that I could do more good than bad with the badge. And part of me still believes that, I mean—I have done good there. I’ve saved victims from abusers and put money embezzlers behind bars and arrested serial killers. I have helped people, like I wanted, it’s just... the system, the department, isn’t perfect. Far from it.”
Vi opened her mouth to say something scummy, but when she saw Caitlyn’s expression, the genuinely upset frown, she closed it, thought through her words a little more. “Guess I get it,” she murmured. “Cops kill people all the time trying to do the right thing, but I mean—I’ve done the same shit. Whatever helps my client. Sometimes people get caught in the crossfire, whether or not they end up dead or hurt or just fucked. Just feels different when it’s NCPD, because, like, they’re supposed to be sworn to protect the city, or whatever. But they prioritize people based on status and wealth and background.”
Caitlyn nodded in understanding. They were leaving Kabuki, driving into Northside now. Vi chewed on her bottom lip, unsure what else to say until Caitlyn asserted, “This whole city is just… fucked.”
Another laugh bubbled out of Vi, this one light and amused, and she looked back at the woman with a smirk. “Yeah, I think that’s a fair assessment.” She exhaled. “Nothin’ quite like it, though.”
Caitlyn returned the smirk with a small smile before focusing ahead of them. “We’re almost to the office. It’s actually its own building—just a small one. I’m going to park on the street.”
“Sounds good.”
“You have the gun I gave you, right?”
Vi patted right above the holster on her thigh. “Got it.”
“Good. Hopefully we won’t need it.”
Caitlyn parallel parked the truck across the street from the building which, like a lot of Northside, looked pretty old and rundown. The roof was metal and didn’t look very sturdy above the chipping brick wall. A camera surveyed the front of the building, but after a few seconds of Caitlyn’s eyes glazing over and holding up a finger for Vi to wait before getting out of the car, it was turning itself off.
“Are there any others?” Vi asked, assuming Caitlyn must’ve checked. And sure enough, Caitlyn nodded in confirmation.
“A few inside. No people on the premises, though.”
Vi hummed in acknowledgment and they climbed out of the car, Vi glancing around to take in the surroundings. There were some folks on the sidewalks, maybe some gang activity happening a couple properties down. No one seemed to even glance their way as they crossed the street and approached the building.
Instead of going up to the front door, Caitlyn led them around to the side of the building to a window she must’ve spotted during her perusal of the cameras. The metal shutters were pulled down over it, but not securely latched at the bottom. “Can you pull this up?”
“Who do you think you’re talkin’ to?” Vi asked teasingly, resisting the urge to flex since Caitlyn was already rolling her eyes. So she just smirked as she gripped the metal shutters and pushed up, forcing them to retract until they were pushed all the way into their little alcove at the top of the window. Caitlyn was already climbing inside when they clicked securely in place, and Vi scrambled to follow her.
The few cameras they passed turned off as soon as Caitlyn was able to get a glimpse of them, and Vi followed her through a few rooms—mostly tidy with minimal furniture—until they reached an office. Unlike Ambessa’s home office, this one had shelves cluttered with actual useful things. Mostly tech and boxes of more tech and old documents, but Vi raised an eyebrow at the various types of weapon ammo lined across one specific shelf. There was a safe in the corner of the room, too, and Vi was all too tempted to try and crack it.
Caitlyn, on the other hand, was already jacked into the computer on the office’s desk, getting straight to business. So Vi knelt in front of the safe, eyeing the mechanical mechanism that locked it. Not a keypad, not digital. No netrunner could crack this thing.
Vi wasn’t very savvy with physical tech, not nearly as smart or skilled with this kind of thing as her sister was, but she had a little experience of her own. Plus some fancy chrome, of course. She began to turn the number dial on the safe. She couldn’t listen for the telltale clicking inside, but with the implants in her hands, if she focused intently enough, she could feel the exact weight of each click.
“Alright, I’ve got something,” Caitlyn said, distracting Vi halfway through and causing her to puff out some air in annoyance. “Vi, what are you doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?” Vi snapped back, looking over where Caitlyn had apparently just come out of her netrunning to notice what she was up to. “Tryna crack some rich bitch’s safe.” Caitlyn frowned, and Vi sighed, taking her hand off the dial and standing upright. “What did you find?”
“It looks like Ambessa wasn’t here in the days around Heimerdinger’s death,” Caitlyn started, “but some others were. Morning of, one of them used the computer as a proxy to download some data off of a high security chip. I can’t see what the data is, but I looked at the camera feed from that day and was able to id the guy who downloaded it.”
Vi frowned. “Doesn’t mean much if we don’t know what the data was. You see where the chip ended up?” Caitlyn crossed her arms over her chest, looking a little dejectedly down at the safe Vi had been trying to crack. “Damn, why’d you fucking scold me like a disappointed dad, then?”
“Like a disappointed dad?” Caitlyn repeated, stepping away from the computer and closer to the safe.
“Yeah, not all of us know what it’s like to have a mom,” Vi snarked without thinking, biting on her tongue when Caitlyn looked at her with a mix of surprise and sympathy. Before she could say anything thoughtful or sweet, Vi hurried out, “Don’t worry about it Cait, I’m just fucking around. Are we getting into the safe or not? Because you already made me fuck up once.”
“How were you intending to crack it?” Caitlyn wondered doubtfully.
“Sometimes, depending on the lock, the chrome in my hands kinda lets me feel the differences in the clicks. Doesn’t always work, though.” She leaned against the wall, looking down at the safe. “Doesn’t connect to the Net, right?”
“No,” Caitlyn agreed. “It looks like a standard three digit combination. You’d think she’d use something more secure…”
“I mean, not like it’s exactly easy to get into it,” Vi argued. “Want me to try, or you got a better idea?”
Caitlyn sighed. “Give it a shot.”
Vi got back down in front of the safe, and she could practically feel Caitlyn’s anxiety buzzing through the air. “Relax, babe, you’re not helping.”
Caitlyn didn’t even complain about the pet name, just muttered, “Sorry.”
“What’s got you so nervous?”
“Just a bad feeling,” Caitlyn answered. “We had jobs like this sometimes on the force. We’d go in armed to the nines, find no one and no resistance. Everything seemed too easy. Then, as soon as we let our guard down… bomb goes off, or a machine gun starts shooting.”
“Wouldn’t you be able to tell if someone’s coming? I mean—Mylo would usually like… scan something connected to an access point, and he could identify any and everyone also connected to it.”
Caitlyn nodded. “Yes, but only if they’re connected via the same intranet.” She shook her head. “Just hurry, please? I don’t get bad feelings like this often.”
Vi decided not to tease or mess with the other woman, focusing on her task and the feeling in the tips of her fingers. It took her a few long minutes, but finally, the lock clicked softly open. She and Caitlyn both let out heavy exhales of relief, and Vi opened the safe to reveal a neat row of really nice guns, a few money shards, and, when she pushed aside the weapons, she saw the single data chip hiding in the back.
She grabbed the chip and the money shards—what was the harm, really? She passed the former to Caitlyn, who didn’t seem to care much about what else Vi had taken. She beelined it back to the computer, inserting the chip and her personal link again.
“Can you access it?”
“Yes, I’m downloading it now, one moment. Hm, it’s encrypted, I need a second…”
Vi nodded, not worried about the time. She took the time to cash in her stolen money shards, inserting them into her neural link and watching the eddies appear in her account with a smirk.
“Okay, encryption broken, it looks like—oh, fuck—”
“What?” Vi demanded, coming over to look at the computer, although its screen didn’t display anything of note. Whatever Caitlyn had found was all in her head.
“I think the decryption triggered some sort of hidden signal,” Caitlyn rushed out, detaching from the computer and yanking the chip out of its slot. She threw it into her bag. “I can’t tell where it went, I could try and trace it but I feel it might be better if we just—”
They heard shouting and the screech of tires from behind the building, and Vi’s eyes widened. “Delta,” she finished for the taller woman, “yeah, okay, you got what we need, though?”
“Yes, I haven’t made sense of it yet, but yes.”
“Good, c’mon.”
They rushed out of the office and headed for the window they’d come in through, and Vi barely reacted in time as bullets flew in through the opening. She pushed Caitlyn to the ground and fell next to her, breathing heavy.
“Fuck,” Vi muttered. “Can you—”
Caitlyn was already looking up at the nearest camera, eyes glowing purple. “There are five on foot outside, they came in two cars. Looks like—I can’t tell for sure, but maybe more on their way.”
“Who? NCPD, private security?”
Caitlyn blinked as her eyes returned to their sharp blue and redirected to look at Vi. “They’re wearing the same sort of insignias as the guys bothering you earlier.”
“Chembarons?” Vi demanded. “In Watson? The fuck are they doing up here? This is all Mox territory.”
“I don’t know, but—”
Another round of bullets fired through the window, and a gruff voice yelled, “They’re hiding, box them in!”
“Like hell,” Vi muttered, resting a hand on Caitlyn’s shoulder for a moment. “Alright, listen, Cait. We’re going out the front door, they’re not going to expect that.” She pulled Caitlyn’s smart pistol out of its holster. “Looks like this thing might be useful after all. I’ll take lead, cover me?”
“Yes,” Caitlyn breathed out, and as Vi rose to a crouch, ready to head to the door, she said, “Wait—I have smoke grenades, hold on.” She dug in her bag for a second, pulling one out and handing it to Vi. “Just smoke. It goes off, we run for the truck?”
Vi nodded, taking the grenade. They made their way to the front door, and Vi found that the access pad was happy to open it for her from the inside. That, or Caitlyn had already hacked it for her. Either way, Vi hovered her palm over the panel, took a breath, and time slowed to a crawl.
She brought her hand onto the panel, and the instant that the door began to slide open, she’d already pulled the pin on the grenade, throwing it straight out. There were shouts from the men on the ground, and then a huge burst of smoke enveloped the sidewalk and path up to the building. Vi didn’t hesitate, still crouching as she ran out into the smoke, linked up to the smart gun, letting it tell her where her targets were.
She wasn’t sure if the gun was aiming to kill or to maim, but she didn’t really care as she fired, hearing the bullets hit their mark. Behind her, Caitlyn shot her own gun off in a different direction. All the while, they ran straight out through the smoke. Vi barely managed to not trip off of the curb when they reached the street, and by then the smoke was starting to clear.
She grabbed the driver side door and yanked it open. “What are you doing?” Caitlyn demanded, even as she fired another shot, puncturing the tire of a bulky, grey van filled with Chembarons.
The van veered and rammed into a chainlink fence on the neighboring property, and Vi yelled, “I’m driving, get the fuck in!”
Thankfully, Caitlyn obeyed, running to the passenger side and clambering inside, tossing a key onto the center console next to Vi, who quickly powered on the vehicle and stepped on the gas without even thinking. As the truck roared forward, Caitlyn leaned out the window with her pistol, and Vi heard a few shots, quiet thanks to the silencer but not completely silent, in quick succession. Heard the unmistakable sound of them hitting their marks.
“Shit, those smart guns are no joke, huh?”
“Yours is a smart gun,” Caitlyn snapped, producing more ammo from her pockets and reloading the pistol. “This is a tech pistol.”
Vi heard shots fired hitting the back of the truck, and she yanked the steering wheel to the right as they came up to an intersection. The light was red, but civilian cars were already stopping thanks to the commotion, unlike the nearby pedestrians who were screaming and running for cover, leaving the intersection clear enough as Vi turned onto the next street. The screech of multiple sets of tires told her that they were being closely tailed. Through a shaky breath, she said, “Oh okay, so you just got crazy fucking aim. Wanna keep using that to get these assholes off our ass?”
Caitlyn huffed, starting to lean out the window again, only to jerk back inside to narrowly avoid a round of fire. “Um, I’m not sure that’s going to work,” she said, voice tinged with obvious panic.
“Alright, then buckle up, cupcake. I got a feeling you’re not gonna like this.”
Caitlyn secured herself in the seat as best as she could, just in time for Vi to take another sharp turn, hearing bullets ricochet off of the bed of the truck before one hit the back window, the glass shattering in the back seat. “Shit,” Caitlyn breathed out, shaky. “Shit, Vi, there’s—” She turned in her seat, peering out the broken back window, eyes no doubt going purple. “There’re three cars, and they’re gaining on us. This piece of shit truck isn’t fast enough.”
Under any other circumstances, Vi would have noticed, maybe even commented on, how much she enjoyed hearing Caitlyn curse so breathlessly. Under the present circumstance, though, Vi only pressed harder on the gas, squeezing every bit of juice from the truck possible. The slight boost in speed allowed her to clear an intersection right before a delivery truck entered from the crossing street, slamming on its breaks too late. The gangoons’ cars had to swerve around it, buying them precious time. Vi turned the car again and realized with relief that she was driving them into the outskirts of the city. The last thing they needed was NCPD getting involved.
Caitlyn turned to look behind them and sucked in a breath. “Vi, two of them just turned off on separate streets, they’re—”
“Tryna cut us off,” Vi finished, voice tight, tense, low, and she stepped even harder on the gas, but the truck had no more to give. “Fuck, this road’s about to open up, there’s just one more intersection they can use without going off road. I could try and turn tail, or…” She glanced at the buildings on either side of the street that were quickly going to disappear. “We could ditch the car?”
“Is it that intersection?” Caitlyn asked, looking ahead of them again and then adding, just as they cleared the rows of buildings, “keep going, don’t slow down.”
The buildings no longer in the way, Vi could see the Chembarons’ cars zooming down the crossing road from either side. They weren’t slowing down either, clearly prepared to risk injury in a major accident if it meant stopping this beat up truck. “Cait, if I don’t stop, we’re getting smashed—and not in the fun way.”
“Just keep going,” Caitlyn hissed, and now she was leaning far forward in her seat, eyes glowing purple as she glanced between the cars. They were almost at the intersection, so close to driving right between them. The bed of the truck at least, if not the cabin, was definitely going to be sandwiched. There would probably be a lot of fire and shrapnel. Jinx was going to be pissed at Vi for having to pull it all out of her—if she made it back to her sister, that is.
She gulped, the milliseconds ticking down. “Cait—”
“Don’t stop,” Caitlyn growled, commanded, and Vi kept her foot flattening the gas pedal, hands on the steering wheel, even as she squeezed her eyes shut and prepared for the impact, thinking of her sister and hoping that the armor plates under her skin would keep her alive.
And then—two explosions, milliseconds apart, and the truck was jostled, but Vi opened her eyes and—they were in one piece. The truck was in one piece. She looked in the rearview as she continued out on the open road toward the oil fields and saw two burning piles of metal where the two cars had been, a truck’s width apart. Behind them, the third car had screeched to a stop, its occupants clambering out to avoid the fires.
Vi looked at Caitlyn in bewilderment, the other woman breathing heavily. “What the fuck? Did you just…”
Caitlyn tried to suck in a deep breath, leaning back against the headrest, but it sounded like it still came too short. “Couldn’t do all three at once,” she managed to say, before forcing out a longer exhale, successfully taking a deep breath on her second attempt. “But I hit the third’s emergency break.”
“Cait,” Vi said, still barely comprehending what had just happened, “you just blew up two cars.”
“Yes,” Caitlyn agreed, sounding a little more steady again. “And once again, I’m reminded why people are meant to eat before a busy day.”
Vi shook her head in disbelief, slowing the car and taking the next turn to head back south. “Shit, cupcake, that was… fuck, I thought we were about to die.”
Caitlyn turned to look at her, eyes bright and blue, a small smile on her lips despite everything. “I was not about to die in a car chase with a merc, Vi. I have standards.”
Vi laughed, bewildered and shocked and so fucking relieved. “Fuck, fair enough. Guess I kinda owe you, then?”
“I’ll gladly take repayment in the form of food.”
“Well, lucky for you, there’s a sick burger place in Rancho Coronado that I‘ve been craving lately, if you’re cool with going that far.”
“Please, I’d like to get as far away from this place as you’re willing to take us.”
Vi grinned, heart still racing from the adrenaline of their near death experience. “You got it, Cait.”
Notes:
... soooo?! what'd we think?! :D We had the Jig-Jig Street big, Vi getting (giving?) some action, Vi absolutely decimating some gonks, and a little heist turned shootout turned car chase!?! Y'all, the car chase was something I was soooo excited to write, literally I'm not sure I'd had that much fun writing a singular scene in a while. I really hope you guys liked it!! I wanna hear all the thoughts, seriously!!
I know this fic is a pretty niche concept and I'm so happy that there are others excited to continue following along with it!! It's only going to get more and more interesting from here, folks! Chapter 4 picks up exactly where we've left off, so get hyped for that! Probably tomorrow :)
Thank you for all of the kind comments, as well as the kudos, and honestly just thank you to anyone who is reading, you all make me smile and I'm honored that you want to spend some of your time reading my story <3 See you all soon!
Chapter 4: The Street Kid Secret
Notes:
Good afternoon my friends!! I am soooo happy that y'all are enjoying this so far!! I've been doing my final pass re-read over the last few days and I'm almost done, and I really gotta say I am really proud of how it all turned out, so I'm really excited to keep on sharing! There's some really fun stuff in this chapter, if I do say so myself!
Last glossary item to mention! Hopefully I didn't miss anything crucial, but if any of y'all ever don't understand a term, feel free to ask!
- Braindance: Aka “BD”. Immersive virtual reality landscape where you can watch and experience a scene/situation recorded by a person as if experiencing it yourself.Enjoy!!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Caitlyn didn’t seem put off by the grungy burger shop that Vi led her into in the middle of the crowded, busy subdistrict that Vi lived in. It wasn’t quaint like the diner they’d been to in Japantown, but Caitlyn didn’t hesitate to sink into a booth, the plasticky fabric scratched and peeling, and sigh with relief. A waiter approached them, barely grunting a greeting.
Vi nodded at him, saying, “Two cheeseburgers.”
“Make one a double,” Caitlyn interjected.
“Make ‘em both doubles,” Vi corrected with a chuckle. “And two coffees.”
The waiter bobbed his head in a nod before trudging off to put the order in, Vi looked at Caitlyn with a raised eyebrow. “Netrunning take that much out of you?”
“Not exactly,” Caitlyn said with a sigh, “it’s more the fault of my propensity to forget food exists. I get a bit… distracted by my work, usually. The netrunning is exhausting on my cyber system, though. Can only do so much at once.”
“Apparently, so much includes blowing up two cars at a time.” Vi still couldn’t believe that had happened.
Caitlyn feigned offense as she corrected, “And hitting another’s emergency brake.”
Vi tried to smirk but realized it was maybe more of a soft smile when Caitlyn’s appeared so genuine. “I’ve never seen ‘running like that. It was actually kinda—“
“Impressive? Badass?”
Vi chewed on her bottom lip, used the interruption to second guess what she was actually going to say. She was still caught up in the moment, no longer physically breathless with adrenaline but mentally still in the truck, feeling the vibration from the explosions. Fuck it. “Hot.”
Caitlyn’s cheeks immediately burned red, but she played the compliment off well by arching one eyebrow. “Very high praise coming from someone who’s proclaimed herself to hate netrunners.” Vi shrugged, shying away from the callout. But Caitlyn wasn’t going to let her ignore it. “What’s that about anyway?”
Vi looked away from Caitlyn, eyes landing on a half broken mirror hung up over one of the other booths. She could only catch half of her reflection in it, the scar on her lip and eyebrow, the tattoo on her face, one cloudy grey eye all staring back at her. Sighing, she spoke while refusing to make eye contact even with herself.
“There’s not really one reason,” Vi told her, shrugging, trying to act casual until she gave in, looking from her face to Caitlyn’s, meeting her eyes. “I just… you wouldn’t get it, but growing up, I had one thing protecting me and my little sister. One thing that would keep us from becoming another tally to add to the Night City body count of the day. And it was my body, my hands.” Vi swallowed, looked down at her hands on the table, tapped her fingers against it. “I got beat the shit out of, so I learned to defend myself. Learned how to solve problems with some muscle and a little trash talk. Then I find out—there are people who never had to do that, just used money they got some other way to put some extra tech in their heads, can just look at something the right way and break it, get paid a fuckload of eddies to do something I’ve done with my fists over and over since I was a fucking kid.”
She realized how emphatic she sounded, hesitated, then peeked up. Caitlyn was nodding slowly, expression stoic, completely unreadable. Vi bit on her bottom lip, looked away again. Then, Caitlyn’s voice came out with a pretty lilt. “You grew up hating them. They didn’t have to struggle exactly like you did.”
“I guess,” Vi murmured, before breathing out a tired laugh. “Doesn’t help that netrunners are the people most likely to fuck up my jobs. They’re the one who usually manage to almost kill me.”
She dared to look up at Caitlyn again, and found an amused smile on her lips. “I’m happy to go on the list of those who have actually kept you from getting killed.” Vi made a playfully disgruntled face as she watched Caitlyn’s expression go from pleased to smug. The taller woman puffed up a little on her side of the booth. “I saved your life.”
“Don’t let it get to your head, cupcake.” For the first time, Caitlyn’s face didn’t twist into any type of annoyance hearing the nickname. “We wouldn’t’ve gotten outta there without my expert driving either, so. I kinda saved yours first.”
Caitlyn didn’t argue, still just smiling.
Vi had to look away, feeling warmth rising to her cheeks. Why was Caitlyn looking at her like that? Why could she look like that, with a smile that soft, genuine, beautiful? Why could she throw Vi off of her game without even trying all of a sudden? And why couldn’t Vi turn it off, this flushed, shy, speechless aura that came over her?
“You know, I didn’t grow up hating mercs.”
Vi looked up in surprise, pulled out of her thoughts by the offered statement, finding Caitlyn looking at her with something different now. Something… mischievous, like the look she’d given her yesterday in Ambessa’s office. “No?” Vi forced out, voice rougher than it had any right to be.
“Nope. Actually, I used to hear stories about the legendary mercs of the city, and I wanted to be one of them.”
“No way.”
“Yes way,” Caitlyn countered, chuckling. “My mother was furious when I declared to her my biggest dream at just eight years old. She started on a lecture about responsibility and duty that has lasted ever since.”
“Responsibility and duty mean something different to the Kirammans than to NetWatch, NCPD? Shouldn’t she have loved what you did end up picking?”
Caitlyn tutted, clearly at her parents and not at Vi as she glanced away and said, “Right, I should’ve said, responsibility and duty to family. As in, I should do whatever they predetermine for me.”
Vi huffed a surprised laugh, drawing Caitlyn’s attention back to her. “Okay well, there we can relate.”
“Oh really?” Caitlyn wondered, clearly intrigued.
“Mmhmm. Vander, my old man, he’s got this whole dream for me, carryin’ on his legacy. And—it’s not that I don’t want to, y’know? It’s just, I wanna live life for me a little too. I spent my entire childhood taking care of my little sister. Like, even after Vander took us in… she was my responsibility. And now she’s all grown up, can take of herself. Hell, does a better job than I do taking care of myself.”
Caitlyn’s small smile was starting to become addictive to look at. Vi thought she could get lost in it. “You deserve to live life for yourself, Vi.” Vi ducked her head, half shrugging. “No, seriously, what you’ve said, that makes a lot of sense.” Another beat. “Your… career, being a merc… it’s the life you want to live for yourself, then?”
Vi blinked, completely taken aback by the question. She opened her mouth to say, yeah, duh, but nothing came out.
She hadn’t thought of an answer in the thirty seconds it took for their waiter to return, double cheeseburgers in hand with two coffees. They both let the topic be forgotten as Caitlyn bit into her burger, making a bit of a mess of her face, and Vi chuckled as she practically moaned in relief. “Shit,” she murmured through her chewing, before swallowing and clarifying, “This might be one of the best ways to eat synth beef.”
“Right? I gotta assume it’s as good as the real thing, like. No way it got better than this.”
They ate in a companionable silence, and when they finished, Vi paid for the both of them. On their way back out to the truck, Caitlyn smiled. “Thanks for the burgers, Vi.”
“Least I could do,” Vi laughed out, once again thinking back to the explosion. “So what’s next?”
“I barely finished decrypting that chip back in Northside. I need to parse through the data, figure out what it was, if it’s actually relevant.”
Vi groaned. “Better fucking be.” She glanced at the truck. “And what about these old wheels?”
“I should probably… deposit it back in Arroyo,” Caitlyn murmured, cheeks a little pink.
“Right, from the moving company you didn’t steal it from.”
“Precisely. It’s near megabuilding six.”
Vi crooked an eyebrow. “Should we… go drop off your not-stolen vehicle together, then? That’s closer to my place than we are right now, so saves me a little walking.”
“Yes, that’d be good. I could walk back with you, too, maybe, just—to get the metro home.”
Nodding, Vi started to the passenger side of the truck, letting Caitlyn take the wheel again. As they climbed in, she said, “Actually, though, might be good if you don’t go through all that data by yourself. I mean—it’s my gig, should probably be there with you to talk it out.”
Caitlyn gave her a sideways glance. “I guess if you’re not opposed, we could go over it all at your place? Figure out our next steps? It’s still early in the day, after all.”
Vi was already nodding. “Sure, yeah.”
She ignored the way her heart was beating a little too fast as Caitlyn drove them toward Arroyo, ignored the excitement of spending more of the day with this woman.
Bringing Caitlyn back to her apartment was a bad idea.
Vi’s bedspread was still a mess, and she had of course not bothered to change her sheets after last night’s guest had left. Vi took one look at the wall where she’d pinned Lena, mouth on her neck, lifting her with ease, and felt heat crawling up her neck. “Sorry for the mess,” she muttered, moving to slide her closet door shut before hurrying to her bed, tossing the comforter over the dirtied sheets.
Caitlyn didn’t seem to be paying any attention to the overall space, though, making a beeline for the little couch where Vi’s laptop was set. “Does this have a secure connection?” Caitlyn wondered.
“Uh, probably not.”
Caitlyn was already jacking in, scoffing. “Goodness, Vi. Anyone could do anything on your computer.”
“Yeah, well. I never use that thing, not for job related stuff. Just for getting bills and browsing the net. N’case you couldn’t tell, I’m not great with the techie stuff.”
Caitlyn chuckled, shaking her head as she sarcastically asked, “Really? You’ve made it impossible to guess!”
Vi rolled her eyes, moving to sit on the couch next to Caitlyn, who, despite being jacked in, was visibly snooping in Vi’s inbox.
“Speaking of bills, looks like you’re coming up on renewal for this place. Is that why you took this job? Paying rent?”
“Nah, I’ve got the money. Just haven’t decided if I’m gonna renew again.”
Caitlyn raised an eyebrow. “Where would you move to?”
Vi shrugged one shoulder, leaning back on the couch. “Was looking at some places in Japantown, near uh, Jig-Jig Street? They’re mostly small, but in a cozy way, not as much of a…” She looked around her space. “Copy paste kinda vibe. But I dunno. My old man wants me back in Heywood.”
Caitlyn hummed thoughtfully. “Japantown is nice,” is what she decided to say, “although I don’t exactly get the appeal of living so close to Jig-Jig Street.”
Vi smirked. “No? Not a fan of the, uh, local entertainment? I bet you prefer braindances, full immersion without anyone actually there with you.”
Caitlyn rolled her eyes. “I have little experience with either. I simply meant because of the noise.”
“Little experience? So not none. You telling me former NCPD Officer Caitlyn Kiramman, daughter of the mayoral candidate Cassandra Kiramman, goes to strip clubs and watches sexy braindances?”
Caitlyn scoffed, but the blush on her cheeks gave her away and Vi couldn’t help it when her smirk widened into a grin. “I’ve dabbled. Now—can we focus on parsing this data?”
“You’re the one who started snooping through my messages, babe,” Vi snarked.
“I was locking down your connection,” Caitlyn insisted, cheeks even redder, “I just happened to notice the email, I wasn’t snooping!”
“Uh huh.”
Caitlyn gave a quiet harrumph as she proceeded to transfer data from her neural link onto Vi’s computer, now that it was apparently secure. Vi watched as files began to appear on the laptop screen, showing zoomed in bits of some kind of digital blueprint. She furrowed her eyebrows trying to make sense of it, and then the pieces came together to form one singular document. Vi still had no idea what she was looking at, but one glance at Caitlyn told her that wasn’t the case for the netrunner.
“What is it?”
“It’s instructions for building a virus,” Caitlyn answered, a little breathless, almost excited. Vi couldn’t help perking up as well, realizing that this was very likely related to the case. “I’m not quite sure what kind of cyberware it’s supposed to be built on, but once constructed, downloading a virus like this would do some serious damage to someone’s implants.”
“Serious damage like… shutting off a bunch of them and overwhelming the circulatory system?”
Caitlyn nodded. “Definitely looks like it. So, seems like my mother was really onto something. Ambessa did orchestrate the mayor’s death.”
“Most likely,” Vi agreed, “but this isn’t enough to prove it. People probably make viruses like this all the time, we need to connect it all the way to Heimerdinger. Otherwise your parents can’t do shit with this.”
Humming, Caitlyn jacked out of Vi’s computer, the files staying visible on the screen. “You’re right. And I still have no proof about the NCPD’s involvement either. We need to figure out how this virus made it into Heimerdinger’s implants.” She looked at Vi with confidence, her intense blue eyes making Vi’s heart jump. “Like I said earlier, I was able to identify the individual who downloaded these instructions. A man named Deckard Adams, seems young but he does have a small bounty on him. Not known to be affiliated with a gang as far as I can tell.”
Vi raised an eyebrow. “You just got a database of everyone in Night City or what?”
“My Kiroshi optics system has access to a lot of data and artificial intelligence, it’s not exactly a singular database, but—” Vi chuckling prompted Caitlyn to snap her mouth shut and then glare. “What?”
“It’s called a rhetorical question, Cait,” Vi teased. “Anyway, sounds like this kid’s probably a new merc on the streets. Lemme call my fixer, see if he’s got any idea where we might find him.”
Caitlyn just nodded, and Vi called Benzo on the holo. She would usually text first with the same courtesy that he gave her, but given the sensitivity of the job and the fact that she’d like an answer as soon as possible, she figured he wouldn’t mind.
He picked up after two rings. “Vi. How’s our little investigation going?”
“Not bad, actually,” Vi answered. “Got a good lead, but I’m looking for a guy, Deckard Adams? Seems he may have moved a virus for our culprit, like to know where he took it.”
“Deckard, Deckard…” Benzo was muttering under his breath, and Vi gave him a second to run a search through his probably endless supply of information. Being a fixer, Benzo’s whole job was to know the right people, and Vi was certain he was her best shot at finding this kid. And sure enough, he finally said, “Ah, got him. Haven’t worked with him, looks like he’s been linked a few times to Silco.”
“Silco?” Vi repeated, not recognizing the name.
“Was a small time fixer for a while, out of Pacifica,” Benzo explained.
“Was?”
Benzo grunted in confirmation. “Wrapped himself up in the Chembarons. Not officially their leader, but in the high up ranks now.”
“Chembarons, huh?” Vi murmured, feeling Caitlyn’s eyes on her. The other woman couldn’t hear Benzo speaking thanks to the holo, but she seemed to be intently paying attention to Vi’s words. “Funny, that. Just had a run in with some Chembarons while digging up some data. In Northside.”
“That’s unusual. You thinking the Chembarons were involved with our client’s problem?”
“Gotta be,” Vi confirmed, thinking about the chain of events earlier—Caitlyn accidentally triggering some kind of signal in Ambessa’s office, the Chembarons immediately showing up. “Anyway, this Deckard guy, he part of the gang, too?”
“Not as far as I can tell,” Benzo answered, confirming Caitlyn’s data as well. “I got a tentative address for him—just the building. Flicking you the cords.”
“Thanks, Benz.”
“Keep me posted.”
“‘Course.” The holo call dropped and Vi looked at Caitlyn, who was waiting expectantly. “Got a building address for him, you’re right, not a gang member but seems to work with the Chembarons.”
Caitlyn was frowning as she reached the same conclusion as Vi and Benzo. “So Ambessa was working really closely with the Chembarons? Still is, I guess, if they are her muscle up in Northside. I know Ambessa could pay them well, but why would they care to get involved in something like this? I rarely hear about Night City gangs working with anyone other than themselves.”
“Yeah, whole thing is weird. But the Chembarons are based in Pacifica, right by Dogtown. Could be that they want the same thing as Ambessa—take back the other district, knock out the regime there and take control? They’re certainly trying to get into as many corners of NC as they can lately.” Vi shrugged. “Anyway. Thinking I’ll go check out this building, see if I can find this kid.” In the second of silence that followed, Vi met Caitlyn’s steady, unreadable gaze. “Coming with?”
“Might as well,” Caitlyn answered without skipping a beat, “in case you need me to blow up any more cars for you. Where’s the address?”
“Coast View,” Vi said, unsurprised by Caitlyn’s frown.
“Oh, wonderful, right in the heart of the Chembarons' territory.”
Vi shrugged. “We’ll be fine.” She stood from the couch, rolling her shoulders. “Let’s get going.”
Caitlyn followed her motions, getting to her feet as well. “Do you have a car, or just that motorcycle? We could take the metro back to my place, grab my car, or just take the metro all the way to Pacifica—”
“Hold on,” Vi interrupted, “what do you mean just that motorcycle? It’s an ARCH Nazaré, might not be brand spanking new but it’s a good ass bike.”
“A good ass bike for one person and, in case you didn’t notice, there are two of us.”
“You can fit on the bike with me,” Vi insisted, watching Caitlyn’s expression of nervousness, the pink coming to her cheeks, and the way her hands suddenly fiddled with the hem of her jacket. “Oh… unless you’re scared?”
“I’m not scared,” Caitlyn immediately huffed, her face steeling. “It’s just that not all of us have bones of steel, and motorcycles are dangerous.”
“Cupcake, driving in Night City at all is dangerous,” Vi snarked. “Come on, it’s fast, you’ll love it. And I promise I’m a better driver than what I showed you in Northside today.” She grinned with her teeth, raising her eyebrows expectantly and waiting for Caitlyn to give in. She honestly wouldn’t have minded swinging over to Caitlyn’s to get her car, but now that the idea was in her head, she desperately wanted the netrunner on her bike with her. To show her the experience, partially, but maybe, selfishly, to see what it felt like for Caitlyn’s arms to wrap around her waist, for her to press close against Vi’s back.
Vi knew that Caitlyn was stubborn, and she was starting to think that she wouldn’t win their stare off, but then the taller woman finally let out a clipped exhale and said, “Fine. But only because it’s the fastest option, and I’ve already spent too long being annoyed by you today.”
Vi smiled a little as she turned to open the door, knowing that Caitlyn wasn’t being serious. It was obvious by now, the two of them had great synergy. They may come from completely different backgrounds, have two completely different skillsets, and half of their talking was bickering, but… it was kinda nice, in some strange way. Fun, exciting even. Vi had a feeling that it would take a long time for her to actually get bored or annoyed by Caitlyn, and that was an unusual feeling.
When they reached the garage level of the building, Vi led Caitlyn to her bike and watched the woman’s nerves become visible again. “Don’t worry, Cait, I’ve been driving this thing for years, and I’ve never gotten in an accident.”
Caitlyn quirked an unbelieving eyebrow. “Never?”
“Never,” Vi confirmed.
Caitlyn looked down at the roughed up silver and black metal of the bike, resting her fingers on the scratches and a small dent in the back. “Then what’s all this?”
“I said I’ve never gotten in an accident. Doesn’t mean this morning was my first car chase. Some guys’ve gotten on my ass before, scratched her up, but this thing is fast as fuck. That’s why it’s lasted so long. Come on, babe, it’ll be fine.”
They got on the bike and Vi scooted to the front of the seat to make room for Caitlyn, who wasn’t shy at all about practically gluing her front to Vi’s back, arms wrapping around her tight. “Vi, if you kill us after I went through all that effort to save our asses…”
Vi grinned and laughed brightly. “Guess I’d see you in hell?”
Caitlyn just groaned a little and Vi kicked the bike into gear, backing out of her spot and zipping out of the garage. Caitlyn’s breath was warm and quick against the back of her neck, arms impressively strong in the way they held on, and Vi thought she could almost feel Caitlyn’s heart pounding. Vi hadn’t had anyone on her bike with her other than Jinx, and this was different, so different. When they pulled onto the highway and Vi picked up speed, Caitlyn pressed her face into Vi’s neck, hiding her eyes, and Vi’s mouth dried up, throat tightening. Her heart was racing, too fast to just be from the adrenaline of riding her bike.
It didn’t take them long to reach the building in Coast View, the subdistrict of Pacifica bordering Heywood, and Caitlyn’s grip hadn’t loosened at all during the entire drive. When Vi pulled into a trashed parking lot behind the building, the woman practically threw herself off of the bike, wobbling as soon as she got to her feet. Vi was quick to hop off as well, reaching instinctively to steady Caitlyn, a hand landing on her waist. Their eyes snapped to meet in a fiery gaze for a second before Vi yanked her hand away, scratching behind her neck, trying to seem casual.
“You good?”
“I’m fine,” Caitlyn breathed out, “I just—I think I’d like to never do that again.”
Vi felt small swirl of regret in her stomach as she frowned. “Shit—sorry, I really didn’t think you’d hate it that much.”
Caitlyn swallowed, shook her head, closed her eyes. “No it—I mean—it wasn’t awful, I just—fuck, fine, it was terrifying.”
Vi would’ve expected herself to smirk and poke fun at the admission, but instead just smiled sympathetically. “Sorry, cupcake.” Even the teasing nickname came out sounding covered in affection, and Vi tried again to lean into playful teasing, something safer. “You good to go, or need a breather?” Try as she might, though, the question was genuine when it left her lips.
Caitlyn didn’t seem to notice Vi’s internal battle as she shook her head. “I’m okay, let’s go.”
They made their way into the apartment building, stepping around trash bags piled by its front door, finding a cluttered front desk manned by a woman with fully chrome hands, dramatic, orange makeup, and natural brown hair pulled into a tight braid starting from the top of her head.
“How are we going to—”
Vi ignored Caitlyn, sauntering up to the desk and resting an arm casually on it. She drew the woman’s attention instantly, angled, electric green eyes roving over her before meeting hers. “Hey, beautiful, we got a delivery for Deckard Adams.”
“I can accept packages for residents,” the woman said, voice a little accented and sounding intrigued.
Vi clicked her tongue and frowned a little. “Got specific orders to hand it to him.”
“If you know the unit number, you’re free to do so.”
“Shit, ‘course. Problem is, I’m still kinda new at this, forgot to get the guy’s unit number from him.” Vi huffed, ran a hand through her hair and subtly flexed her biceps. She shook her head and made eye contact with the woman again, lowering her voice a little. “My boss is gonna fucking kill me if I fuck up another delivery. Think you could do me a solid, look up his unit number? I’d seriously owe you.”
The woman looked conflicted, clearly wanting to help Vi out but not wanting to go against policy. “I’m really sorry,” she finally said, “but I cannot give out resident unit numbers.” Vi opened her mouth to try one last time, but then her holo received a message from Caitlyn.
Caitlyn
Got the unit number from the computer.
Vi forced herself not to look back at Caitlyn, and she forced a sigh, nodding at the receptionist. “No worries, ‘course, you’re just doing your job. We have the floor number, don’t we?” She glanced over at Caitlyn, who was staring at her with a sharp gaze and took a second to blink and nod. “Cool, then we’ll try our luck knocking on doors.” Glancing back at the woman, she said, “Thanks anyway, babe.”
The two of them made their way toward the building’s elevator, finding it out of order and turning instead to head up the staircase. As soon as they were out of earshot of the front desk, Caitlyn said evenly, “I didn’t realize you were such a womanizer.”
Vi actually laughed aloud at that, looking at Caitlyn and finding her adamantly avoiding her gaze. “No? Didn’t get that vibe?” Caitlyn said nothing, turning up onto the next flight of stairs. “One thing I’ve learned on the streets, Cait? Sometimes all you need to get what you want is the right words in the right tone of voice.”
“You did sound very practiced. I can’t imagine you use that skill only for jobs?”
As they climbed one more flight of stairs, up to the top floor of the building, Vi wondered if she was accurately detecting something wounded in Caitlyn’s voice. Not exactly hurt, but… “Hold on,” Vi said through another chuckle, although Caitlyn did not stop in her determined climbing of the stairs, “you jealous that you’re not the only one who I call nicknames like that?”
Caitlyn scoffed. “Why on earth would that make me jealous? I’ve told you countless times to call me by my name, and I’ve only given up now that you’ve proven to want to be nothing but insufferable.”
“Ah, right, okay,” Vi teased, “so you’re just jealous that you can’t pull chicks as easy as me?”
“Actually, I have never had a problem ‘pulling chicks,’” Caitlyn snapped, reaching the top floor landing. “Now can you focus? We have a job to do.”
“Once again, you were the one who asked.”
Vi followed Caitlyn down the hallway until they stopped in front of one door in particular. Vi didn’t hesitate to lift her hand and rap her knuckles against it. “What are we going to do?” Caitlyn asked quietly, a little frustrated probably at the lack of preparation. “Just politely ask—”
The door slid open, revealing a young guy with minimal chrome visible on him, just some kind of grip implants on his palms and the standard neural and smart link. He raised his eyebrows at the two of them. “Can I help you?”
“Deckard, right?” Vi asked, leaning casually on the door frame and crossing her arms over her chest.
“Who’s asking?”
Vi gave him a false smile. “Me, dumbass. Can we come in?”
“No, no fucking—” Vi ignored the answer, shouldering past the kid and glancing around his apartment as he sputtered. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”
“Pretty shitty digs,” Vi commented, the apartment in a worse state than even her old ass megabuilding unit. “Guess you’re pretty new at this merc business, huh? Not making big bucks yet? What are you, seventeen?”
“I’m nineteen,” Deckard snapped. Young and hotheaded. This was going to be easy. Caitlyn was inching into the room now, too, since Deckard was focused on Vi, following her into his space. “Who sent you? What do you want?”
“Just wanna ask you a few questions, choom,” Vi said, grabbing a rolling chair out from under a dust covered desk and sitting on it backward, resting her forearms on the backrest. She glanced at Caitlyn and then the door, and Caitlyn got the hint, closing and leaning against it. She wasn’t quite the imposing figure that Vi was, but with her height, that hard, confident gaze, and the pistol holstered at her waist, she certainly didn’t look like a pushover. Deckard gave her a single glance before his eyes were back on Vi, clearly picking her out as the bigger threat. That might’ve made Vi feel extra cocky two days ago, but now, after watching Caitlyn literally blow up two cars full of Chembarons, she knew that anyone who underestimated her was an idiot.
“I’m not really feeling up to giving answers,” Deckard said coldly, but his voice was too unsteady, his body language too tense, to be intimidating.
“Fucking sucks,” Vi volleyed back, “for you. We’re gettin’ them one way or another. About a month ago, you got an easy, high paying gig, didn’t you?”
“I get lots of gigs,” he growled, “you might gotta be more specific.”
“Up in Northside, download some data, deliver it. Ringing any bells?” Vi raised an eyebrow, watching Deckard’s hands clench a little into fists, his eyebrow twitching. This kid was either brand new to being a merc, or he really didn’t have the stomach for it.
“Maybe.”
“We just wanna know where that data ended up,” Vi told him, relaxing her posture and leaning back casually. “Then we’ll get outta your hair.”
“Why do you wanna know?” Deckard snapped. “What was the data?”
Vi glanced at Caitlyn, their eyes meeting for a brief moment in shared acknowledgement that this kid didn’t even know what he’d been involved in. That made sense, Vi supposed. He’d basically been a pack mule, ferrying the encrypted data from one place to another. “You sure you wanna know, bud? Get even more mixed up into shit you clearly aren’t cut out for?” Deckard hesitated, and Vi abruptly stood, startling him into stumbling backward. “Listen, kid. You’re new at this, so I’ma let you into a little trade secret. Don’t take a job without knowing what kinda folks it might bring to your doorstep. You’re lucky it’s just us, cuz I don’t wanna fuck you up, you know? Waste of my time. But I do need to know where you delivered that data, so if I gotta, I will.”
Deckard clenched his fists, drawing up to his full height, clearly doing his best to appear as threatening as possible. “I may be new at this, but if you think I can’t hold my own against two gonks, you clearly didn’t grow up in Pacifica.”
“Nah, Heywood,” Vi told him. “Kinda doubt you can go head to head with me, but I know for a fact you don’t stand a chance against my friend, here.”
Deckard scoffed, looking over at Caitlyn, and as if they’d planned it, her blue eyes glowed purple. Deckard’s legs suddenly gave out, and he crumpled halfway to the floor before trying to fling himself backward, hand reaching for the wall to support himself. Vi easily grabbed the lapel of his jacket, yanking him upright with her own strength, since his legs had been temporarily rendered useless by whatever Caitlyn had done to his system.
“Come on, kid, don’t make this any harder on yourself. Where’d you bring that data?”
“To some tech lab in Arroyo,” Deckard caved immediately, his feet starting to scramble a little as his movement gradually returned to him. Vi was holding him a bit to high up for him to get steady on his feet, though.
“Which company’s lab?” Caitlyn asked, stepping closer and causing Deckard to flinch.
“SaloTech,” Deckard answered without hesitation. “Met some corpo dickhead, transferred him the data, and that’s it, I swear!”
With a hum of acknowledgment, Vi asked, “Got an id on the dickhead?”
“No,” Deckard panted out, “just…”
Raising an eyebrow, fist tightening in the fabric of the jacket, Vi prompted, “Just what?”
“I heard one of the other corpo rats call him a lead engineer.”
Vi released Deckard’s collar, letting him stumble to get his footing and defensively smooth out his shirt. All the while, he glared at the two of them, at least brave enough not to completely fall apart. “Nova, looks like we got what we need, then. Thanks for the help, kid.” She clapped him on the back, jostling him before heading for the door. She stopped just in front of it, glancing over her shoulder past Caitlyn, gaze leveling on the kid again. “Oh—and you know how this goes, don’t you Deckard? You run back to Silco, tell him about this conversation? Not only does he fire your ass for squealing, but next time I see you, I won’t be so gentle. We understand each other?”
Deckard gulped as he nodded, and Vi finally opened the door, leaving the apartment with Caitlyn on her heel.
When they were on the stairs headed back down, Caitlyn still hadn’t said anything, so Vi asked, “That went well, yeah?”
Blue eyes met hers briefly before bouncing away, but Vi didn’t miss how Caitlyn’s pupils were a little bigger than normal. Her lips were tucked into what looked like an unintentional pout, and before she spoke, her tongue darted out to wet them. Her voice was a little uneven as she finally said, “Yes, I suppose it did. Seems you’re right about the right words in the right tone of voice.”
Vi watched Caitlyn with curiosity, trying to figure out what she was thinking. Certainly she wasn’t uncomfortable with interrogation, not as a former NCPD officer. Caitlyn’s eyes flicked back over to her, widening a minuscule amount when she realized that Vi was already looking at her. “What?”
Caitlyn blinked. “What?”
“You look startled.”
“I’m not. I’ve just—I’ve seen a lot of officers question and threaten people for information, and you just…. You just did it so easily, like it was nothing. You knew exactly what to say to him.”
Vi nodded and gave a half shrug. “I mean, street kid to street kid. I was a helluva lot better at my job at his age than he is now, but I still know what it’s like to be him.” She raised an eyebrow at Caitlyn. “You impressed?”
Caitlyn sniffed, looking away and trying to act uncaring. “Minutely.”
“Uh huh.” She hesitated for a single breath, questioning whether to let her next words loose. It was too fun not to, though. “It didn’t do it for your detective kink?”
Caitlyn’s entire face flushed red as they cleared the last staircase, and she did her best to glare at Vi, who could not stop grinning.
“It totally did, didn’t it?”
“Shut up, Vi!”
“Aw—I won’t make fun of you if it’s gonna embarrass you so bad, but you don’t gotta deny it—”
Caitlyn shoved Vi and beelined it out of the building. Vi couldn’t help but laugh as she rushed after her, smile still glued to her face, not even thinking to glance at the receptionist on her way out. She nearly barreled into Caitlyn as she exited the building, ready to keep teasing until she realized why the woman had stopped, eyeing the four Chembarons standing by a light box advertisement that was flickering inconsistently.
“Huh,” one of the guys was saying, rolling one shoulder as his eyes skimmed over Caitlyn. “You were right, Farah, it is her. NCPD gonk who shut down Antoine’s shop, put him behind bars.”
“Hey sweetheart, recognize me?” The woman stepping closer to Caitlyn while asking had purple hair shaved almost all the way down, some kind of optics cyberware completely covering her natural eyes and making it impossible to see what she was looking at.
“Can’t say that I do,” Caitlyn said sternly, not sounding shaken. “I think you’re mistaken. I’m not NCPD.”
“Yeah, ya think she’d be slumming it with me if she was?” Vi asked, slipping around Caitlyn to make herself fully visible and bumping into Caitlyn playfully before standing up straighter.
“Nice try, but I’d remember this bitch anywhere, ‘specially with that stick up her ass,” the woman doubled down. “Don’t care if you’re NCPD now or a fucking Firelight. You put my brother in prison, what, four months ago? My parting gift leave a mark, sweetheart?” The woman reached for Caitlyn’s waist, and before Vi could react, Caitlyn had ahold of her wrist, twisting her arm behind her back and pulling her pistol out of its holster, barrel to the woman’s head, as the other three Chembarons drew their own weapons.
“Whoa, whoa,” Vi jumped in, hands raised, hoping to deescalate the situation before they had the whole gang swarming them from the rest of Pacifica. “Think there’s been some kinda misunderstanding. My girl’s not from ‘round here, definitely no cop, and she’s just a bit… sensitive. We’ll let your girl go, you let us delta outta your district, everyone’s happy.”
Caitlyn cut Vi a scathing look but didn’t refute the story. Instead, her eyes glowed purple for a split second, and then she looked between the other three, and finally back at Vi. Somehow, Vi pieced the silently proposed plan together well enough and, hands still raised, took a slight step closer to the gang members. “Like fuck we’ll just let you go,” a burly man growled through a mustache. “We got a score to settle with ‘your girl.’”
Vi sighed. “Alright, man, but remember I tried to let things be easy.” She’d barely finished her sentence before the three guys suddenly reacted to their own skin like it was burning them, one of them fumbling with their weapon, the other smacking at some of his chrome as it actually sparked a flame. Vi didn’t hesitate to grab the one closest to her, knocking him out easily thanks to the distraction. Caitlyn was slamming the butt of her gun into the woman’s head at the same time, causing her to crumple to the ground. Vi turned in time to knock her out, too, and the other two, who were still crying out from the cyberware overheating in their bodies, were easy to follow up on.
As soon as all four were down, Caitlyn said in a terse voice, “We’ve overstayed our welcome, let’s go.”
“Where we going?” Vi asked, jumping to follow the netrunner as she hurried toward the parking lot. “You don’t wanna take the metro or something? My bike scared the shit outta you.”
“I am not walking to a metro station in Pacifica,” Caitlyn huffed, “not after that. I can handle the motorcycle one more time, can you just take me to my place? I’ll send you the address.”
“Sure, but what about SaloTech?” Vi asked quickly, finally catching up with Caitlyn and walking briskly alongside her. Caitlyn’s expression was set in stone, looking pissed off and totally in focus. “Hey, you good, cupcake?”
“I’m fine,” Caitlyn snapped rather unconvincingly. “I’m fed up with today. And we can’t just walk into SaloTech’s lab, we need to prepare a plan, so we’ll reconvene tomorrow. After we’ve both recovered from all of today’s shit.”
“Yeah, not often I get to kick Chembaron ass three times in one day.” Vi glanced at Caitlyn, hoping for a crack in her mask, but none came. She stopped by Vi’s bike and waited impatiently, so Vi just let out a breath and climbed on.
Caitlyn held on tight for the ride again, but Vi could feel how tense and uncomfortable she was. Vi went over their teasing conversation in her head, from before the run in with the gang, wondering if she’d overstepped and genuinely upset Caitlyn. She couldn’t stop thinking about it as she followed the roads toward Caitlyn‘s place.
And when she pulled up in front of a sleek, clean apartment building in Charter Hill, and Caitlyn hurriedly got off the bike, Vi called, “Hey, wait—”
“We’ll talk tomorrow, Vi,” Caitlyn snapped, already headed for the glass entry door of the building.
“Caitlyn,” Vi barked, getting off the bike herself and jogging after the woman, who slowed hearing her name. Her jaw was still tight, but her eyes were a little unsure as she looked over her shoulder. “I’m sorry if I overstepped with the—with giving you shit. I was just fucking around, I didn’t mean—”
Caitlyn let out a huff, but it was less frustrated and more resigned, and Vi went quiet, pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and waited. “My exhaustion has nothing to do with your inappropriate humor.”
Vi wasn’t convinced. “Really? Cuz if I went too far, seriously I’m sorry.”
Caitlyn stared at her, sighed, and then closed her eyes. “Really, Vi, I just… I need to be alone for a little while, alright? It’s not—you didn’t do anything that genuinely upset me, okay?” She sounded a little calmer now, and Vi could accept her words as truthful.
“Okay,” she echoed, nodding and taking a step back. “Yeah, okay, get some rest, Cait. Just ping me when you’re ready to talk SaloTech?”
Caitlyn nodded. “I will. Thank you.” And with that, she turned face forward and scanned her palm outside the glass doors of the apartment building, allowing herself in and leaving Vi alone outside.
She sucked in a deep breath, letting relief that Caitlyn wasn’t upset with her wash over her before concern took its place. What had bothered the other woman so much? It had to be the altercation with the Chembarons—something to do with the bust they were talking about, maybe, from four months ago.
She sighed, shook her head, and went back to her bike. Somehow, she was thinking more about Caitlyn and whether she was okay than the job they were trying to finish. And since she didn’t really know what to do about that, she shoved both topics deep into the back of her brain, and headed for her sister’s shop.
Notes:
So what did y'all think of this one?! Lil burger lunch date! Honestly I have no idea how good the food in cyberpunk 2077 actually would taste. Don't look up what they use to make synth meats lol. But I decided it's tasty if you get it from an actual restaurant and not a vending machine hahaha. Anyway! Cait and Vi getting to know each other some more, lots more teasing! Vi doing her street kid intimidation thing on Deckard was another bit I was so excited to write haha. And Cait's reaction... yea, same girl, same. Any guesses for what's going on in Caitlyn's head??
Thank you all so so much for reading, and for all the kudos and comments! You guys are so so very kind and I'm so happy that this story is bringing y'all enjoyment!! See you all soon! <3
Chapter 5: Sensitive Topics
Notes:
Good morning my friends!! Happy Friday! We are officially onto my preferred updating time of the day - late morning! I kinda purposefully didn't update yesterday so I could get a reset on the timing, but if you didn't see, I did post *something* yesterday - a 17k word fluffy CaitVi one-shot! It's only rated T and it's about as opposite from this fic as you could get, but if you need a break from the action... :P
Let's see, for this chapter we get some sister shenanigans before maybe some of your questions will start to be answered!
Enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Well you look like shit.”
Vi rolled her eyes, about to argue with her sister when she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror Jinx had hanging in her shop room. She had soot smudged on her neck and chin somehow, a few cuts and scrapes, the bloodied bandage around her palm, but most of all, she just looked exhausted. “Yeah, long day.”
“It’s not even six yet,” Jinx snarked, eyeing Vi’s hand and patting her hand on her patient chair.
Vi slid into it, offering her hand palm up, and said, “Yeah, well. I beat up seven Chembaron gonks, shot a few more, almost got completely decimated in a car chase, and threatened some fresh meat merc. I’ve made stops in Northside, Coast View, Vista del Rey, Arroyo, Rancho Coronado, and Charter Hill. All the while bickering with this netrunner who—” Vi cut herself off, using the excuse of discomfort from Jinx peeling the bandage out from around her hand, the fabric tugging uncomfortably against her cut.
“Sheesh,” Jinx muttered, shaking her head. “Y’know, sometimes I think it might be fun to see some kinda action outside my little shop, and then I hear stories like this.”
Vi laughed a little as Jinx cleaned the cut. “You’d be good at it, though. You had stupid good aim playing that dumb virtual reality game we stole as kids. You’d be putting holes in all the bastards of NC if you wanted.”
Jinx scoffed a laugh, switching out the antiseptic for a fancy bandage that Vi knew would accelerate the healing of her cut. “Yeah, uh, think I’ll stay here. Something happens to me, then who’d be around to patch you up?” She clicked her tongue, flipping a braid over her shoulder and grabbing the antiseptic again. “Any other bad ones?”
“Don’t think so,” Vi answered, triggering Jinx to start wiping at a few stray scuffs and scratches, maybe a few shallow cuts that Vi hadn’t even noticed.
“So who’s this netrunner? I mean—I know you’re not gonna say, but you don’t like ‘em?”
Vi hesitated and suppressed a sigh, but obviously Jinx would’ve picked up on the way Vi had refused to speak more about the person she’d been with all day. And then proceed to poke and prod, of course. “It’s not that I—I mean—she’s just… she’s not exactly a merc, so not really familiar with the streets like us. And she’s bossy, was nonstop calling the shots when Mylo and I ran into her. Cocky as shit, too, and like—don’t get me wrong, she’s good at what she does, but it’s kinda annoying, y’know? I thought she was finally thawing a bit today, then she completely shuts off, gets all hostile again. And like I said, it was a long day, so I get it, but also, she’s the one who…” Vi trailed off, not even sure where she’d been going with that. She shook her head.
“Soooo,” Jinx drew out the word, leaning back and arching a brow conspiratorially. “You’re into her.”
Vi’s jaw dropped as she scoffed, then scrunching her face in disbelief. “No, what the fuck? No! Why?” Vi demanded, confused, face warming. “Why would you say that?”
Jinx shrugged one shoulder, cleaning up the materials she’d used for checking over Vi. “Just sounds like you’re thinking a lot about her, when usually you think about girls only for as long as it takes you to fuck ‘em.”
Vi made a face at her sister’s choice of words, but it wasn’t like Jinx was wrong. “Fuck, I dunno, J. I mean—she’s hot, sure. And—ignoring how she’s annoying as fuck—we get along okay. She can be a little funny too, when she takes the stick out of her ass.” As soon as she said the words, she remembered the Chembaron asshole who’d said the same thing about Caitlyn, and she winced. “But I don’t do that, you know? Be into people.”
“Never too late to start,” Jinx teased, shutting down her computers and machinery, her workday coming to an end.
Vi scoffed. “Never really planned to ever start.”
“Well. Maybe you just wanna fuck her, and it’s weird cuz you’re working together. When the job’s over, you can make her scream your name, and maybe then she’ll disappear from your mind.”
“Jinx, please stop talking so detailed about my sex life.”
“Uh, no, this is payback from when we still lived with Vander, when you brought that brunette with the—it was a scar, right, or a tattoo on her cheek?”
Vi groaned. “That was one time and it was an accident, I didn’t—”
“And you practically traumatized me—”
“You were fifteen, it wasn’t like you were—and anyway I didn’t know you were home, we stopped as soon as you knocked!”
“Yeah, well, for that five minutes that I had to hear you, you now have to deal with me talking about your sex life however I please.”
Vi narrowed her eyes into a glare, leaning forward in the patient chair and trying to think if she had any response to that other than to reach for her sister’s braids and pull. The thought came to her and she smirked. “How was the rest of your night with Ekko yesterday, by the way? After I bounced?”
The amusement on Jinx’s face completely disappeared, its place taken by obvious irritation. “It was boring, actually, I finished my tag and then he deltaed.”
“Ah, and you wanted to hang out with him longer?”
Jinx screeched with frustration, shoving a laughing Vi back into the chair before stomping across the room. “Of course not, you idiot!” Vi couldn’t help but notice how much her sister’s tone sounded like the one she’d used to shut down Jinx’s assumption about her and Caitlyn, and the observation quieted her laughter. She quickly filed it away into the recesses of her mind. “I also deltaed, because like I said, boring.”
Vi crossed her arms over her chest. “Did you both delta back to the same place?”
“Shut up, Vi, I am not hooking up with Ekko!” Vi opened her mouth to say something—probably give in to the glare her sister was giving her—when the jingle of Jinx’s shop door could be heard from the waiting room. “We’re closed!”
“Uh, J?” Vi had to slap a hand over her mouth to physically hold in her laughter when she heard his voice. Jinx looked like she might pop a vein. Ekko walked into the back room with a raised eyebrow, and Vi dropped her hand and threw her legs off the side of the chair. “Oh—Vi, hey.”
“Hey, man,” Vi said, failing to subdue the chuckle that came out with her words. “Jinx was just finishing little-sister-of-a-merc duty.” She waved her bandaged hand in explanation and then looked over at Jinx, who was glaring somewhere between Vi and Ekko. “You two got plans?”
“Oh, we’re going—”
“To The Last Drop later,” Jinx cut him off, crossing her arms, “with Mylo and Claggor. I was going to ask if you wanted to join before you started being a bitch.”
Vi raised an eyebrow. “I’m down, but, if that’s later, what’s Ekko doing here now?”
“Thought we were gonna grab food first?” Ekko said, looking back at Jinx, who once again appeared to be holding in a scream.
“Oh, whole gang?” Vi asked, fighting a smirk.
“Uh…” Ekko seemed to realize that something was going on, looking between the two sisters nervously. “Ye—uh, yes…?”
Jinx made a strangled noise that was sounded both frustrated and embarrassed, and then grabbed Vi’s wrist, tugging her off the chair. “Give us a few, Ekko,” she snapped, pulling Vi through the staff only door, up the stairs, and into her apartment.
“Wow,” Vi was saying before the door even closed—slammed, really, “speak of the devil and—”
Jinx was practically buzzing as she growled, “We’re not—it’s not—there isn’t—”
Vi frowned, eyes going wide in realization as she reached forward and pressed her palms firmly on her sister’s shoulders, squeezing just enough to be comforting. “Hey, hey, J. Jinx. I’m sorry, hey, I’m just teasing. If there’s nothin’ going on, there’s nothin’ going on, and I believe you.”
Jinx’s breathing was fast and labored, and she squeezed her eyes closed as she tried to lengthen each breath one at a time. Vi just held onto her, only starting to stroke her thumbs once Jinx was starting to calm down.
“I’m sorry,” Vi murmured again, softer now, dragging her palms down to Jinx’s upper arms, ready to embrace her sister in a tight hug if that’s what she wanted. “I was acting stupid, like usual.” She scoffed, adding under her breath, “Been acting stupid a lot today, actually.”
Jinx took a long, slow breath, and finally opened her eyes, meeting Vi’s. “Ekko and I, we’re just—we’re just friends… for right now, that’s it.”
Vi nodded firmly. “Understood. You’re just friends.” Jinx nodded, and Vi squeezed her arms just a little, a silent question. Jinx responded by sinking close to her, and Vi wrapped her big arms around her slim little sister, holding her, protecting her. “Sorry, J. I know I’m shit at showin’ it, but… I just care about you a lot. You don’t have to tell me everything—hell, you don’t gotta tell me anything. But if you ever want to, I hope you know that you can.” She swallowed, tucking her face into her sister’s hair.
“You, too,” Jinx murmured against her.
They held each other for another few seconds, allowing the emotional moment to pass, and at practically the same time, they released each other. They simultaneously took deep breaths, made eye contact, nodded at each other, and turned to head back downstairs.
“Everything good?” Ekko asked, looking a little guiltily at Jinx, like he was worried he’d messed up. Vi couldn’t help but smile. She didn’t really get what her sister had going on with him—this perpetual boomerang between friends, bickering rivals, and maybe something more—but Ekko was a good guy, and she trusted him and Jinx both.
“All good. Little tip, don’t piss off your ripper,” Vi joked softly, bumping her hip against Jinx’s, getting an appreciative smile from her. “Hey, cool if I join at The Last Drop tonight, even though I’ve been a little shit? Could use a drink—after a nap, though.”
“Sure,” Jinx said in a snip, sounding almost back to her usual self. “If you buy us all a round of shots.”
Vi smirked. “Deal. See you guys later.”
“Twice in one week,” Vander said in disbelief as Vi sauntered up to the bar, pressing her palms its countertop next to where Claggor and Mylo were seated. “You’re not dying are you?”
Vi chuckled. “Nah.”
“Am I dying?” Vander followed up, grabbing a glass and starting to make Vi an old fashioned.
“Sure hope you’d know if you were, and tell me,” Vi replied, glancing at Mylo and Claggor. “How’s things, boys?”
Claggor grunted. “Exhausting. Been helping Vander with some troublemaking customers this week, ‘specially today.”
Vi raised an eyebrow. “Chembarons?”
“Yep,” Vander muttered, sliding the glass over to Vi. “Damn gonks think if they push enough, I’ll step aside for their shit.”
Vi nudged Claggor. “Good thing you got this muscle to help put ‘em in their place.” Claggor gave an unenthusiastic smile and Vander just frowned. Vi suppressed a sigh, knowing that he was wishing he had her to help. Claggor was strong and intimidating, but he didn’t have all the street charisma that Vi had, didn’t garner the same respect. Vi cleared her throat, trying to pretend not to sense the awkwardness. “Where are Jinx and Ekko?”
Mylo shrugged. “Hell if I know, Ekko hasn’t answered my messages all day. He’s worse than you.” He flashed her a look of interest. “How’s the job going, with the other ‘runner?”
“It’s fine. Following a good trail.”
“And the ‘runner? She holding her own?”
Vi smirked. “Better than you would, that’s for damn sure. You just been chilling? Or nabbed another gig?”
“Nah, helping out Vander, too.”
Vi’s smirk transitioned to a tight lipped smile as she nodded and avoided saying anything by downing her drink. She flicked Vander a few eddies, not wanting to mooch off of him, especially not given the present conversation. “Well. Hope J and Ekko turn up soon, I promised them I’d buy everyone a round of shots.”
“Ooh, the good tequila?” Mylo asked, sitting up a little straighter.
“You bet.” Vi avoided Vander’s eyes as she finally sat down, settling in to wait for her sister to arrive.
Thankfully, Claggor, Mylo and Vander resumed the conversation they’d been having before Vi’s arrival, and she fell into it with them easily. They didn’t talk about work or the state of The Last Drop or Heywood at all for the next twenty minutes. Then, finally, Jinx and Ekko were approaching the bar, the former happily throwing an arm over Vi’s shoulder. “Hey, sis! Shots?”
Vi shook her head with a chuckle. “Nice to see you, too.” She nodded at Ekko. “How’re things?”
“Good, surprisingly quiet today,” he answered, shrugging. “Heard from J that the Firelights might have you to thank for that? You been picking off Chembarons one by one today?”
Vi held her hands up in defense. “I didn’t kill that many,” she insisted, “but, yeah, okay, taught quite a few of them a lesson. Few were hanging out ‘round the bar, too, so.”
Vander grunted suddenly, having just finished serving a different customer and tuning back into the conversation. “That was you?” He didn’t look happy. “Got a visit from a few today who said my name was getting thrown around. That’s what Claggor was helping with today.”
Vi clenched her jaw, grinding her teeth a little. “Shit,” she muttered, “I only mentioned you so I could try to avoid beating the shit outta them, but. That didn’t exactly go as planned.”
Claggor raised an eyebrow. “Heard you broke a guy’s knee. His choom was complaining about the cost for that kinda chrome.”
Vi failed to suppress a sigh, looked tiredly between her sister, Ekko, the boys, and finally over to Vander. “How about those shots?”
They let the topic go in favor of taking shots, and then Vander disappeared to his back office, leaving the bar’s responsibility to the actual bartender on duty. Vi was able to relax a little more with him gone, as shitty as it was.
Vi was busy listening to Jinx tell a story about a customer she had earlier that day when she received a message on her holo that she hadn’t been expecting. All too easily, her attention was stolen from her sister and redirected to her new netrunner partner.
Caitlyn
Hey. I’m sorry for earlier, I didn’t meant to get so snappy at you.
Vi
Don’t worry about it.
You okay? Wanna talk about it?
Vi chewed on her bottom lip, trying to act like she was still paying Jinx’s story any attention as she waited for Caitlyn to reply. It wasn’t like her to offer to listen to someone like this, but she’d sent the message before she could even question the decision. Caitlyn had seemed so unshakeable until this afternoon, emotions calculated except for when Vi managed to poke just right, but some kind of switch had flipped for her earlier.
Caitlyn
I wouldn’t want to bother you with it.
Vi
Wouldn’t be a bother.
Especially not if you paired it with buying me a drink?
Vi was holding her breath now, not even sure if Jinx was still talking.
Caitlyn
Is it too much to ask you to meet me near my place? At Lest’s Bar?
Vi was already starting to stand, her friends and her sister looking at her with confusion. “Leaving already?” Claggor asked.
“Yeah, something came up.”
“Is something a girl?” Mylo asked with a snort, and then Jinx raised an eyebrow at Vi, clearly thinking of their earlier conversation.
“Shut up,” Vi snapped, but her usual teasing venom was missing from her voice. “See you guys later.”
On her way out, she got a holo message from her sister.
Jinx
You good? This about Vander?
Vi
Nah. My netrunner needs something.
Jinx
Ohh does she now?? Something like your mouth on her pussy?
Vi
Oh my god. No.
It’s work.
I’ll talk to you tomorrow, have fun with the gang.
Vi rolled her eyes as she made for her motorcycle in the nearby parking lot.
Fifteen minutes later, Vi pulled up to a small bar with a single baby pink neon light proclaiming it as Lest’s. It didn’t seem busy, and Vi was able to easily park along the street in front of it. She stuffed her hands in the pockets of her baggy pants and made her way to the door.
Inside was maybe the smallest bar that Vi had ever seen in Night City, but the soft, pink lights glowing along the edges of the ceiling and the velvet looking barstools made it clear that its size was not in correlation to its quality. There were three small high top tables in the space between the door and the bar itself, but all three were occupied with couples whispering quiet conversations between them. Six barstools, three on either side of a standing area in the middle, lined the black marble bar, where a woman was idly cleaning a glass. Three patrons sat at the bar, two on the left, just one on the right, the only person here alone.
“Interesting little place,” was what Vi chose for her greeting as she slid onto the barstool next to Caitlyn, who looked up at her with eyes widened slightly in surprise.
“It’s quaint,” Caitlyn stated, “that’s why I like it.”
“Right, you hate noisy, crowded, messy places,” Vi said with a light laugh, smiling politely at the bartender as she sidestepped to be in front of her.
“Can I get you anything, hun?”
Vi glanced at Caitlyn’s drink of choice, a dark red wine. Vi wasn’t very familiar with wines, thanks largely to the fact that bars she frequented rarely had any available. Back to the bartender, she said, “Whatever she’s having. And—put it on her tab, too.”
The woman looked at Caitlyn with a slight smirk and a raised eyebrow. “Caitlyn Kiramman, bringing a guest to my humble bar for the first time in—how long have you been coming here?”
“Lest,” Caitlyn protested, cheeks warming, “she’s my current… business partner.”
The bartender, and owner, Lest shrugged a shoulder and then winked at Vi as she grabbed a wine glass and began to pour something fancy looking. “Here you go, hun. Just give me a wave if you need anything.” Placing the glass in front of Vi, Lest gave one last look to Caitlyn before sliding back over to the middle of the bar, providing at least the illusion of privacy.
“So you come here a lot?” Vi asked Caitlyn, fiddling her fingers around the stem of her glass before hesitantly lifting it, taking a sip. It was bitter but far more tolerable than some of the shit she’d had just for the sake of getting drunk.
“It’s close, convenient, quiet.” Caitlyn shrugged. “And I don’t hate places that are noisy or crowded, but after a busy day, it’s not really my idea of relaxing.”
“Fair enough.” Caitlyn took a long draught from her glass, and not that Vi would know, but she was pretty sure that was not how people were supposed to drink wine. “So what’s going on, Cait?”
Caitlyn’s next breath came out in a heavy sigh and she ran a hand through her blue-black hair. It’d been pulled up all day, but now fell loose around her face. Vi realized then that she was wearing slacks and a blouse, nothing incredibly complicated or expensive looking, but far nicer than the pants and jacket she’d had for their workday. “I don’t really know how to put it into words,” Caitlyn said, swirling her wine in its glass absently, glassy eyes trained on it. Vi wondered how much she’d already had to drink.
“Try me. I may not be tech savvy, but I can probably unpuzzle a jumbled sentence or two.” Vi gave Caitlyn an encouraging smile, but the woman wasn’t looking at her.
Vi didn’t think of herself as a patient person. She was always on the move, restless when she had nothing to do, going from gig to gig and spending her breaks punching bags in a gym or throwing back shots and hitting on girls. Rarely did she sit in a quiet conversation that served no purpose other than to be there for someone, and never did she sit like this, in silence for at least a minute, letting another woman gather her thoughts to speak. She didn’t even feel the urge to rush Caitlyn, or to compulsively tap her fingers against the bar top. She just waited for Caitlyn to speak, sipping her wine a few times.
“You ever… think you’re doing the right thing, and then…” Caitlyn finally mumbled, before she groaned, shook her head, and tried again, “Someone tells you—this is the right thing to do, and you believe that, you do the right thing, but then you look back and it hurt people, so… how can it have been right?” Caitlyn looked up from her glass with a pained look, meeting Vi’s eyes only for a second before sighing and sending her gaze away again. Vi felt an ache in her chest and had to resist the sudden urge to reach for Caitlyn’s hand and squeeze it.
“This is about that Chembaron, and what she said about her brother?” Vi asked, voice quiet, pulse steady as she waited for confirmation.
“Yes,” Caitlyn said through another exhale. “I remember that case. Antoine Benoit, Coast View based ripper who obtained most of his implants through a black market. That’s not nearly enough for NCPD to care, but it turned out that some of the implants he was installing for non Chembarons were damaged or compromised. His actions killed and seriously injured at least ten people whose deaths were traced through their implants back to his shop. So we shut him down, confiscated the tech, and he got sentenced. I don’t know what the sentence was, but what his sister said makes sense, he definitely would’ve gotten prison time for that.”
Vi nodded along, sipping her wine and just listening, waiting for Caitlyn to indicate that she was looking for any kind of response.
“But… for every one of those ten people, how many people did Antoine Benoit help as a ripper doc? And did his income disappearing fuck over his family? Could NCPD have fined him, confiscated the bad tech, done something other than completely upending his whole life, and that of everyone who relied on him?” Caitlyn shook her head, picking up her glass and downing the last of the wine. “It feels impossible, Vi. To help people in this city without fucking things up left and right.”
Finally, Caitlyn looked at her again, meeting her gaze and actually holding it now. Vi hummed thoughtfully and leaned a little closer. “You wanna know the truth, Cait?”
“Is it going to make me feel any better?”
Vi gave her a half smile. “No promises.”
“Fine,” Caitlyn murmured, only a little deflated, “what’s the truth?”
“You’ve said it yourself already. This whole place, Night City, is fucked. Everyone’s got shit they’re dealing with, and their own struggles are always more important to them than someone else’s. And the whole system is set up to keep it that way. Every group—the gangs, mercs, fixers, rippers, cops, corpo agents—each and every one prioritizes their people and their needs over any others. I mean, I’m here tryna solve this case for the payout, but if one of my people was the perp? My sister, for example? I’d do anything to protect her, she’s my priority and in Night City, you do what you gotta do to protect your people because that’s all you can do. And if someone fucked with my sister or my friends, my family? I’d take ‘em out without even blinking. Cops are the same way, corpo agents are the same way. We’re all shitty people who do shitty things for reasons we think are less shitty than others’.”
Vi took breath, watched Caitlyn watch her, and then shook her head.
“It sucks, cupcake, it really does. But it’s not just you, and it’s not on you to help everyone, fix everything. No one person can do that. So better to not guilt yourself like that, better for you and the people who you can help if you just… let yourself move on.” Caitlyn sighed, looking down at her empty glass like it would give her a different answer than Vi had. Vi focused on her expression, trying to determine whether her words had helped, and she remembered what Caitlyn had said to her a couple days ago. “Don’t hate the player, hate the game, right?”
At that, Caitlyn let out a sad chuckle, pushing her empty glass away and sitting up straighter. “Good thing you didn’t promise, because that did not make me feel better.”
The corners of Vi’s lips tugged upward a little. “Not even a little?”
“Alright, maybe a little.” She looked at Vi, slightly tilting her head in thought before saying. “That woman, Antoine’s sister, stabbed me during the raid on his shop.” Caitlyn’s hand moved the left side of her waist. “It’s one of the only wounds that I’ve let actually scar, rather than letting a ripper doc fix it up right.”
“Ah, so this punishing yourself isn’t new then,” Vi commented, sympathetic. She finished her own glass of wine and then instinctively reached out to touch Caitlyn’s hand over the spot where her scar must be under her blouse. “I’m not sayin’ it’s easy, but you gotta try and forgive yourself, let yourself move on.”
Caitlyn shifted her hand, and Vi dropped hers as Caitlyn’s rested on the bar counter. “Speaking from experience?”
“What do you think?” Vi asked with a snicker. She turned so that she was sitting completely sideways on the barstool, fully facing Caitlyn, resting her left forearm on the marble. “Every job I take helps one person and hurts another. People get mixed up in shit they had nothing to do with, too, end up collateral. It’s part of living in this shithole, Cait. Something people like me had to learn really early on, which I guess probably wasn’t the case for you.”
Caitlyn shook her head and turned a little to face Vi better. “So, the eddies, the lifestyle, the potential legend—it’s worth it to you, being a merc? Worth the dangers and the consequences?”
Vi remembered Caitlyn’s question from earlier today—fuck, was that just today?—about whether this was the life she wanted to live, and felt the urge to draw into herself. Instead, she lifted a hand and touched the calloused pads of her fingers against the metal through Caitlyn’s left eye. “This from a wound you didn’t let scar?”
Caitlyn’s skin was hot to the touch when Vi let her fingers drag slightly down her cheek before pulling away. Caitlyn visibly swallowed and nodded. “Yes. From working at NetWatch, actually. A Void gang netrunner caught me unprepared when I was still pretty new to the job. Hacked my optics, burned the synapses behind my left eye, rendered it completely unusable. Had to get the whole thing replaced.”
“And they had to leave this bit visible?” Vi wondered, eyes tracing the metal line.
“No,” Caitlyn answered honestly. “But I liked the idea of having a reminder, I guess, of the damage netrunning can do. I try to be careful, you know, when I hack people’s systems. If I can help it, I don’t want to badly hurt anyone.”
Vi couldn’t help but smile. “Cait, you are way too good for this fucking city.”
Caitlyn groaned, pressing a hand to her forehead and closing her eyes. “Shut up, you’ve just agreed that I, like everyone else here, am a shitty person making shitty decisions.”
“Yeah, but, I’m serious. You’re not as awful as most people in NC. And you can trust me on that, I’ve met a lot of people.” Caitlyn’s smile peeked out then, and Vi felt herself soften, warm, become mushy inside. It was so unusual, this feeling, but she didn’t hate it. It somehow gave her a boost of courage, and she heard herself saying, “I don’t know if this is the life I’d choose if I had any choice. I like it, don’t get me wrong. I get to feel useful, prove myself to people who underestimate me. I’m good at what I do, make good eddies, end nights hanging out with friends, my sister, and having a good time. Right now is… the best I’ve ever had it, I guess.”
She thought of the conversation with Claggor, Mylo and Vander earlier, her adoptive dad’s look of disappointment, and her throat tightened even as she tried to swallow the feelings rousing in her.
A soft hand was suddenly resting on hers, jolting Vi out of her thoughts as she looked to Caitlyn’s fingers, dragging softly, back and forth, over Vi’s skin and the metal on parts of her fingers. “What are you thinking about?” Caitlyn wondered at a whisper, like she was afraid of asking the question, or getting the answer.
“Just… pissed off my old man again, I think. I tell him I don’t wanna put everything aside to help him clean up Heywood, he’s mad. I beat up some gonks causing trouble right outside his bar, he’s mad. He wants me all in, acts like I’m the only one who can do it, but unless I do everything exactly how he wants me to, I’m still fucking up.” Vi shook her head. “Feels like even if I did what he wanted, moved in with him, followed all his orders… like, I dunno, I’d never be able to be him, you know? He wants me to be a younger version of him, follow exactly in his footsteps, but that’s not me. I learned a lot from him, a lot of who I am is influenced by him, but I’m still my own person, and I can’t…”
She trailed off, shaking her head, and Caitlyn squeezed her hand comfortingly. “You can only do your best, Vi.”
Vi nodded, indulging in the impulse to turn her hand over, her palm brushing with Caitlyn’s as the other woman stilled her fingers. “Same for you, Cait. Can only do your best.”
After a few silent moments, Lest moved over to them, making no indication as to whether she’d overheard any of their deep conversation. “More wine, my dears?”
Vi sucked in a breath, straightening and pulling her hand out from under Caitlyn’s. “Nah, I was drinking before, should probably stay sober enough to get home.” She looked over at Caitlyn, whose glassy eyes were trained on her.
“How about one more drink?” Caitlyn tilted her head down a little, glancing down and then looking up through her lashes at Vi. “We have work to do tomorrow, and I have an extra bedroom. You can stay over, no need to drive.”
Vi opened her mouth but found no words willing to come out, so she just nodded. Caitlyn gave Lest a small smile, and the bartender refilled their wine glasses with a knowing look before sauntering off again. “Just one more drink,” Vi finally said, picking up her glass. “You don’t wanna deal with drunk me.”
Caitlyn’s lips curled as she gave Vi a mischievous look. “No? It bet you’d be quite funny drunk.”
Vi wet her lips, tried to think of how to say that drunk her might say or do something stupid around Caitlyn. Like compliment her smile, or her eyes, or try again to reach for her, touch her. She couldn’t, though, and so no words came out, and Caitlyn just lifted her glass toward Vi, who blinked before moving to lightly clink them. “What are we toasting to?” Vi asked, her voice coming out low, scratchy.
“To… being slightly less shitty than other people?” Caitlyn offered, making a face that got a quiet laugh out of Vi.
“To doing our best,” she counter-offered, and Caitlyn nodded in pleasant agreement.
Vi took a long swig of the wine, trying not to notice the way Caitlyn was blatantly staring at her from behind her own glass.
Vi woke up in too dark of a room, and if it wasn’t for how awake she felt, she would’ve thought it was still the middle of the night. When she opened her eyes, she remembered that Caitlyn’s guest bedroom windows had blackout blinders that she’d lowered with the faintest glow of purple in her eyes after showing Vi to the room last night. Unlike Vi’s megabuilding window shutters, the blinders kept the room in complete darkness.
Vi could make out only the shapes of the room’s furniture as she sat up, listening for any sounds and finding none. She was so used to the hustle and bustle of the megabuilding that waking up in such quiet was actually kind of unnerving.
Her head wasn’t hurting, she noted while getting up, and thanked herself for taking Caitlyn’s advice of downing a glass of water before sleeping. Caitlyn’s apartment had an actual water dispenser with clean, safe drinking water, not like the water Vi irresponsibly drank out of her tap when she didn’t have any bottles on hand.
The lights in the guest bedroom seemed to sense her movements as she lowered her feet to the ground, turning on to a dim glow as the window blinds slowly began to ascend as well, fully illuminating the room. Vi blinked a little in the face of the bright, natural light.
She eyed the expensive looking details of Caitlyn’s two bedroom apartment as she moved into the bathroom, the spotless mirror offering her reflection back to her. Vi avoided looking at herself as she undressed and tested out the shower, finding that the water came out at a more consistent warmth and flow than her own shower, and that she had more space to stretch her arms as she scrubbed down with flowery scented soap. Assuming Caitlyn wouldn’t mind, Vi used a towel from the stack neatly folded in an embedded wall shelf.
Cleaner than she’d probably felt in years but dressed in her same clothes from last night, Vi left the guest bedroom and wandered through a sparsely decorated, wide hallway to find herself in an open kitchen and living room space. It was about the same size as her apartment, the kitchen only a little bigger than Vi’s. Caitlyn stood in it, a cup of steaming coffee in one hand as she leaned by a countertop oven that was rumbling softly, heating something up.
“Hey, good morning,” Caitlyn greeted, voice soft, kind. “Did you sleep okay? Would you like coffee? I’m also heating up some breakfast sandwiches, if you’d like one?”
Vi bit back a grin at Caitlyn’s rapid questions that made it seem like she knew how to be a good host, but didn’t actually host people often. Unlike Vi, of course, who had girls at her place regularly, and was intentionally only a mediocre host most of the time. “Yeah, I did, and sure, coffee and breakfast is good. I’m kinda surprised you’re actually starting the day by eating, thought your thing was forgetting to do that?”
Caitlyn tutted as if to deny the claim, but then just said, “I suppose having a guest helped me remember.” She moved over to her coffee machine, sliding a second mug under its dispenser and pressing its singular button. It was pretty similar to Vi’s, but the dark liquid came out perfectly smooth.
“Thanks,” Vi said, accepting the cup and burning her tongue by taking a sip right away. Caitlyn rolled her eyes at her as she jolted back, almost spilling in the process. “Fuck. Your coffee machine is actually, like, properly functioning. I’m used to lukewarm coffee sludge.”
Caitlyn made a disgusted face, nose crinkling at the description. “That sounds awful.”
“Yeah, well, that’s megabuilding living for ya,” Vi said, blowing on the coffee and hoping it would be a drinkable temperature soon. “So. What’s on the agenda today?”
“I drove by SaloTech yesterday afternoon,” Caitlyn admitted, “and took some scans of the building’s exterior. We’ll go over them today, plan our entry. I’d rather our break-in not end up as a headline. In and out without any fuss would be ideal.”
“No fuss is going to be tricky. Corpo lab like that is gonna have privately employed guards. We’re not gonna be able to avoid any run-ins unless we can somehow get in and out through the exact right room we need.” She raised an eyebrow. “Do we even know what exactly we’re looking for?”
Caitlyn sighed and shook her head. “No. I’ll need to get to a computer, check camera footage from the date of Heimerdinger’s death, maybe, or run a system scan to try and match the virus blueprints or the virus itself.”
“Deckard said the guy he talked to was the lead engineer, can we search the system and get an id on him?”
“Maybe,” Caitlyn said, shifting her weight and sipping her coffee. “Depends on how many people have that same title. We’ll have to see what we can find once we’re there. Today, the focus is planning the getting in and out, hopefully with minimal casualties and no alarms going off.”
Vi nodded. “Right, so—” Caitlyn’s countertop oven dinged at the same time as Vi’s holo suddenly received a call from an unidentified contact. As Caitlyn moved to retrieve their breakfast, Vi said, “Getting a call, one sec.”
As soon as she answered, a smooth, feminine voice speaking with an almost songlike lilt said, “Violet Lane, you are quite a difficult merc to track down.” Vi tensed at the use of her full name, an indication that not only had this person successfully tracked her down, difficulties aside, but she’d clearly done her research as well.
“It’s just Vi,” she stated firmly, turning away from Caitlyn as the taller woman turned to her, one eyebrow raised and a plate with a warm breakfast sandwich in each hand. “Who are you, what do you want, and who gave you this number?”
“I’m an interested party, I want to meet with you about your current job, and please, Vi, a clever woman never reveals her sources.”
“An interested party?” Vi snarked. Caitlyn was walking out of the kitchen, around so that she was in front of Vi, not letting herself be ignored. “Seems to be lots of those, lately. Why do you wanna meet?”
“I think the better question you should ask is: why do you want to meet with me?”
“Got a feeling you’ll tell me that one way or another,” Vi muttered through clenched teeth.
“Mm, you’re quite clever yourself, aren’t you? I’m in Santo Domingo, shall we meet at your place?”
“Not till you tell me what you want, or—what you think I want.”
The woman sighed dramatically. “Very well, if you insist. I think you’d like to stay alive, and therefore, it might be in your best interest to meet with me.”
Vi opened her mouth to ask again who this woman was exactly, and then remembered the last time she was in a conversation like this. She met Caitlyn’s eyes as she asked the stranger, “And what’s the name of the person I’ll be meeting with, exactly?”
Sounding incredibly pleased, the woman answered, “Mel.”
“And how does meeting with you keep me alive?”
“You didn’t let me finish, darling. My name is Mel Medarda.” Vi’s jaw went slack and Caitlyn furrowed her eyebrows, sensing Vi’s alarm and wanting an explanation. When Vi said nothing to either woman, Mel made a satisfied noise and said, “I’ll be at your apartment in, hm, fifteen minutes or so? Just grabbing a quick coffee. Shall I get you anything on my way over?”
Vi barely managed to grit out, “No, thanks.”
“Right, well. I’ll see you in a bit?”
The call dropped and Vi groaned, running a hand over her face and then scratching her blunt nails across her scalp, through her still wet hair. “Who was that?” Caitlyn demanded. “What’s wrong, Vi?”
“Cupcake,” Vi muttered, “we’re fucked.”
Notes:
!!!! What do we think?!? We got some sister teasing (I hope you guys like the vibe with Vi and Jinx!), some more tension with Vander, a whoooole lotta deep convo between Cait and Vi, and that phone call from Mel!!? I wanna know all your thoughts on what you think is gonna happen! And of course I would love to hear what you thought about the convo with Cait and all of her feelings.
Thank you for reading!! I'm so happy to hear the responses to this story so far, and that you guys are liking what I came up with to blend these two worlds together! Crossovers are not really my usual thing so this is all really new to me, but I'm glad y'all think it's turned out well so far!!
See you tomorrow lovelies! <3
Chapter 6: Formalities
Notes:
Good morning my friends!! This chapter is the shortest chapter in the fic, and it's odd, because once upon a time, a 3.9k word chapter was long for me lol. I almost tacked this onto the previous chapter and forwent the cliffhanger, but it didn't feel quite right, and it didn't fit to prepend it to the next chapter either. So, alas, short chapter, but hopefully the content will be enjoyable nonetheless!
Y'all have been making me grin literally ear to ear with your comments, thank you so so much! Without further ado, please enjoy chapter 6!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“We’re so fucked,” Vi muttered again, thighs straddling her motorcycle as she sped down the road toward her building. Somewhere behind her was Caitlyn, in her sedan, hearing her words through the holo.
“Just relax,” Caitlyn snapped, not for the first time either. “If Ambessa knew what we know, she’d have tried to kill us already. They must not have anything solid, or they want to offer us a deal, or something. If they wanted us dead, we’d be dead or at least being shot at, wouldn’t we? Not getting polite phone calls.”
“Sure, whatever, but we’re still fucked.”
“I just said—”
“Fucked doesn’t necessarily mean dead, Cait,” Vi interrupted. “At best, Ambessa’s daughter extorts us or threatens us. At worst, she’s a distraction, and a whole squad of Chembarons is already waiting at my apartment.”
“I’ll ensure that’s not the case before you go in,” Caitlyn insisted. “As soon as I’m in the building’s residential office, I’ll be able to check the hall cameras. What’s your unit number again?”
“1516,” Vi muttered, pulling off of the main road and heading instead for the side road that led to the garage. “Fuck. And you’re sure she’ll have no idea that we’re on comms?”
“Have you ever even used a holo before?” Caitlyn snarked. “I know you’re bad with tech, but seriously, Vi?”
Vi frowned, glad that Caitlyn wasn’t able to see the expression on her face. “Actually, I honestly did just get my holo installed earlier this week, so.”
“You used to carry around a physical phone?”
“Shut up, okay, I didn’t realize how convenient the holo would be. And in case you didn’t notice, I like to prioritize chrome that’ll keep me alive.”
Caitlyn made a slight harrumph sound before saying, “Well, perhaps this holo will keep you alive, since I’ll be in your ear. She’ll have no idea, just don’t talk to me. Let me listen and talk to you, alright?”
“Alright,” Vi muttered, uncertain. She found a parking spot, biting on her lip. “One more time—what we know about Mel Medarda?” Caitlyn had begun firing off facts about the woman as soon as Vi had said her name earlier, and Vi didn’t exactly want to admit that she’d been panicking a bit too much to pay attention.
Vi was used to improvising—to wrenches being thrown in her plans and shit going sideways. She was good at punching her way out of difficulties, though, and Mel Medarda wasn’t someone she could just shut up with some threats, nor could she kill her without causing a big problem.
“She took over for her mother leading Medarda Banking when Ambessa switched into politics, after leading one of the major departments in the corp for years prior. Although she’s not the eldest Medarda child, she’s undoubtedly the most successful.”
“Right,” Vi muttered. “Ambessa still have any stake in her corp?”
“Definitely. Not only does she still have financial stake, but also decision power. She’s on the board of directors. Some might say she actually has more power from there, just has to actually do less.”
Vi grunted. “Can’t believe anyone would trust a former corpo CEO to run the city.”
Caitlyn sighed, sounding like she agreed as she said, “My father did always say that most mega-corps are basically run like their own sovereign states.”
“Night City Corporation,” Vi muttered under her breath. She’d reached the elevator now and clicked on her unit’s floor. “I’m headed up, you in yet?”
“No, sorry,” Caitlyn murmured, “I’m just now getting into the building. Just need to find the residential office, so I’m looking for an access point.” Vi tapped her foot on the metal floor of the elevator, watching out the glass window that made up one of its walls, Night City descending further and further beneath her. “Okay, got an access point, should be able to jack in without anyone noticing, just a sec…”
Vi sucked in a slow breath, letting it out even slower, calming her nerves. Even if she was feeling a bit panicked, the last thing she needed was for Medarda to notice.
“Okay, got the location of the office.”
“You can’t check the security logs from the access point?” Vi muttered, feeling the elevator slow. “I’m almost to my place.”
“Well, maybe you should’ve slowed down on your motorcycle.”
“She said fifteen minutes, and I’d be stupid to keep her waiting!”
“I’m close by the office, just give me—”
“—a second, yeah, I know,” Vi huffed, the elevator coming to a stop. The gate slid open, and Vi walked into her hallway, busying herself at a vending machine, getting herself a cola and a sandwich, since she’d only had time for a bite of the one Caitlyn had heated up before having to jump on her bike and get going. The machine spat out her items in record time, and Vi scowled. Of course, everything would go quick and smooth when she needed it to take time.
“Okay, I’m in the office.”
“No one else there?” Vi mumbled under her breath.
“The guard is currently… indisposed. Same with the man working the desk.”
Vi shook her head, fighting a smile. “Damn, you got enough hacking juice to get into the computer still?”
Caitlyn scoffed audibly over the holo. “The computer takes the least amount of ‘hacking juice,’ don’t worry. I’m already in—scanning the cameras outside your unit for today and yesterday…” Vi sucked in a breath, finally grabbing her stuff out of the vending machine. She stepped back and quickly dodged out of the way of a big guy barreling toward the elevator. Finally, she turned the corner to head toward her unit, relaxing when no one was standing in front of it.
“Looks like she’s not here yet.”
“Alright, good, now stop talking to yourself.” Vi rolled her eyes, leaning on the wall outside her door, trying to hear for anything inside. “You’re good, no one’s been in or out since you left last night. Oh—that was earlier in the evening than I messaged you. Were you out somewhere?”
Vi opened her mouth.
“Wait—don’t answer that, looks like our caller is walking down from the other end of the hallway now.” Vi’s eyes bounced up to the camera in the hallway, eyes widening as she realized that Caitlyn was watching through it right now. “Pay attention to your guest, Vi, not the camera.” Vi jerked her attention to down the hallway and saw a woman with beautiful umber skin, gold makeup blending in with some golden chrome pieces, and a complex braided hairdo approaching her. She was wearing a tight fitting white and gold dress and gold heels with decorative straps wrapping up her calves. In one hand, she held a to-go coffee.
“Good morning, Miss Lane,” Mel said, voice far too warm for the circumstances of their meeting.
“It’s just Vi,” Vi reiterated, trying to keep the irritation out of her own voice.
“Right.”
Mel nodded, stopped next to her and offered a hand, the one not holding her paper coffee cup, which Vi hesitantly shook as Caitlyn murmured in her ear, “Miss Lane?”
Vi really wished she could tell Caitlyn to shut the fuck up, but instead she dropped Mel’s hand and opened the door to her apartment, gesturing for the woman to join her inside. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Mel was saying as she entered, heels clacking annoyingly on the linoleum. “Like I said, it was incredibly difficult to identify and find you.”
“And how exactly did you get the chance to identify me?” Vi asked, trying to match Mel’s false politeness and struggling not to slip into her default, threatening tone of voice.
“I presume you’re asking about how I found out the job you’re working on,” Mel said, looking around Vi’s space with interest as Vi just watched near the now closed front door. “Which is fine as far as questions go, but there are more pressing matters.”
“Oh, are there?” Vi muttered, crossing her arms over her chest. “How about you enlighten me, then?”
“Gladly. It’s come to my attention that something of high value to my mother, Ambessa Medarda, was stolen from an old office of hers, in Northside, yesterday, as well as taking out a large group of guards who were tasked with defending said office.”
Vi almost snorted at the term guards to describe the gang members who’d attacked them, but then Caitlyn hissed, “Don’t mention you know they were Chembarons,” practically reading her mind. Vi bit down on her tongue to keep herself from saying anything at all.
“One of the guards who survived the encounter managed to capture an image of the culprit.”
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Sounds like the culprit’s an unlucky son of a bitch,” Vi said, moving into her living area and collapsing onto the couch, putting her feet up onto her coffee table. She looked at Mel, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“Actually, she’s not,” Mel stated, finally turning to face Vi, meet her eyes. “You see, the three guards who made it out alive came to me with the information, seeing as how a month ago, they received orders to report first to me regarding any goings on in Northside.”
“Mommy delegated, put you in charge,” Vi said without thinking, hearing Caitlyn groan on the other end of the line. Vi almost scoffed at the reaction, but although she was good at what she did, talking to corpo CEOs was not exactly a typical part of her job. Caitlyn, growing up in politics and working high up in NetWatch before moving to NCPD, probably had way more experience in this weird, tiptoeing dialogue.
Mel gave Vi a sly smile. “Not quite.”
Vi ground her teeth, trying so hard not to snap from irritation and impatience. “Oh?”
“My mother has been quite busy lately, so I took it upon myself to lighten her load,” Mel explained, taking slow steps over to the other end of Vi’s couch and seating herself right at the cushion’s edge.
“Ambessa doesn’t know,” Caitlyn said in surprise, and Vi blinked, understanding coming over her as well. She leaned in a little, and Mel smiled, a glint in her eye.
“So your mom doesn’t know what happened yesterday.”
“That’s correct.”
Vi clenched and unclenched her jaw, considering. “Why not tell her? What do you want?”
“Are you familiar with Medarda Banking, Vi?”
“A bit. Newer establishment in NC, isn’t it? I don’t bank with you.”
Mel nodded. “Yes, my grandfather started the corporation with the hope of becoming a rival to the bigger name banking corps. Unfortunately, our foothold has remained small and extremely localized to the west coast. My mother took over for her father when he passed away, but has done next to nothing to expand the business.” Mel scoffed, some of her air of mystery falling away, and Vi raised an eyebrow, starting to get an idea of what Ambessa’s daughter might want.
“When she handed you the reins, she stayed pretty close, huh?” Vi asked, voice calmer now as she gained her footing in the conversation.
Mel cut her a sharp look and seemed to recompose herself. “Precisely. As CEO, I have little say if the board of directors has differing opinions. As it happens, the entire board has been mindlessly following my mother for decades.”
“So, you want her off the board.”
“I do.”
“What’s it you’re planning for when you can get the board on your side that’s so important? Banking on the east coast?”
Mel searched her gaze. “Normally I would say that that doesn’t concern you, but I like you, Vi. My goal is to take Medarda Banking and make it into Medarda Corp. I’d like to expand outside of the banking sector of the world.”
Vi tried and failed to not scoff. “Right, ‘course, should’ve guessed. Corpo agent wants a stronger corp.”
Mel smiled not exactly unkindly, but without any real sympathy. “I understand you may not agree with me, but as it stands, Vi, your opinion doesn’t exactly matter.”
“Sure, sure. So, you telling me you want me to carry on as planned, otherwise you’ll rat me out? Was already planning on doing that, babe, so what’s with this formal meeting?”
Vi ignored the little scoff she heard through her holo. “Not quite,” Mel was saying, ignoring Vi's distinct informality. “You see, I have little faith that whatever you find and return to your employer will be enough to ensure that my mother is forced to step down from her board position, given the lack of proper justice taken in this city. What I need is to have access to all of what you uncover so that I may use it against my mother myself.”
Vi’s expression narrowed into a scowl. “So you wanna blackmail her?”
“Yes. Is there a problem?”
“I mean—look, results of the job don’t belong to me, they belong to my client. I can’t just—”
“Oh, you can’t?” Mel interrupted. “Hm. In that case, I suppose the knowledge of your job might be good enough material to give my mother in exchange for her stepping down.”
Vi’s mouth, which had still been open mid sentence, snapped shut. “Shit,” Caitlyn hissed through the holo. “You’ll have to agree, Vi, we’re as good as dead if you don’t.”
Vi wanted to scoff and say that she was the one at risk, since no one but her and Mylo officially knew Caitlyn was working with her, and Mel seemed not to have gotten an identity on Vi’s companion during the Northside incident.
“No, no,” she finally said, sighing through the words. “Fine, deal. I’ll give you copies of whatever I find.”
“That’s all I ask,” Mel said with a polite smile. “Well—that an assurance that news of any of it won’t reach the media until I’ve had my chance to use it.”
Vi hummed in thought. “Data is still gonna get to my client.”
“And that’s fine, as long as it doesn’t go public straightaway.”
“Can’t control what the client does,” Vi pressed back, “I’ll send it to you first, but you gotta be quick.”
Mel huffed, but then crossed her arms and nodded. “Alright, I can agree to that.”
Vi chewed her bottom lip and tilted her head, observing Mel’s posture and expression before asking, “So, do you actually know what it is I’m looking into? Or you just know it puts your mom in a shitty position?”
Mel’s eyes narrowed in a pointed glare that told Vi not to expect an answer, but then she sighed and said, “In the spirit of trust, I’ll admit that no, I’m not privy to the situation. I’ve been doing my best to track my mother’s movements and actions for months, trying to pin down something I could use against her. Just around a month ago, the office she’s been renting in Northside, which she hadn’t touched in years as far as I know, was suddenly seeing activity. When I discovered the guards—”
Vi did snort a laugh this time at the word describing the gang members. Mel ignored her.
“—I impersonated my mother’s assistant to inform them that I would be handling operations there. After the incident yesterday, they came to me, I told them all would be taken care of, and I ensured that the media would think it was purely gang activity.” She straightened up. “Regardless of what exactly you’re after, I want it. If it turns out to be useless to me, our deal still holds—I won’t alert my mother to your actions as long as you provide me what I’ve asked for.” Smiling, she added, “I am nothing if not fair, Vi.”
Vi fought a scoff, knowing by now that this was not a woman she wanted to piss off. “Fine, you got a deal.”
“Great.” Mel got to her feet and chugged the last of her coffee. “You have my number, now. My line is always secure. Call me as soon as you’re done, send me any and all data you uncover.” She paused, then looked down pointedly at Vi still sitting on the couch. “If whatever it is reaches the media before it gets to me, Vi, we will have a problem. Even if my mother were to be out of the picture. I won’t let myself be made a fool.”
Vi nodded, having no doubt that Mel could and would hire some professionals to take her ass out. And even if Vi could hold her own, having an enemy in the CEO of a large scale corporation was probably not the best way to boost her merc career.
“Lovely chatting with you, Violet—sorry, Vi.” Mel gave her a terse smile, the fake slip up just another reminder of the kind of information she had access to. Vi hadn’t even used her full name for government documentation since she was a kid. “I’ll be looking forward to your call.”
Mel let herself out of Vi’s apartment, and Vi immediately groaned and spread herself over her couch. “You get all that?”
Caitlyn’s response was immediate. “Why yes, Violet, I did.”
Vi groaned again although this one came out almost more like a whine. “Cait, now is really not the time for you to give me a taste of my own medicine. We nearly got made!”
“We didn’t, though,” Caitlyn reminded her. “I’m on my way up to your apartment.”
“Just let yourself in,” Vi muttered before ending the holo call.
Caitlyn opened her door a few minutes later, but Vi’s eyes were closed as she wallowed on her couch. “Did you want to actually eat this?“ Caitlyn asked, and Vi heard the familiar crinkle of plastic wrapped food, remembering what she’d bought from the vending machine. She hadn’t even remembered setting it down.
Vi made a noncommittal noise and then muttered, “Did you finish your sandwich in your car?”
“I did, actually.”
“Then fine.” Vi opened her eyes and sat up, taking the sandwich and cola Caitlyn was offering to her as she took a seat only a few inches away from her.
“We’ll be fine,” Caitlyn assured her. “Mel will use the truth to force Ambessa to step down from the board so she can stay in the running for mayor. Then my parents will use it to disqualify her from the race, and the NCPD will use it to fire all the officers she has in her pocket. Everyone gets what they want.”
Vi gave Caitlyn an amused look, pretty sure that Caitlyn genuinely believed that last one would happen. She didn’t say anything to the contrary, though, as she unwrapped the premade sandwich, not wanting to upset her. There was no reason to try and burst her bubble, Caitlyn was smart enough to know that it wasn’t a guaranteed result. Nothing about this was guaranteed, but she could let Caitlyn be hopeful.
“You did good, by the way,” Caitlyn told her gently. “Talking to Mel. Even if you were a little… impolite.”
Vi bit into her unwrapped sandwich and quirked an eyebrow. “Babe, have you met me? My whole thing is being impolite.”
Caitlyn chuckled, leaned a little closer. “Why yes, I have met you.”
“Missed a preem opportunity to throw in an ‘unfortunately,’” Vi joked, taking another bite.
“I know,” Caitlyn said softly, drawing Vi’s eyes up to her intense blue ones, which were boring straight into her. “But as annoying and impolite as you are, I’m starting to feel it was actually more fortunate than not that I’ve met you.”
Her tone was terrifyingly sincere, and Vi nervously wet her lips, a movement that obviously drew Caitlyn’s gaze.
Suddenly, Caitlyn seemed to be drawing closer, and Vi, sandwich forgotten in her lap, widened her eyes, heart racing. She glanced down at Caitlyn’s lips, back up at her eyes, and, in desperate panic, tried to come up with anything to say that would stop something irreversible from happening. Something that Caitlyn might regret, or that Vi wasn't sure she was ready for.
She said the first thing she could think of that was relevant enough to the previous conversation. “Violet Lane,” she blurted, causing Caitlyn to freeze a few inches from her face, one eyebrow arching. “That name—which you know now, um. That was my given name, from my parents I mean.”
Caitlyn pursed her lips but didn’t look upset by the interruption, and she leaned back a little to listen. Her eyes stayed glued to Vi’s face, and Vi wasn’t sure any girl had ever looked at her like that.
“They died when we were real young, Jinx barely even remembers them. I started going by Vi when we lived on the streets, because Violet didn’t… didn’t sound right for someone like me, I guess. People already underestimated me, even as I got taller and stronger. And my last name, I stopped using it when Vander took me and Jinx in. Pretty much sign everything just as Vi. My sister must’ve been inspired by me,” she chuckled at herself. “She changed her name and dropped Lane as well. Anyway, no idea how Medarda found my full name, but. That’s not really… that’s not really me, so. If you wouldn’t mind just… forgetting you heard it.”
Caitlyn hummed thoughtfully, and Vi braced herself for the counter request, where Caitlyn demanded Vi stop using nicknames for her. It didn’t come, though. “Oh, well. Okay. I think it’s… beautiful, but I won’t call you that if you don’t want me to.”
Vi felt her cheeks heat up under Caitlyn’s warm gaze and the thought that her given name was beautiful, not weak or too fragile. “Thanks,” she murmured. Feeling like she owed it to the other woman, she said, “If you want me to start just calling you Caitlyn, I can. I know I’ve been a dick about it, but I’m not tryna be a hypocrite, so.”
Caitlyn hummed again, looked down at her lap, and then over at Vi’s. She nudged her and nodded to the sandwich, which Vi began to eat again as Caitlyn admitted, “No one’s ever really given me a nickname. I quite like Cait, actually.”
Vi couldn’t help but smile, and it widened into a grin when Caitlyn blushed on the receiving end. “Oh yeah? And what about cupcake?”
Caitlyn’s face burned now. “I’m impartial,” she stated, turning her nose up a little. “Now finish your sandwich, Vi. We have a laboratory to plan a break in for.”
Vi tugged her bottom lip between her teeth to keep from laughing through her smile, but then she nodded and followed the instructions.
Caitlyn left a few hours later, after they’d planned their entry and exit into the SaloTech lab and talked through the finest points of the plan that they could without getting inside first. Vi was mostly down to wing all of it, especially with a netrunner on her side who could easily hack the system and garner so much information within seconds, but Caitlyn clearly liked to plan ahead and so Vi indulged her.
Vi spent the rest of her day lounging around her apartment, listening to music, browsing housing listings around the city, doing a bit more research into the Medardas. She stepped out of her apartment only once later in the evening to run down to the megabuilding market to get herself another meal, and when she returned, there was a strangely shaped, brown paper-wrapped package at her doorstep.
She brought it inside and noticed a note attached, which simply read: Thanks for last night. Quirking an eyebrow, heart rate picking up, she unwrapped it carefully to reveal a thick, black, glass vase filled with realistic looking, artificial flowers—about as close to the real thing you could buy in Night City. It barely took Vi a second to identify the species, the color a dead giveaway.
They were violets.
Notes:
What did we think about Mel's interjection in the situation?! Not exactly on Vi's side, but certainly not on the same team as her mother. It felt right for her, personally! And then the convo with Vi and Cait! And the flowers!! What did you think?!
I decided to go for a different take than what I wrote last time with Vi and whether she would allow Cait to call her Violet. I hope you liked it all the same :)
Thank you all again for reading, kudosing, commenting! It's a joy to be sharing something I love so much! We're almost to the halfway point in this fic ahhhh! Can't wait to share chapter 7 with you all, see you soon!
Chapter 7: Technical Standards
Notes:
Good morning, beautiful people! Yesterday's chapter was short but you all seemed to have liked the direction it went so I'm very happy to hear that!! Today, we're back to longer chapters, and Cait and Vi are ready to break into a lab and hopefully connect some more dots!
Really hope you guys like this one! Enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Vi was crouched across the street from SaloTech Labs, only a couple blocks away from Jinx’s shop, which she’d stopped by on her way over. Not with Caitlyn, who had met her here and was now crouched close at her back, her breath warm against Vi’s neck.
“You see the ventilation shaft door?” Caitlyn murmured, and Vi nodded, eyeing the slatted metal cover that seemed to be the perfect size for a small crawl space.
SaloTech didn’t have any guards outside its lab building, just a few cameras that Caitlyn had already turned off so that they wouldn’t alert the guards inside. “Alright, ready to do this?” Vi asked, tensing a little when she felt a hand rest on her shoulder. She swallowed and failed to resist turning her head to meet Caitlyn’s gaze. It was sunnier than normal today, and Vi was pretty sure that the blue of Caitlyn’s eyes looked even more striking. For the first time, Vi caught herself wondering if maybe the color wasn’t natural, and she was desperate to know—
“Absolutely,” Caitlyn said, interrupting her thoughts and bringing her back to the job. She nodded stiffly, turned back forward, and headed across the street.
They hadn’t talked about yesterday—the almost kiss or the violets sent to Vi’s door. They’d only exchanged polite greetings before focusing in on the task at hand.
But that didn’t mean Vi could stop thinking about it—she couldn’t, especially not with Caitlyn’s hand touching her shoulder and feeling her breath on her skin.
They reached the side of the building and Caitlyn scanned the cover with purple eyes, trailing her fingers along its edges, perhaps looking for a release. When her eyes turned back to blue, she was frowning. “I can’t figure out how to get it off cleanly. Would you be able to—”
Caitlyn didn’t need to even finish her question as Vi grasped the edges of the vent shaft cover, gripping firmly using the tech in her hands and fingers, and easily detached it. “Ta da,” Vi said with a smirk, glancing back at Caitlyn whose eyes were a little wide. “See, I’m good for some things.”
Caitlyn huffed a laugh and pushed past her. “You’re good for plenty, Vi, as you’ve more than proven this past week.” Vi felt her cheeks warm as she followed Caitlyn into the crawl space, pausing to reposition the cover as best as she could.
The ventilation shaft, which appeared to be maybe even more of a maintenance shaft, went under the first floor of the lab building. Said floors were a fine, metal mesh, meaning that Vi could see the harsh lights and shadows of the rooms above them, but unless someone was looking very closely at the floor, they wouldn’t be noticed.
They stayed quiet as Vi followed Caitlyn through the crawl space, moving as soundlessly as possible. Above them, there was light chatter and sounds of people walking around. They were looking for a room with access to a computer terminal, and Vi trusted that Caitlyn would get them to such a room just fine. And sure enough, they finally ended up under a quiet room with a hatch that Caitlyn made quick work of opening, pushing it aside and climbing up into the room. Vi was right on her tail, scoping out their surroundings as Caitlyn beelined it to a computer, tugging her personal link from her wrist. “This will take me a minute,” she murmured, “I’m going to have to break in through the password and then search the system.” Before jacking in, she glanced back at Vi. “Keep watch?”
“‘Course, cupcake,” Vi told her, blushing a little when Caitlyn’s only response to the nickname was a small smile.
Caitlyn jacked into the computer, eyes glazed over, and Vi paced the edge of the room, taking it in. It was a small office, some cluttered shelves surrounding the desk where the computer was, a small, plastic chair pushed into the corner. A window with closed blinds was half covered by one of the shelves on one wall, the door leading to the rest of the building on the opposite wall.
The sound of footsteps startled her, and she pressed against the wall by the door, glancing at Caitlyn who was completely absorbed in her task. Vi balled her hands into fists, setting her jaw and bracing herself. And when the door to the little office slid open, a woman with a baton at her waist stepping in, Vi moved like liquid as she threw an arm around her neck in a chokehold, pulling her away from the door and closing it. The woman reached for her baton as she gave a strangled grunt, but she was running out of oxygen too quickly to do much other than to grab it and barely tug it off of her waist before she slumped, passed out, in Vi’s arms.
Vi dragged her body over to the plastic chair, sitting her limp body down into it, and just as she stood up straight, Caitlyn jacked out of the computer. “Alright, I’ve got—” She blinked, noticing the additional person in the room.
“All good, Cait, what’d you find?” Vi prompted, glancing at the computer screen and finding nothing of note staring back at her.
“Um…” She shook her head, looking away from the passed out woman. “Right, so I checked the camera footage from the day of the incident. It looks like some of it was scrubbed or just not on camera, I couldn’t find anything with Deckard pictured. But I was able to look at the work logs from that day and found that there was only one lead engineer on duty that day—Corin Reveck. And coincidentally, it seems he should be in the lab today as well.”
“Nova,” Vi breathed out. “You think anyone’s gonna, uh, stop by this office anytime soon?”
Caitlyn gave her a dry look. “Let me see if I can lock down this door.” She jacked into the computer again and Vi scratched the back of her neck awkwardly, waiting. The door suddenly slid open and Vi jumped back to attention, only for Caitlyn to jack out and say, “Okay, it’ll close behind us and shouldn’t open for anyone. I went ahead and also disabled the cameras and security systems for at least most of the building, so. Let’s get going.”
Vi followed Caitlyn as she confidently navigated them through the building, pausing occasionally for her eyes to glow purple at a disabled camera or other access point mounted on the wall. She didn’t explain what she was doing at any given time, but Vi could only assume she was tracking movements of employees, making sure they didn’t cross paths with any. They made it to an elevator and Caitlyn pressed the option for one of the higher floors, taking a breath.
“Alright, there are guards posted outside the elevator, between us and the engineering lab rooms.”
“How many? Any chance they don’t notice us?”
Caitlyn shook her head with a frown. “Just two, though. I’d rather not leave behind any dead bodies, so I can reboot their optics implants, blind them temporarily, and you can knock them out?”
“Shit, Cait, is there anything you can’t do to someone’s cyberware?” Vi muttered, audibly impressed. Caitlyn smiled, looking proud of herself, and Vi’s stomach fluttered.
“Probably not,” Caitlyn replied cockily. “I am rather skilled.”
“Pretty humble, too.” Vi smirked, although she barely managed to keep the expression steady on her face when Caitlyn cocked an eyebrow and took a step closer to her.
“What use is humility, really?”
Vi opened her mouth to speak, but the elevator jerked to a stop, and Caitlyn stepped away. In unplanned synchronicity, they pressed themselves to opposite sides of the elevator cab as the doors slid open. Immediately, Vi heard a muttered, “What the—?” And then Caitlyn leaned forward enough to get the guards in her sights, and both of them let out screeches of surprise.
“Now!” Caitlyn called out, and Vi bolted into the room, making quick work of incapacitating the two men. Caitlyn was already across the room, peering through a glass panel in one of the doors. “This way. Assuming the lead engineer is in the lab…”
“Hold on, what am I doing with these two?” Vi asked, nodding to the bodies. Caitlyn frowned, glanced around, and landed her gaze on a supply closet door.
After Vi had shut both knocked out men into said closet, she and Caitlyn crept quietly through the next hallway. It turned at the end and they were faced with an open door to a lab, and as soon as Vi registered the three people in the room, she was already locking her arm around the neck of an armed woman in an expertly silent maneuver, easing her down onto the floor as she passed out. The other two were facing away, hunched over a metal table across the room, and Vi exchanged a look with Caitlyn, trying to silently ask what she should do—if one of them was the guy they were after.
Before any agreement could be reached or action taken, one of the men turned, noticed Vi and the slumped guard, and Vi had the smart pistol in her hands before she could think. The man’s hands immediately flew into the air. “Whoa whoa! We’re not armed, don’t shoot!” The other guy turned around as well, eyes wide and lifting one hand in surrender, the other leaning on a forearm crutch. “Seriously, we won’t say anything, just—”
“Jayce?” Caitlyn blurted, Vi looking over at her with surprise at the recognition in her voice.
“Caitlyn?” The man with both hands up had a short but scruffy beard and neatly combed hair, classically handsome in a way that is was inexplicably irritating to Vi, and he and his companion both were wearing button down shirts and slacks. Vi couldn’t tell what exactly their occupations were here, but there was no doubt that they were some kind of corpo employees.
Caitlyn looked over to Vi with a hand up, “It’s okay, Vi.” Vi ground her teeth together as she lowered the pistol, holstering it at her thigh again. As she did, the man lowered his hands and took two quick steps toward Caitlyn, and before Vi could even think, she was throwing herself between them, stopping him in his tracks. Vi blinked, realizing the swell of protectiveness that had come over her. Her cheeks were warm when Caitlyn gently touched her upper arm and said, quiet and surprisingly understanding, “He’s not a threat, Vi.”
Vi scoffed and pulled away. “Even if he was, not like you couldn’t handle it. I was just…” She didn’t finish her sentence, hoping that some rational explanation for her reaction would materialize in Caitlyn’s head to finish it for her.
“What are you doing here, Caitlyn?” Jayce demanded, rescuing her from the awkward moment. “I’d heard you left NetWatch years ago, and radio silence since then. What’s going on? You a merc now?”
Caitlyn scoffed. “Absolutely not!”
Jayce quirked an eyebrow up, crossing his arms over his chest and looking between Caitlyn and Vi. “So, uh… what exactly is happening right now, then?”
Vi couldn’t help her snicker as Caitlyn struggled to find the right words. Finally, she sighed and said, “I left NetWatch for the NCPD, but I got put on leave after trying to pursue a cancelled investigation. And—”
“Lemme guess,” Jayce interrupted, “you couldn’t just let it go? Had to go rogue?” He sounded halfway between amused and disappointed, and Vi felt another unjustified spark of defensiveness on Caitlyn’s behalf.
Caitlyn didn’t look happy at the questions either. “It’s not that simple, it concerns—”
“Hey,” Vi interrupted, “no offense, Cait, but it might be better for your… friend if he doesn’t know what it concerns.”
Caitlyn pursed her lips. “Yeah, no worries, Cait,” Jayce said with obvious interest and a raised eyebrow, “This is my research partner, Viktor, by the way. You going to introduce me to your buddy?” Jayce asked, glancing between Caitlyn and Vi, who balked at the term buddy, although she wasn’t really sure what a better label would be.
“Pleasure to meet you,” Caitlyn said stiffly to Viktor. “This is Vi, we’re—”
Vi smirked and finished with, “buddies.” Caitlyn flashed her a glare and Vi shrugged one shoulder, smirk turning softer against her will. “Anyway, not sure we have the time for catchin’ up with old friends…?”
Caitlyn exhaled as she nodded. “Jayce… maybe you can help us? We’re looking for Corin Reveck? Lead engineer. We need to…”
“Have a word with him,” Vi offered to finish the thought.
Jayce raised an eyebrow. “She finish all your sentences?”
“We’re in a bit of a rush, pretty boy,” Vi scoffed out, “so can you two help us, or did you wanna join your friend here for a bit?” She jutted her thumb toward the passed out woman.
“Vi, we are not hurting them. They’re just engineers anyway, right, Jayce?”
“Right. As for Dr. Reveck…” He trailed off, looking at Viktor.
Caitlyn frowned. “Please, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t if the utmost importance.”
Viktor looked suspicious, having been silently taking in the whole interaction thus far. Finally, he asked in a strong accent, “Will Dr. Reveck be harmed if we lead you to him?”
“No, we just need some information from him,” Caitlyn insisted. Vi suppressed the urge to smirk, knowing that just getting information from someone didn’t necessarily mean harm wasn’t going to be involved. “And once again, the information we’re after, it’s extremely important.”
Jayce and Viktor shared a look, each took a breath. Vi decided to remind them, “To be clear, we’re finding him one way or another. You either help us, or you get the fuck out. I won’t zero you if Cait doesn’t want me to, but you try and rat us out, I can’t promise you get home without bruises.”
“Vi,” Caitlyn started to admonish her, only for Vi to flash her a glare.
“This is business, cupcake,” she snapped, causing the other woman to blink, her expression becoming frustrated before relaxing into resignation. Probably because she knew Vi was right—some old friend popping up was not a good reason to throw an entire job.
“We get it,” Jayce said, the two of them apparently having come to an unspoken agreement, “you wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t a really big deal. We can take you up to Reveck’s office.”
Caitlyn relaxed and Vi nodded as the taller woman said, “Alright, let’s move.”
“Uh, and our friend here?” Vi interrupted, pointing at the guard. They all exchanged looks.
“People aren’t usually moving through this area,” Jayce murmured, sounding guilty. Vi just shrugged and moved the woman to the corner of the room, hoping it’d be good enough for the short time they’d be here.
Jayce and Viktor led them back to the elevator, the former looking around notably at the lack of guards but not commenting, and up one more floor. No guards awaited them in the hallway, and Viktor took the lead to guide them through a twisting hallway to an office with a nameplate displaying Dr. Reveck’s name in thick gold lettering.
Viktor knocked firmly on the door, and Vi tensed at the shuffling heard inside. Caitlyn ushered Jayce and Viktor a few feet away, out of view for when the door swung open to reveal a man with a completely chrome jaw, mouth, and nose, turning to scarred skin just below his visibly artificial magenta eyes, which immediately narrowed as he took in his guests.
“Dr. Reveck, right?” Vi asked, slipping between him and the doorframe, entering his office.
“Who is asking?” Reveck demanded, voice low and scratchy. After a second, he said, “Guns are not allowed in the building, how did you—”
“We just have a few questions for you, doctor,” Caitlyn insisted, and Vi glanced over her shoulder to see the netrunner resting a hand on Reveck’s upper arm, guiding him further into the room. She shut the door behind them, leaving Jayce and Viktor unmonitored outside. Vi’s jaw tensed, and she hoped Caitlyn’s trust in her apparent friend was warranted. “About a data drop off from about a month ago. You met with a young man, and he transferred you an encrypted file.”
Reveck jerked away from Caitlyn and looked, unfazed, between them. “I can assure you I was involved in no such thing. Data is only brought to this lab through the proper, secure transfer protocols.”
Vi clicked her tongue, looked down at her nails with disinterest. “You sure you wanna lie about this to us, doc?” Looking back up, she met his eyes. “This can be easy for you, but it doesn’t have to be.”
Reveck seemed to sneer at her, although it was a little tricky to tell through his mostly mechanical face. “You may try to make this ‘difficult’ for me, but you’ll find that I have nothing to share regardless.”
Vi glanced over at Caitlyn, mouth open to toss her a casual question on how to deal with this guy, but found her eyes glowing purple as she watched him. He followed her gaze, eyebrows furrowing, as Caitlyn blinked out of her scanning focus. “Singed,” she said aloud, raising an eyebrow. “That’s what you used to go by, isn’t it? When you were with the Chembarons. Are your employers familiar with all of your history?”
Vi mulled over the revealed information as Reveck ground his teeth together visibly, an odd sight with the chrome jaw and only some real teeth. “Quite, but progress is progress, and I am making a difference for SaloTech. My origins do not impact my ability to invent and develop.”
Vi nodded as he spoke, walking alongside a shelf in Reveck’s office, flicking her finger against an hourglass idly. “Totally, totally. So, you still close with your Chembaron chooms?”
“I’ve never had many ‘chooms.’”
“Oh, no? How long were you part of the gang if you didn’t make friends?”
“I keep, and kept, to myself.”
“Uh huh.” Vi stopped, faced him, and crossed her arms. “Not close with Silco, then?” She really knew nothing about the man she was name dropping besides what Benzo had told her two days ago, but she was starting to connect some dots. And sure enough, Reveck’s eyebrow just slightly twitched at the name of the notable Chembaron. “Might explain why you’re not shitting yourself right about now. Someone’s onto what happened last month, Singed. We’re tryna clean up this mess before it gets out of hand. You give us what we need, we make it go away, Silco doesn’t have you cut out for good.”
Vi could feel Caitlyn watching her, wary of the bluff. Vi just kept her gaze level on the doctor. Finally, he bared his teeth and huffed out a pained sound that took her a moment to realize was actually an attempt at a laugh. “Silco would never send some independent merc to clean up after himself.”
“And you would know, yeah?” Vi smiled, accepting the man’s glare without a care and cracking her knuckles. “Your chrome looks preem, by the way.” She gestured to her own forehead. “Ever consider just committing to the full face?” Stepping forward threateningly, she finished, “I could give you an easy excuse to go see your ripper, if you’d like.”
Reveck didn’t back away, and honestly, that only made Vi want to punch him even more. “You can beat me to a pulp, but I would die before telling you anything.”
“I think he’s being honest about that,” Caitlyn commented, arms crossed as well. “But speaking isn’t the only way we have to get our information, is it?”
No sooner than Reveck had opened his mouth to answer did he suddenly freeze, his chrome visibly glitching before he suddenly began to collapse. Vi slipped over to catch him before he smacked his head into his desk as Caitlyn slid a rolling chair around to set him in.
The commotion made enough sound to alert Jayce and Viktor, apparently, who burst through the door. “What is wrong with him?” Viktor demanded. “You said—”
“Relax, man,” Vi snapped, even though she was only assuming that what Caitlyn had done wasn’t lethal.
The taller woman glanced back as she pulled her personal link cable from her wrist. “I’ve just caused his cyber system to temporarily collapse by messing with his nervous system. He’ll be fine once everything his system has time to get all booted and configured again. And in the meantime…” She jacked her personal link directly into the port at the base of his skull. “I should be able to get what I need fairly easily.”
“What do you mean you just collapsed his system?” Jayce demanded. “That’s not just a casual reboot, Caitlyn!”
“Think she knows that, pretty boy,” Vi snapped, stepping up toward him. “You should be happy I didn’t bash his skull in to get him unconscious.”
Vi gave them nothing but a tight, unamused smile in exchange for Viktor’s furious glare and Jayce’s weary frown. After a beat, he asked, voice with a hard edge, “Why do I get the feeling that you have something to do with Caitlyn losing her job?”
The sound that left Vi’s mouth was somewhere between a scoff and a laugh, but was noticeably offended sounding even to herself. “Fuck you, man, I just met this bitch like, five days ago. I’m only working with her so that she doesn’t fuck me over by getting in my way.”
Caitlyn was jacking out of Reveck’s neural link now and flashing a sly smirk over to Vi. “But aren’t you so glad now, darling? You’d never have gotten this far without me.”
Vi was rendered speechless at the sudden use of the word darling coming from Caitlyn. It took her a second to even register the fact that it was being used to address her.
Thankfully, the netrunner didn’t let her get too frazzled, going on to say, “I’ve got what we need, Vi. We should delta.”
Jayce muttered under his breath, seeming surprised and shaking his head. “Is this really the same Caitlyn Kiramman I knew from NetWatch?”
Caitlyn gave the man a thin smile. “Perhaps not.”
Jayce hesitated, but when he started talking, Caitlyn was visibly tensing. “Caitlyn, should we—”
“Chat another time?” Vi cut in. “In the interest of, you know, time?” Vi wished she could say that was the primary reason she interrupted, but the look of relief on Caitlyn’s face was even more satisfying than getting out of this place a few minutes earlier would be.
“Right,” Jayce muttered. “I guess you still have my contact?”
“I do,” Caitlyn assured him, stepping closer to Vi, who resisted the urge to drift nearer as well. “Thank you both for your help. We’ll take the elevator down and go out the service exit in the back.”
Jayce hesitated to step aside, let them pass and leave the room, but ultimately he did. Viktor, still looking beyond angry, followed his movements. Caitlyn didn’t hesitate to beeline it out the door, and Vi gave a smirk and a two fingered salute to the engineers before following.
Exiting the building was easy with the security system down and the service exit being close to the elevator. As soon as they’d crossed the street and cleared the view of the building, Vi asked, “So pretty corpo boy worked with you at NetWatch?”
“No,” Caitlyn answered dismissively, continuing in the direction of the lot that they’d both agreed to park in. “He used to work at Bolbok Industries. I met him while my team at NetWatch was partnering with the corp to improve some of their Net security.”
“You didn’t date him, did you?”
Caitlyn spluttered before snapping, “Of course not! What would possibly give you that impression?”
Vi smirked. “Didn’t get that impression, just making sure you have standards.”
Caitlyn stopped in her tracks, Vi almost stumbling to do the same and then finding Caitlyn just inches away from her, arms crossed firmly over her chest. “Oh, is that so? And what reason do you have to be keeping track of my standards?”
Vi blinked, hoping it wasn’t obvious how caught off guard she was. Again. How did Caitlyn keep doing this her? “Just a good thing to know about, ah, y’know...” Caitlyn raised an eyebrow, and Vi smirked. “Buddies.”
Caitlyn arched an eyebrow, leaning forward a little. “Perhaps for some types of buddies, yes. And do you really think Jayce is at a lower standard than a Night City street merc?” Vi wet her lips without thinking at the way Caitlyn’s tone was all flirtatious and not at all venomous.
“I never made any comparisons, cupcake,” Vi whispered dangerously. “That was all you.” Her heart was pounding, palms sweating, as anxiety raced through her, but she ignored it all to add, “And honestly, I got a feeling you might have a thing for street mercs.”
Caitlyn’s lips were parted to answer when shouts and an alarm broke through the normal city noises from the direction of the lab. “Shit,” Caitlyn hissed, grabbing Vi’s hand and tugging her toward the parking lot. “We need to go—and we need to talk about what I’ve found.”
“My place or yours?”
“Mine, considering which dangerous new friends of ours could show up at yours,” Caitlyn reasoned, providing the first mention of the previous day. Even though it was a reference to Mel, it brought Vi once again back to the moment in her apartment afterward, Caitlyn barely inches away.
“Preem.”
Caitlyn squeezed her hand once before releasing it, saying, “Meet you there, darling,” and splitting off toward her car.
Vi swallowed and shook her head to clear it, but considering that Caitlyn calling her darling was on repeat for her whole drive to Charter Hill, it wasn’t very effective.
Caitlyn opened the door to her apartment with a wave of her hand, letting the two of them in after they’d met up outside the building. “So, what did Singed have?”
Caitlyn glanced at her. “Your bluff to him was risky, speaking of.”
Vi shrugged. “Not really. Figured we’d just confirm whether your fancy scanner info was true, and you’d figure out how to get what we needed. And hey, it worked, didn’t it?”
Caitlyn hummed, intrigued. “So you trust me now, is that it?”
Vi snickered. “Not telling you one way or another. Tricking mercs into trusting you probably gets you off, doesn’t it?”
Now, Caitlyn turned to her looking utterly appalled. “Tricking mercs? Is that what I’m doing?”
“You tell me, babe.”
They stood there by the entry, frozen with their gazes locked, for a few moments. Vi didn’t know how to break it, but thankfully Caitlyn finally said, voice quiet and silky smooth, “Singed had the instructions for the virus.” After a beat, she turned away to step into her living room and continued, “As well as the assembled virus itself—not running in his system, of course, but ready to be deployed. And it appeared it was only ever deployed to some kind of cyber audio implant that I’ve never heard of—something brand new, I think, still being developed by SaloTech?”
Vi frowned, following and tucking her hands into her pockets. “So why would the mayor have been connecting to an implant like that? He have hearing issues?”
“No, he didn’t,” Caitlyn murmured distantly. “It was still a prototype, anyway, it wouldn’t make any sense for Heimerdinger to want to use it, does it?”
Vi frowned. “I dunno? Maybe he thought it was something else?”
Caitlyn shook her head. “Doubtful. I mean, that would be a smart way to do it. Something like cyber audio enhancements would be more dangerous than many other kinds of implant on account of how close proximity its connections would be to the brain, so tricking someone to jack into supposedly something else would make sense… But my mother’s told me that Heimerdinger was very well versed in cyberware—he was a cybernetics professor at NCU for decades before going into politics. Always on the cutting edge. And from the schematics I got from Reveck’s data, I don’t think it’s something he would have misidentified.”
Humming thoughtfully, Vi moved over to lower herself onto Caitlyn’s couch. She made herself comfortable as Caitlyn went through the motions of filling two cups of machine coffee. “So, this implant—it was installed in him to spread the virus? Would that mean his appointment in the calendar was with a ripper?”
Caitlyn brought the coffee over, giving one cup to Vi before sitting next to her. “I don’t think so. I mean—yes, technically, an implant like this would need to be installed by a ripper doc. But this prototype, from what I could gather, looks to be external? He might’ve plugged it into his neural link or even just jacked in his personal. Helpful for testing, giving temporary experiences of the audial enhancements.”
“Saying the mayor was a guinea pig?” Caitlyn frowned. “Someone could’ve forced it in his head, maybe, wouldn’t that make more sense?”
Caitlyn leaned back against the cushions, blowing on her coffee with knit eyebrows. After taking a careful sip, she murmured, “It’s his appointment that’s confusing me—a recurring one, right? The ripper possibility makes more sense, even though this prototype wouldn’t require one.”
Vi sighed, sipped her own coffee and ignored the slightly stinging burn against her taste buds. “So. Option one, Heim was seeing a secret ripper doc who turned out to be corrupt, jacked him into the prototype. Option two, whoever Heimerdinger met up with forced this prototype into his neural link. Option three, the mayor offered himself up as lab rat?”
“Either way,” Caitlyn muttered, “we don’t know where the prototype was taken for the meeting with the mayor. I downloaded as much data from Reveck as I could about SaloTech, but I couldn’t determine what it was being used for. To know exactly what happened, it’d probably be best to see if we can get eyes or data on what actually happened. Camera footage or transcriptions of the meeting.”
Vi groaned. “So, we don’t know what happened without knowing where to look, and we don’t know where to look without knowing what might’ve happened.”
Caitlyn sighed and shook her head, taking a long draught of her coffee. Vi managed a small sip of hers, but then set it down on the coffee table to let her fingers tap on her knees as she thought.
“So we start what we do know, right? Mayor blocked out his calendar every three months for the same timeframe that he died during. Virus was transferred into his system through an audio implant prototype which wouldn’t require a ripper.” Vi chewed her bottom lip, Caitlyn nodding along. “And the guy was a techie… you said cutting edge…” Vi frowned, meeting Caitlyn’s eyes at the same time as blue ones jumped to hers.
“Maybe he—”
“He might’ve—”
They snapped their mouths shut to not interrupt each other, and then both broke into quiet laughter. When it subsided, Caitlyn said, “Heimerdinger certainly had the money and power to access new tech immediately, but pre-release?”
“Definitely not above board,” Vi agreed, “but would explain a blank calendar block, wouldn’t it?”
Caitlyn frowned. “Let me search through what I got from Reveck. And—do you have the mayor’s calendar file still?”
Nodding, Vi flicked the data over to her and grabbed her coffee to keep drinking while Caitlyn’s eyes flickered just slightly in their purple shine as she searched. Vi was finished with her drink when Caitlyn looked at her with blue eyes again a couple minutes later.
“I’ve got it, I think.” Caitlyn sounded a little breathless with excitement, and Vi perked up, wet her lips, and waited expectantly. “I had downloaded a few encrypted message exchanges, just decoded them and found one between him and a woman named Sky Young. She had an appointment that afternoon and needed to pick up some cyberware from the lab before going. She was coming by the lab around one-thirty.”
“Half hour before Heim’s meeting…” Caitlyn nodded. “So, what now? We need to hunt down this Sky?”
“I have her contact,” Caitlyn offered, “from Reveck’s data. Could call her.”
“When we don’t know shit about her?”
Caitlyn narrowed her eyes. “Your fixer have the details on random lab assistants and receptionists?”
“Probably not, but what stops her from just hanging up on you, going and getting her holo reset and running back to Reveck or Silco or Ambessa for fuck’s sake?”
“Well, we don’t know if Sky was in on the plot. But just in case, you can call her and use either your bluffing, threats, or your powers of womanizing, can’t you?” Caitlyn looked at her pointedly and Vi, blushing, dared not to look away.
“The flirting thing works best in person, as I’m sure you’re well aware, Cait.”
Caitlyn was blushing now, too, but only instructed, “Then bluff.”
“Fine. Gimme her contact.”
Ten seconds later, soft ringing prefaced the sound of a woman’s gentle voice saying, “This is Sky Young with SaloTech, how can I help you?”
“Good afternoon, Miss Young,” Vi greeted in the most professional voice she could manage. “This is the office of attorney Matilda—” she paused for only a split second to consider, “—Lawson. My name is Vee, I’m calling regarding a private, legal matter. Do you have a few moments to chat?”
“I’m not exactly equipped for legal discussions, but I can give you the number of SaloTech legal department.”
“Ah, apologies, have I called your work number? This is about you, ma’am, not SaloTech. Do you have a few moments to talk?”
She could hear Sky gulp on the other side. “Oh, I see. One moment. Let me step outside.” A few long moments later, she finally asked, quieter, “What’s this about exactly?”
“This is about the thirteenth day of last month, and events that took place that day.” Vi briefly met Caitlyn’s amused eyes before leaning back, putting one ankle up on the opposite knee. “You know what I’m referring to, don’t you Miss Young?”
“I-I told the police everything that happened, everything I know, at the scene! They assured me that there was nothing else needed from me, and—”
“Oh, honey,” Vi interrupted, switching to a comforting tone. “Honey, don’t worry, you’re not in any trouble. Our office is investigating the NCPD officers who were on the scene, who allegedly lost the original testimonies and reports. We believe that one of the officers was experiencing technical issues with his cyberware that caused him to become paranoid, and we think the reports were stashed on the scene, and that the other officers with him covered for him.”
Caitlyn was gaping at Vi.
“If you can just confirm to us the location of your meeting with the mayor on that day,” Vi continued, confident by Sky’s earlier response that she had been there, “we can continue our search.”
“S-Sure,” Sky murmured nervously. “It was the penthouse conference room at Mitingu Plaza Hotel.”
“Mitingu Plaza Hotel,” Vi repeated, looking at Caitlyn, “Penthouse conference room. Excellent, Miss Young, thank you so much for your help.”
“No problem. J-Just—NCPD knows that I have no idea what happened, right? He just—the doctors said it was a coincidence, his heart attack, and—I’m just an assistant, s-so—”
“Honey,” Vi repeated gently, “don’t worry, they know. Thank you again, Miss Young.” She hung up the call and shook her head a little.
“What the fuck?” Caitlyn breathed out. “How do you just do that? Come up with that kind of thing?”
Vi shrugged. “I’ve seen a lot of stuff, Cait, working in this city. Heard all kinds of fucked up stories and weird shit. Anyway, you got that, about the hotel?”
“Yes. Should be straightforward to access the room, the hotel has pretty high end security but I have some connections there, through my parents. They’ll let me through to the bar without issue, then we just need to make it to a computer linked into the security system. Should be pretty easy.”
Vi rolled her shoulders back as she sat up. “Cool, sounds straight forward.”
“We could even go now since—”
“Or,” Vi interrupted, “we grab some food first? You owe me, for the burgers, don’t you?”
“Weren’t the burgers repayment for my saving your life?”
“You mean like how I saved yours hours later?”
Caitlyn scoffed. “I could have handled those gonks myself.”
“You really trying that hard to get out of going for food with me?” Vi cocked an eyebrow. “Damn, didn’t think I was that bad of company last time.”
“No,” Caitlyn argued, straightening confidently, “but if you want to go out with me so badly, you don’t need to pretend like I owe you.”
Vi’s face flushed with heat as she scoffed in a failed attempt to hide it, and she got to her feet. “Come on, Cait. Pizza, then we wrap this case up, yeah?”
“Fine, and I suppose you’re right, we will be finishing it up soon. And then you’ll go back to working with amateur netrunners and pretending like you hate the good ones.”
Vi snickered. “I was never pretending.”
“I believe you,” Caitlyn murmured, standing and drawing closer to her, “but you’ll definitely be pretending from now on, won’t you, darling?”
Vi was rooted to the spot as Caitlyn lifted a hand, trailed her fingers along Vi’s pink bangs, then down over her eyebrow scar, across the tattoo of her name under her eye, and then to the scar adorning the upper lip of her mouth, barely a hairs breadth away from touching her lips. Vi inhaled without daring to part her lips, terrified to move.
For a second, Vi thought Caitlyn was going to try again—after yesterday—to kiss her. And unlike yesterday, Vi didn’t feel a horrible jolt of anxiety and terror through her body. She thought that if Caitlyn leaned forward, pressed their lips together, Vi wouldn’t hesitate to reciprocate.
But Caitlyn didn’t. After a few long moments, she took a micro step backward. Her voice was quiet and soft as she asked, “Pizza, hm? I know a nice place by Corpo Plaza, near the hotel.”
Vi let out a breathy laugh, surprised at how low and hoarse she sounded. “Oh, of course you do, Caitlyn Kiramman.”
“Let’s go. We take our own vehicles, meet at the diner. Then, we finish this case.”
Vi suppressed a sigh as she followed the woman out of the Charter Hill apartment, finding herself dreading, all of a sudden, being done with this job.
Pizza with Caitlyn was quiet, but in a nice way that Vi wasn’t used to. After their teasing bickering and the playful flirting, Vi was certain the shared meal would be uncomfortable or at least awkward. Instead, Caitlyn idly told her about her mother taking her to this pizza shop every time she had to get dragged along to her office growing up, as a sort of consolation. Vi laughed a little at that and told Caitlyn about trying to break into vending machines as a broke kid on the streets. And the conversation was, weirdly, really easy.
They were sharing what their least favorite foods they’d tried throughout Night City were after Caitlyn paid the bill, walking side by side out the building, when the diner’s radio’s music was interrupted with, “Good evening, Night City, this is a city-wide alert. Due to extreme gang violence occurring in Heywood, the district is closed until further notice. Officers are closing down all entrances and exits from neighboring districts. Night City citizens currently residing in Heywood are advised to stay inside. Once again, due to extreme gang violence occurring in Heywood—”
Vi only realized she’d frozen mid-step when Caitlyn’s hand was suddenly sliding into hers, squeezing. “Vi,” she was saying softly, “are you okay?”
“Yeah, uh, hold on…”
Vi
You guys ok?
Mylo
We’re okay but shit’s going down in the streets.
Like they’re taking gang war literal as fuck.
We’re holding down The Last Drop.
Vander’s pissed about the lockdown. People are gonna die.
Vi
Shit.
“Shit, Cait,” Vi groaned, “Mylo’s saying it’s real bad. Fuck.”
Caitlyn nodded, squeezing Vi’s hand again. “You need to go, Vi.”
Vi furrowed her eyebrows. “They’ve locked it down, Cait, and we gotta finish this job, we—”
“As if you can’t get into a locked down district,” Caitlyn huffed in fond frustration. “I will take care of getting the rest of the data. Like I said, it’ll be simple for me to get into the hotel, maybe even easier by myself.”
Vi frowned. “You don’t have to do that, Cait. This is my gig, and we gotta get the timing right, get all the data together and send it to Mel, then your parents.”
“I won’t do anything with the data without talking to you, Vi. I will download everything I can, piece it all together on a data shard, and then I will get the data to you after you’ve made sure your family is okay. And only once you’re done with it, given it to Mel and my parents, will I bring it back to the NCPD.”
“But I—”
“Do you not want to go help them?”
“Of course I fucking do!”
“Then let me handle this and go,” Caitlyn instructed, crossing her arms, straightening up and looking down at Vi, who clenched her jaw.
“But, Cait—”
“Vi, do you trust me?” Caitlyn punctuated every word in the question, her gaze becoming narrower as it burned with something like intensity or passion.
Vi sighed, clenching her fists absently. “Yes, I do.”
“Let me handle this,” Caitlyn requested once more, voice softer, dropping her hands and grabbing both of Vi’s fists, unfurling them and tangling their fingers like that was normal now, but Vi didn’t want to overthink it. “And go help your family and your home.”
Vi nodded, swallowing her anxiety, letting Caitlyn squeeze her hands in reassurance. “Alright. Thanks.”
“Be safe, okay?” Caitlyn murmured, Vi noticing the slight waver in her voice.
“Don’t tell me that you’re worried ‘bout me,” Vi laughed and squeezed Caitlyn’s hands this time. “Might start thinking you like mercs or something.”
Caitlyn scoffed unconvincingly. “I’d just hate to take over this job for you, my parents would be furious and it would just really stress me out.”
“Sure, cupcake.” She pulled her hands away. “Text me when you got everything and you’re out of the hotel.”
A nod. “Call me… just… when you can.”
Vi nodded back. “I will.” Their eyes lingered on each other’s for a moment, Vi feeling another moment creep up on them, like earlier, like yesterday.
But then Caitlyn stepped back, and it slipped away, and Vi made for her bike.
Notes:
Whew, jam packed chapter! We got into SaloTech, Cait had a run in with an old friend, lots of CaitVi banter, and we got a biiiig missing piece to the puzzle of what happened to the mayor! Only a couple more dots to connect, buuuuut... what's up in Heywood?!?!! Gimme your guesses! Let me know what you think is gonna happen! And lemme know what you thought about what happened in this one!!
We are officially at the halfway point now! I am soooo excited to share the next few chapters with you all! Thank you for spending some of your time here reading this update, I so so appreciate every one of you! Can't wait to see you all again soon with chapter 8!
Chapter 8: It's A Game
Notes:
Happy Monday my friends! Well, hopefully it's happy enough, and if not, I'm here to hopefully brighten it a little bit! I have been soooo excited to share this chapter with y'all because I have a surpriiiiiiise....
Cait POV! And, therefore, also: what it's like to use quickhacks to get a job done in cp2077. This will be the only Cait POV in the fic, so savor it :P
(If you're a netrunning expert in cyberpunk, you may have to excuse if I've poorly described anything or made any mistakes. I haven't done a netrunner focused build, my only high level V had 12 int and she did some quick-hacking but I did heavily rely on the wiki for this chapter lol)
Oh one more glossary term that I forgot I'd need to mention:
- ICE: Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics, the tech that protects cyberware from being breached, kinda like a firewallEnjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Glass doors slid open as a tall, slender man posted by the entrance gave a partial bow in greeting. “Good evening, madam. If I could ask you to step through our security scanner?”
Caitlyn nodded with a thin smile. “Of course.” She’d already left her pistol in her Quadra Turbo-R—her first purchase off her old NetWatch income, the car having served her quite well ever since. It was parked by the pizza place, and she’d left it there to walk over to the Mitingu.
When she stepped into the red light of the scanner, her lack of weaponry caused the light to turn green and a security guard on the other side beckoned her through.
A woman behind a tall reception counter gave her a polite smile. “Good evening—are you checking in?”
“No, I’m just meeting someone at the bar,” Caitlyn answered smoothly.
The woman frowned, rightfully confused. “And your name, ma’am?”
“Caitlyn Kiramman,” Caitlyn answered, maintaining eye contact with the woman and offering a professional smile as the receptionist’s eyes widened in recognition. “Is there a problem?”
“Oh, not at all, Miss Kiramman. As you know, we just don’t allow non-guests through to the bar unless they are of a certain…” Caitlyn resisted the urge to purse her lips at the woman’s words. “… caliber. Anyway, you may go on through. Do you know where it is?”
“Yes, thank you.”
She headed for the hotel bar, which she could already see as she approached was rife with chatter and full glasses, groups of two to four people scattered along the bar and at tables placed between the bar and a row of floor to ceiling windows. The view out from the bar area was of an intricate fountain centered in a well lit courtyard. It all oozed luxury, something Caitlyn was used to thanks to years of growing up with her parents’ wealth. Still, she didn’t frequent places like this, especially not by herself.
Caitlyn had a weird relationship with being on her own.
Growing up an only child, she’d never had a regular playmate. She hadn’t grown up in an apartment building with many children either. By the time she’d gotten employed at NetWatch, it had been difficult with her to really mesh with her peers, but she’d managed it well enough having to always work on a team. It was harder on the NCPD, where most officers came from extremely different backgrounds than she did. Her friends had been few and far between, so she was used to doing things on her own.
But that didn’t mean that she necessarily liked it.
She’d never done something like this entirely by herself either—even going into City Hall earlier this week, she’d been on Vi and Mylo’s tail. Right now, she was completely alone, sliding onto an empty bar stool and nodding to the bartender, who greeted her with a thin smile. “Evening. May I interest you in our specialty cocktail of the day?” Caitlyn nodded and transferred him the Eurodollars, and fifteen seconds later she had a fancy, curved glass in hand, the drink inside fading from red at the bottom to pink by the rim.
Taking a small sip, she glanced around the room as if waiting, activating her Kiroshi scanner. Someone familiar with her would recognize her eyes looking abnormal while she looked around, but Caitlyn had met dozens of people with unnaturally colored eyes in their optical implants. No one batted an eye.
And anyway, it wasn’t like netrunners were threatening people around every corner. People weren’t on the lookout for them unless they were gang members or dangerous Corpo agents.
Caitlyn would’ve liked it if Vi were here with her as planned, even if just for Caitlyn to bounce a thought off of. She could handle herself if there were any small physical altercations, but having Vi here would make it even easier. Vi didn’t need a weapon or RAM to be effective at defending herself. Just earlier today, Vi had silently taken out a guard while Caitlyn had been completely focused on the SaloTech network. If Vi hadn’t been there, Caitlyn probably would’ve quickly been on the wrong end of the guard’s baton.
Out of all the types of people Caitlyn had worked alongside throughout her career, Vi had been the most unexpected. Not only had Caitlyn never imagined herself going rogue and working with a merc in the first place, Vi had also expressed clear distaste for netrunners upon their meeting. And yet, unlike so many of Caitlyn’s fellow NCPD and NetWatch officers, Vi hadn’t gotten hung up on their differences, hadn’t let it impact the job. As soon as Caitlyn had proven herself capable, that had been enough for Vi.
Caitlyn could easily recall the last time her NCPD partner had dismissed her skills, as recently as three months ago. Her partner hadn’t trusted her netrunning, had shrugged off the assessment she’d given of the building they’d been assigned to clear. And as a result, he’d gotten one bullet in his thigh and another in his stomach. His recovery had taken multiple days with a ripper doc, and once he’d recovered, all he’d had to say to Caitlyn was, “You were supposed to be covering me.” As if Caitlyn hadn’t also shot dead six of the ten gangoons they’d been faced with—all of which she’d tried to warn him about.
Meanwhile, Vi, who had a clear dislike of netrunners, had trusted Caitlyn to do her part and do it well. The two of them had also gotten to know each other, Vi clearly having her judgements but not using them to cause problems. Ultimately, Vi was a kind and caring person who hid behind her muscles and her fists and her street smarts because she had to.
Caitlyn took another sip of her drink to try and temper the nerves spinning in her gut.
Districts didn’t get completely shut down in Night City all that often—it was exceedingly rare compared to how often crime happened, anyway. Stores were robbed, vehicles run off roads and smashed into each other, people mugged and maimed and killed multiple times every day. Gangs were constantly at each other’s throats, and although Caitlyn was lucky to live in one of the nicer areas of the city, that didn’t mean she didn’t see Pilties hauling around their guns and chain-swords, claiming ownership of Charter Hill’s streets just like in the rest of Westbrook.
But for the entirety of Heywood to be locked down, no one allowed in or out, due to gang violence… it had to be bad. Caitlyn had been on the NCPD force for three years, and only twice had an incident been so bad as to shut down more than a block or two. She’d worked one of the checkpoints in Watson when it had been shut down last year due to an organized series of explosions in six buildings across its subdistricts. It had lasted a full day that officers spent tracking the organizer of the attacks and running bomb checks with high end drones through every major building.
Caitlyn didn’t know that much about Vi’s family, hadn’t learned even a fraction of what there must be to know, but she knew that her father was in Vista del Rey. As soon as they’d heard the radio announcement, and Vi had frozen in her tracks, Caitlyn had known that she’d want to go and help them.
And Caitlyn also knew that Vi was incredibly capable as a fighter, excellent with her body but also currently armed with Caitlyn’s smart pistol. She’d been working jobs requiring violence for a long time, and really had lived with violence her whole life, based on everything she had told Caitlyn. So Vi would certainly be alright in Heywood, would hold her own and come out in one piece once whatever was going on subsided and the lockdown was lifted.
All of this knowledge did little to stop the fear, though, that something might happen to her.
It hadn’t been Caitlyn’s intention to get to attached to the rough street kid turned talented, smooth talking merc, and yet the thought of not seeing Vi again was like a knife to her stomach.
Caitlyn spent a few minutes sipping her drink, diligently putting Vi out of her mind, and observing the goings on of the hotel bar and lobby area.
Her drink was half empty when she noticed an employee wearing a pencil skirt and a suit top walking out of the lobby, past the bar, and turning down a hall that led opposite the direction of the elevators. Before losing sight of her, Caitlyn ran a ping through the employee’s cyber system. Her field of vision, already in shades of red and purple from her scanner being active, began to highlight dozens of employees and access points throughout the hotel that were all connected in some way or another to the hotel’s network. She noticed a cluster of important devices and a few people gathered in a small space somewhere else on the first floor, set down her glass, and stood up to casually wander in that direction.
The highlighted view dropped away after a few seconds, her ping expiring, but she kept going in the same direction, trying to act unfocused by looking out the windows along one side of the hall until she reached a fork, where a smaller hallway lined with employee-only doors branched off the main one around the outside of the hotel. A quick glance above the entrance to the hallway showed a camera diligently watching, so Caitlyn moved toward the windows, leaning against one and peering out as if enjoying the view.
After being sure that no one was coming down the hallway in either direction, she glanced back at the camera, activating her scanner and immediately triggering a takeover hack. Within seconds, she was in the first floor security system, vaguely aware of the feeling of her body as she looked through the lens at herself. Her face was blurred, though, courtesy of the high end implants she’d spent the last eight years curating. The only reason she had to shut down cameras was to prevent enemies from being alerted to her presence in real time—if they did spot her, even the best netrunner wouldn’t be able to identify her actual identity.
As if she was actually using the computer controlling all of the cameras, she easily switched to viewing through another camera, finding it looking over the lobby. Hurriedly, she flipped through the cameras until she found one further down the employee hallway, noticing that it seemed to be pretty empty all the way down. A switch to one more camera granted her the view of security office. Rows of computers were lined up along multiple desks, and six people were gathered in it, idly chatting and occasionally glancing at one of the screens.
A more detailed scan of the room revealed that two of the people in the room were standard security guards, while the other four were security technicians.
Caitlyn disconnected from the system and took a breath as she recentered herself in her body, where she was actually still leaning against the window.
Glancing back at the closest camera, she powered it down, and started down the hallway.
If Vi were with her, Caitlyn would suggest sneaking to the room, barging in and taking all six employees out before they could call backup by combining her netrunning with Vi’s more physical skills. As it was, though, she needed to get access to that room all by herself.
Netrunning was basically a puzzle. She had certain abilities at her disposal, usable on so many different people and net-linked devices. The number of decisions she could make, and the order of which she could make them, was essentially infinite. It was a game. She merely had to choose her pieces, take her actions at precise times and in the right order, and all while not getting her physical body caught in the crossfire.
She turned off the second camera further down the hallway and then found a cart of empty, plastic crates abandoned at the end of it. She ducked behind the mess before once again taking over the security cameras. She flipped back to the security office, finding the situation inside still the same.
Considering her options, she looked through the next few cameras, until she came across what seemed to be another employee-only area, this one some kind of maintenance room filled with huge pieces of machinery. An emergency exit door was adjacent to the biggest and most dangerous looking one. She pinged one of the machines connected to the hotel’s network and it revealed that this room was fairly close to the security office, and so Caitlyn had her game pieces presented in front of her.
She picked the least important piece of machinery in the maintenance room, one that wouldn’t cause the whole building to go into high alert if it stopped working. She triggered a simple malfunction, causing it to spark and make a few loud noises. Then, she used it to simulate a request for assistance, and flicked back a few camera views to the security room. And sure enough, one of the technicians and one of the guards were frowning, getting up and leaving the room.
She dropped out of the security system for long enough to confirm that she was physically safe, and to peer around the cart to identify which rooms she was working with. She saw the security office door slide closed ten feet away, the guard and technician walking at a quick pace away from her. She waited until she saw the technician scanning their hand over the access pad of a different door, then jumped back into the cameras.
Back on the maintenance room camera, Caitlyn watched the two enter. As soon as the door closed behind them, and the technician began to jack into the already recovering machinery, Caitlyn triggered a system collapse on the technician, whose cyberware quickly began shutting down.
The guard visibly panicked, muttering something probably into his holo as he knelt by the technician, checking for a pulse. Her expert timing seemed to work—made the guard think that the malfunctioning machinery had caused the problem. As he requested backup, Caitlyn felt her cyberdeck’s RAM replenishing slowly, what Vi had referred to as her “hacking juice.” The biggest limiting factor of all quick-hacking like this.
On the security office camera, she saw two of the three other technicians jumping up with concern and running to see what had happened to their coworker. Once four of the original six guards were all in the maintenance room, Caitlyn had only a few seconds to make a decision. She couldn’t immediately take out all of them at once. At least, not with a system collapse like she’d done to the first. She could easily trigger something or another to blow up, killing them, but that would only cause bigger problems.
Instead, she took a calculated approach. First, she rebooted the optical implants of the three still conscious, all of them panicking as soon as they became temporarily blinded. Immediately afterward, she expelled a good amount of her remaining available RAM to trigger a short-term memory wipe on the three of them, stopping them from calling backup to report what was happening. With the three employees unable to see and clueless as to what was going on, Caitlyn waited and meticulously monitored the seconds that her hacks would stay in effect, all while feeling her available RAM tick back up. Finally, she was able to trigger a sonic shock through all three of them just before their eyesight would’ve come back. The wear on their systems had the exact effect she’d wanted—all three of them losing consciousness one after the other.
She backed out of the camera, leaned against the wall, and took deep breaths to steady herself as her hacking memory replenished slowly. Her heart rate slowed and she came back to herself. It was hard describe to anyone who wasn’t used to it, both the act of hacking other people’s cyberware and practically becoming one with a computer or a security system, even for a brief time. Doing so much at once almost felt like separating completely from her human self, and it always took a second for her to reconcile it all when she came out of it.
As soon as she was good to act, though, she didn’t hesitate to do so. The security room only had one guard and one technician in it now, and with her RAM all available again, she quickly got back into the cameras and repeated the same trick on the last two of them. Lastly, she remote activated the door to the security room, and when she came back to herself again, she spied the door open ten feet down the hall.
She walked in without fanfare, warily eyeing the passed out bodies on the floor, and closed the door behind her just to be safe. Now for the easy part—she hoped.
Jacking into the computer, she quickly breached it, granting herself full control over all of its functions. Immediately, she initiated a search through the camera files on the date of the mayor’s death. The computer held massive amounts of data—camera footage recorded in every single hotel room, encrypted of course, for every second of every day, not to mention the hallways, conference rooms, front desk, bar, restaurant. But Caitlyn was patient, and as soon as the recordings she wanted were isolated, she began to download them onto her own system.
“Peters, report to front security. We need a private escort for a guest.” Caitlyn blinked, looking over to a physical radio lying next to where the guard had collapsed.
“Shit,” she muttered, her download progress only thirty percent. She definitely didn’t need every single recording in the download, but she didn’t have time to review them now, so all she could do was wait.
“Peters, do you copy?”
Caitlyn grit her teeth. Forty percent.
“Peters? Nance, do you copy?”
Fifty percent.
“Peralez, can we get eyes on SecOps? Peters and Nance are not responding.”
“Copy, Myles. Making my way down now, over.”
“You do not have to say over, Peralez, how many times do we have to say that?”
“Right. Copy.”
Caitlyn bit down on her lower lip. Sixty percent. While the download continued, she briefly scanned the other files in the security system for the conference room bookings on the day the mayor died. Her download was at seventy percent when she successfully verified that the penthouse conference room had been booked by SaloTech, although the booking didn’t mention its purpose nor its attendees—neither Sky nor Heimerdinger or his security mentioned by name or title.
“Myles, we’ve got a situation. Various security cameras have been shut down, appears the system has been breached.”
Eighty percent.
“Copy. All spare units proceed to SecOps. Paging the ‘runner.”
“Shit,” Caitlyn huffed again. Of course the high end hotel would have a netrunner on-call for any security issues. Thankfully, it had been long enough since she’d hacked all the guards and technicians now that those hacks shouldn’t be able to be traced back to her, but anything else she did on their network might point right to her pretty soon. Her ICE would protect her well enough from even a very experienced netrunner, but she'd still prefer not to take the risk.
Ninety percent. Ninety-five.
“Jacking in now,” the gruff voice of the apparent netrunner came over the radio.
“Copy. Peralez? Status on SecOps?”
“Still en route.”
“Backup is coming up as well.”
The download completed, and Caitlyn had never jacked out of a computer so quickly. At almost exactly the same time, the netrunner’s voice came through the radio again with, “In the system now. Someone definitely touched something, not seeing unidentified signals just now. Taking a closer look.”
Caitlyn let out a relieved breath, and then—
“All cameras coming back online," immediately followed by, "Approaching SecOps office."
“Fuck,” Caitlyn hissed, practically sprinting out of the security room, but not before grabbing the pistol off of the guard’s unconscious body—just in case. With that, she took off toward the maintenance room.
The last thing she heard from the radio was the netrunner saying, “Shit! Six down—two in SecOps, four in—”, and then she was too far, quickly hacking open the door to the maintenance room as the smacking of boots on tile echoed down the hall. Caitlyn didn’t even spare a glance in the incoming guards’ direction, instead ducking into the maintenance room just before she heard shots fired.
The radio on the other unconscious guard was a loud mess of mixing voices, the hotel’s security scrambling to figure out what was going. Caitlyn barely managed to force open the emergency exit door inside the maintenance room, finding herself standing on concrete. She didn’t bother to take in the scenery or even figure out where exactly she was—all she needed to see was the alcohol delivery van being unloaded fifteen paces away, and she had her exit route planned.
In the six seconds it took her to run to the van, she located and shot the security camera overlooking the area in the hopes that the runner wouldn’t be able to track her exit, then met the eyes of the delivery man who was gaping at her, and triggered a memory wipe on him. She didn’t bother knocking him completely unconscious, though, saving the RAM in case she did get pursued.
Caitlyn clambered into the driver’s seat of the van and stomped on the gas. It’s backdoors flapped a bit erratically at the sudden motion, but Caitlyn didn’t care as she peeled out of the delivery area, pulling out onto the huge roundabout that was central to Corporate Plaza with a screech of tires. One of the back doors slammed shut with the sharp turn, and Caitlyn bit down on her tongue to focus herself, ignore the incessant pounding of her heart as she passed the exits currently blocked off toward Heywood. She was forced to exit the roundabout onto the bridge into Japantown instead, but thankfully, a glance in the rearview mirror told her that no private security was on her tail. NCPD might be soon, though, if they weren’t too busy with whatever was going on in Heywood.
Caitlyn wasn’t going to risk it. As soon as she was solidly in Japantown, she pulled the van over, tossed the pistol into it, and triggered the vehicle to self-destruct. By the time the nearest NCPD officers were racing to investigate it, Caitlyn had already disappeared into the busy evening crowd. She felt like she was on autopilot as she slipped inside an outdoor elevator, finding herself a dozen levels up shortly after, stepping out into Redwood Market. As usual for any evening, the stalls and shops along the balcony and the bridge that connected to the other end of the market were all busy. Caitlyn let out a breath, deciding she was safe.
Despite having actually eaten beforehand, the exertion of the past hour or so had her feeling exhausted, and she ended up seated at a small yakitori stall, ordering herself a single skewer and a cola to give her the boost of energy she needed to make it home and start sifting through data.
Although she’d left her car back at the pizza place in City Center, it was equipped with automated driving, and she was able to send it the signal to meet her at the street level outside Redwood Market once she was done eating. When it arrived, she started the drive back to her place before thinking twice and heading instead toward Rancho Coronado.
Half an hour later found her seated in Vi’s apartment, the single room, with not even a real door into the bathroom, lit by dim, yellow lights. It was completely dark outside by now, and Caitlyn wanted so badly to message Vi, to check if she was okay in Heywood.
Instead, she only sent what Vi had asked her to, hoping to be of minimal distraction in the event that Vi was in the middle of something… dangerous.
Caitlyn
I’m out of Mitingu, got confirmation of the room booked by SaloTech, and downloaded all the camera footage. Safe across the river.
She decided to exclude the fact that she was safe in Vi’s apartment, deciding that was a revelation for later, considering she’d technically broken in.
It was strangely comforting, though, sitting here in Vi’s space for the third time. It vaguely smelled of Vi—maybe whatever shampoo she used coming from the shower in the bathroom and the lingering sent of coffee by the machine that had clearly seen better days. Vi’s sheets and blankets were rumpled, having not been made this morning before their SaloTech break-in, apparently. Not that that surprised Caitlyn, since the first time she’d been here, the bed had been equally unmade.
Over on the counter in the kitchen sat the black vase of violets she’d had sent over the previous night. Vi hadn’t ever mentioned receiving them, but seeing that they hadn’t been immediately thrown away made Caitlyn’s heart soar just a little.
Resisting the urge to snoop too much, and putting the thought that Vi hadn’t responded to her message out of her mind, Caitlyn laid across Vi’s couch, dropping the bag she’d hauled in from her car on the floor next to her, and closed her eyes as she began to sift through data in her head.
It felt almost miraculous when Caitlyn found the footage she was interested in, and found it in one piece. Nothing scrubbed or deleted. She was able to stitch together a compilation of the late mayor walking into the building with two of his own personal security escorts, going through security, and making his way up the elevator to the penthouse conference room. Waiting there already was Sky Young, glasses on her face as she scrolled on a tablet, a crate of various cyberware and tech sitting on the conference table. The room was huge, fit for a meeting with upwards of thirty people, with huge windows looking southward out at Heywood, Pacifica, maybe even the ocean—not that Caitlyn could tell from the camera’s angle. Not that she cared either, instead watching as Sky jerked upright at Heimerdinger’s entrance to the room, the tablet hastily being set on the table.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor,” Sky greeted, bowing her head and then offering a hand in greeting. Heimerdinger beamed at her as he waltzed over, shaking her hand in return. His security guards stopped a few paces away, one of them facing the door, and one facing the mayor himself. From the other cameras on the penthouse, it was clear that the hotel’s security was also posted around the floor and near the conference room.
And in the conference room, Heimerdinger looked completely healthy as he peered into the box of tech. “This is a mighty impressive collection,” he mused, finger twiddling with his mustache.
“Mr. Salo insists on showing you only the best,” Sky assured him, picking the tablet back up and offering it to the mayor. “Here is the list of everything included. Most of them are in very early stages this time, but the few that you are welcome to try out are highlighted. And as always, if you take an interest in any of those, the prices for the first released models are indicated on the list as well.”
Heimerdinger perused the list with curiosity, occasionally looking into the box and gingerly picking up one piece of tech at a time. The purpose of this meeting was already crystal clear, and Caitlyn almost didn’t want to keep watching, but she had to be sure.
Eventually, the late mayor picked up a small implant and turned it over in his hands. Caitlyn paused the feed, zooming into the footage and verifying that the implant matched the schematics of the one she’d taken from Reveck’s head. And just like she’d noticed in the schematic, it had a port fit for a personal link.
“Audio enhancement, eh?” Heimerdinger asked with raised eyebrows, after Caitlyn resumed the footage. “Seems like something that could get quite overstimulating.”
Sky gave him a small smile. “I’ve heard from Mr. Salo's engineers that the implant works with AI to enhance only relevant audio, depending on how you synchronize with and configure it. Similar to the way SaloTech’s synaptic accelerators only activate during situations based on a person’s level of perceived danger.”
“Now, normally this would be a regular, subdermal implant, right?” Heimerdinger asked, tugging his personal link out of his wrist. Caitlyn was holding her breath, tempted to pause the footage, delay the inevitable.
“Normally, yes,” Sky confirmed, “the prototype is outfitted for external linking and should work more or less like the final product will work, only without as much personal configuration.”
“Fascinating,” Heimerdinger said with approval, his personal link just about to jack in.
Caitlyn skipped ahead. She didn’t need to watch in detail as the virus uploaded to the mayor’s system, disabled many of his core implants, and overwhelmed his circulatory system.
The aftermath was a mess. Heimerdinger’s personal security rushed to his side, one of them speaking loudly through his holo as Sky held two hands over her mouth, tears rushing down her cheeks as she panicked.
“Two NCPD officers en route, one minute out,” came the voice of a woman rushing into the conference room, dressed in a hotel security uniform, gun at her waist.
“Trauma Team also inbound, these windows open?”
One of the massive windows did, in fact, open for the Trauma Team air shuttle that arrived on the scene, but before that was the arrival of the two NCPD officers.
Caitlyn recognized both of them. Marcus Duvall and Hal Newman. Marcus, the superior officer of Caitlyn’s superior officer, the man who had ordered her leave of absence, and Hal, his loyal partner. Caitlyn clenched her teeth, her blood running cold, as realization struck. They were only one minute away from the scene when the incident happened—probably right outside the hotel, given the length of time it even took to get to this conference space.
They took the statements of everyone in the room, during which Trauma Team arrived, doctors swarming the mayor’s body. They ran a few scans before one of them pronounced Mayor Heimerdinger dead from a heart attack at 2:25pm.
Caitlyn opened her eyes, let the footage sink to the back of her mind, and took a deep breath. She glanced at the digital clock mounted above Vi’s bed, realizing how late it was now. Her body could tell already. She was exhausted, but she couldn’t fathom going home to sleep, or even falling asleep here. Not when Vi was still in Heywood with the lockdown still active.
So Caitlyn sat up and got herself a cup of Vi’s lukewarm coffee-flavored sludge—what she determined was an accurate description—and worked on compiling all of the footage and all of the gathered data: the instructions for the virus, the compressed virus itself, the logs from Reveck of its only upload, and the schematic of the audial enhancement implant. It took her far too long to get everything in order thanks to how tired she was, but finally, she produced a few empty data shards from her bag. She slotted them into the port at the base of her skull one at a time until she’d successfully created three physical copies of the data. Of course, the data in her head wasn’t going anywhere either, but she did start a system cleanup process to start dumping everything else she’d accumulated this week.
She ended up slumped across the couch again, trying desperately to keep her eyes open. And as badly as she wanted to stay awake and wait for Vi to call, sleep was calling sooner, and even her cyberware couldn’t protect her from it forever.
Caitlyn jolted awake from her holo ringing with a call at half past four in the morning. It took her half a second to realize why she was so physically uncomfortable—the awful position she was in across Vi’s couch—and another half a second to focus on the incoming call. She answered it as soon as she noticed the caller ID.
“Vi?” she demanded, her prior sleepiness not at all evident in her voice as she frantically sat up.
“Cait,” Vi replied, voice scratchy with overuse and exhaustion. “Can you come to The Last Drop?”
Vi didn’t just sound depleted, she realized, but her voice was shaky and wet with emotion. Caitlyn was already on her feet, tossing the data chips into the pocket of her pants, deciding to leave her bag here. “Is the lockdown lifted?” She slipped out of Vi’s apartment, already knowing that the answer didn’t matter. She was going to get into Heywood one way or another.
“I-I don’t think so,” Vi responded. “The streets have calmed down some, but—shit, Cait, I can explain easier when you’re here, I just—I need your help, please, if you can. I’ll owe you big time, we can work something out, I just—”
“Don’t worry about that right now, Vi,” Caitlyn snapped as she headed for the nearest elevator. “I’m on my way. Just try to stay calm, okay?”
Vi gave a weak and empty laugh, and Caitlyn’s heart ached. “Right, yeah. Thanks. Be careful.”
“You, too. I’ll be there soon.”
The call dropped and Caitlyn swallowed the thick worry in her throat. Vi was alive—in one piece enough to call and ask for help. Whatever was happening in Heywood wasn’t over yet, but Vi was okay, and Caitlyn held tightly onto that as she counted the seconds until she could make it to The Last Drop.
Notes:
WHOA! We got some extra backstory on Cait, getting to see the netrunning in action for the little hotel data heist, Cait going back to Vi's place instead of her own, putting together the final pieces of what happened to the mayor, and getting that call from Vi!!! Another little cliffhanger for you guys :P
Your thoughts! I wanna know them! I have so much work to do this afternoon and reading your comments will bring me so much joy so please do leave them if you can <3Thank you all for reading, kudosing, and commenting! I very much appreciate it <3 Can't wait to share Chapter 9, in which we go back to immediately post pizza time and see what was going on with Vi during this whole timeframe! See you tomorrow!
Chapter 9: Holding Our Ground
Notes:
Good morning lovely people!!! I am so glad that you all enjoyed Cait POV last chapter!! We're now rewinding just a bit to catch up with Vi!
Obviously violence has been prominent in this fic, but figured it's worth mentioning that this chapter will have a bit more graphic violence.
Enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
When Vi swung her leg over her motorcycle to leave the pizza place, ensuring her pistol was strapped securely to her thigh, she forced all thoughts of Caitlyn as far to the back of her mind as she could manage. With it went the worries and stake she had in the Heimerdinger investigation. It didn’t matter if the whole job went sideways, if she lost every eddie to her name and every ounce of her reputation. All that mattered right now was making sure that her family was still alive by the time the lockdown on Heywood was lifted.
Corpo Plaza in City Center bordered Heywood, so she only had to drive for a minute to get to the police border being setup. Lit up across the road using some fancy tech or another were the words No Entry, lines of red light underlining it and glowing obviously. Vi ignored it, driving forward toward the cop cars that were parked horizontally across both sides of the road, blocking traffic.
One of the four cops blocking the road crossed her arms over her chest and sauntered over with a frown and a raised eyebrow as Vi stopped her bike, propping it and herself up with one foot on the ground. “District’s closed, choom. If you live in Heywood, probably safer to crash at a motel tonight.”
Vi ground her teeth together. “What’s going on? Chembarons going for a full-on takeover?”
The cop shrugged. “Something like that. Trust me, you don’t wanna be here right now.”
“Look, officer,” Vi said, as politely as she could possibly muster, “I get it, you’re doing your job. Isolate the problem, let it work itself out—”
“The NCPD is working to solve the violence—”
Vi scoffed. “Even if I believed that, I promise—they can’t. Cops getting mixed up with the gangs is just going to get more people killed, which is exactly why you’re sitting pretty on the border while the gangs fight it out, right?” The officer frowned deeper. “I’m Heywood born-and-raised, ma’am,” Vi continued, straightening up. “I got family in there, and I don’t aim to let them end up in the crossfire.”
The cop sighed. “If they’re not involved with the gangs, their best bet is to hunker down, same as you. Call ‘em, tell ‘em to stay low and stay out of the violence.”
Vi clenched her jaw and took a breath. “Firelights and Chembarons both know me and my family, officer. They won’t get a choice to just stay out of it. And I know this turf war going on, way better than any NCPD officer. Please. You let me inside, I promise there will be fewer deaths, and all this shit will be over faster.”
Taking a breath and shaking her head, she waved over at one of the other cops, gesturing for him to back his car up. The guy flashed Vi a puzzled look but then got into his car. “You got a death wish, hun.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that before,” Vi told her with a relieved chuckle. “Thanks.”
As soon as there was a space big enough for her bike to fit through, Vi twisted the throttle and jetted across the Heywood district line.
The roads were mostly empty in Vista del Rey, definitely an odd sight for this time of night, but the sounds of the subdistrict were no different than usual. She could hear the rapid gunfire and shouting well before she could see it, so rather than taking the main road to The Last Drop, she drove her bike through the back alleys until she was parked behind it.
The back entry to the bar was locked, so she shot a message to Mylo, who was there to open it for her within seconds. “That was fast as fuck, dude.”
“I was at Corpo Plaza,” Vi told him, walking in as he backed up to allow her. She winced a little when she added, “Working,” as if she hadn’t been enjoying pizza and swapping childhood stories with Caitlyn.
“They hadn’t blocked the streets off yet?”
“As if NCPD actually cares if someone like me gets flatlined from gang violence,” Vi muttered, “they let me pass. What’s going on?”
“See for yourself.” Mylo led her through to the main part of the bar, where Vi immediately took stock of the situation. Huddled behind the bar were some folks who flinched at every round of gunfire heard from outside—every few seconds. Civilians, no doubt, who had probably just been enjoying an evening drink when the violence broke out.
The tables and barstools were all piled by the front entrance, a feeble defense for if the Chembarons tried to storm in. Given how well known The Last Drop was among the Firelights, it could definitely be a high priority target for the Chembarons to get a foothold. Even though Vander himself wasn’t a part of the gang, he had a strong, leader-like presence in Heywood, and the goons from Pacifica knew it.
Vander himself was standing with a shotgun resting on the bar top next to him, a metal baseball bat turning over in his hands, talking to Claggor and three other street punks that Vi vaguely recognized. A few more armed folks—civilian or otherwise, Vi wasn’t sure—were pacing through the space, eyeing the barricaded door warily.
She and Mylo headed straight toward her adoptive father, who noticed her immediately and interrupted himself to say, “Vi, didn’t expect you to be here.”
“I was nearby, and even if I wasn’t, you think I’d really just let you all handle this yourselves?” Vi asked, voice hard as she leaned against the counter, eyeing the weapon laid out next to her. She recognized the tricked out gun from Vander’s old merc stories. “This old thing still work?”
“Haven’t been cleaning it regularly for two decades for it to shit out on me,” Vander answered, lifting his bat with one hand to rest its bulk on his shoulder. “You’re here just in time, we’re getting our plan in place.”
“Nova. What is it?”
“We gotta get these customers somewhere safer,” Claggor said, nodding to the civilians behind the bar. “One of Benzo’s old safe houses is nearby—”
“Under that old BD shop, I remember.”
Vander grunted in acknowledgement. “We can’t leave this place empty, so we’ll split up. With you here, makes things even easier. I’ll stay put with Mylo, you’ll go with Claggor, Jackie, and Arnav, get the customers to the safe house. Once they’re good, you come right back.”
Vi nodded. “Sure.”
Vander looked her over for the first time since she’d walked in, eyebrows lifting when she noticed the holster at her thigh. “Not like you to pack iron.”
Vi didn’t spare a glance down at the smart pistol. “New development, but a backup option. You know I’m better with my fists.”
“Hm. Well, don’t be afraid to use it. These Chembarons are no joke, and they won’t let you get close enough to touch ‘em if they can help it.”
“Oh, Vi is hella used to taking out Chembarons these days!” Jinx’s voice, coming from the staircase down from the apartment above the bar, captured Vi’s attention like a magnet.
“The fuck is she doing here?” Vi demanded, glancing back at Vander, heart rate spiking. Looking back at her sister, she asked, “Why aren’t you at home, J?”
“I was already here when the lockdown was ordered,” Jinx huffed out, not explaining what her reason was for being here.
“Shit,” Vi breathed out. “You coming with, staying at the safe house?”
Jinx looked genuinely offended. “Excuse me? Aren’t you the one who just told me the other day that I’m a good enough shot to put holes through all the gonks in this city?”
“You are, but that doesn’t mean you should get thrown into the middle of a fucking gang war!”
“Girls!” Vander interrupted, perhaps not for the first time. “This is not the time! Vi, Jinx is here whether you like it or not, and she wants to help, so she’s helping.”
“Speaking of,” Jinx bit out, glaring at her older sister and gesturing to the case she was holding, setting it on the bar next to Vander’s shotgun. “Top of the line grenades. You guys take a few with you, we’ll keep the rest here till you’re back.”
Vi was silent as she grabbed a few, not really paying attention, trying to calm the racing of her heart.
It wasn’t that she didn’t love Claggor and Mylo—who were like brothers to her—or Vander—who’d raised her half of her life. Obviously, she didn’t want them to be here either—if she could get all of them out without anyone getting hurt, she would do it in a heartbeat. But Vander used to be a merc, had been in his fair share of fights. Claggor, too, was experienced in combat, and Mylo could hold his own with his netrunning and his revolver. They were familiar with it. A gang war was only a little more intense than a normal day for them.
But Jinx, as great of a shot as she was, was by trade a mechanic, a ripper doc. She wasn’t experienced with this kind of fighting in any capacity, and if something happened to her sister tonight…
“Vi,” Claggor muttered, nudging her out of her spiral. “Get your head in the game. We’re all stressed, but you’re no use to any of us checked out.”
Vi swallowed with a nod, and forced this bout of worrying back to join the rest she’d packed away earlier.
“Let’s get going,” one of the other guys—Arnav—said, pulling a power revolver off of his belt and checking that it was fully loaded. Vi, Claggor, and Jackie nodded, the latter gesturing to the customers and coaxing them toward the back exit that Vi had entered through.
The group of them traveled on foot in silence, Vi almost completely tuning out the sound of fighting and gunshots—interspersed with occasional explosions or screeching tires. She only paid any attention to it to make sure it wasn’t getting closer. Otherwise, she focused on ensuring that their direct path through the back alleys was clear as they drew closer to the ransacked BD shop a few blocks away.
They made it without incident, and Claggor took charge, leading the group around back, through a chain-link fence gate, down a set of uneven steps. Vi took up the rear, keeping watch with her pistol in her hand until the rest of the group had gone down, at which point she followed on quiet feet.
Ahead of her, one of the civilians slipped on a step, Jackie catching him with a tense shush at the gasp another let out. The group was deathly silent when they reached the door, Claggor looking to Vi with a raised eyebrow. She nodded and squeezed through the group before using her gorilla arm implants to help her pull the door open with brute force. Unless Benzo was with them, the only way to get the door open correctly was from the inside, making it a perfect place to hunker down.
The civilians gratefully filed inside, scoping out the meager supplies in the small space. Claggor whispered something to them and handed one of them a radio, and then the four of them stepped out, leaving the civilians locked safely inside.
They were halfway back to The Last Drop when two motorcycles suddenly peeled around the corner into the alley they were walking in, their drivers with guns out, already firing. Vi ducked to the side and lifted her pistol, giving it the split second it needed to auto-target one of the drivers. A perfect headshot had him flying off his bike, smashing against the wall of the alley, his bike crashing into a dumpster a second later.
The other driver was already down as well, Arnav’s revolver still smoking a little from the shot. Vi glanced at Claggor to make sure he was okay, and found him leaning down by Jackie, whose eyes were lifeless as he bled from various bullet holes in his torso. “Fuck,” Claggor hissed.
Vi glanced at Arnav, seeing sadness in his eyes, too, but they didn’t have time to grieve. Not after firing shots—more Chembaron goons could be on them any second. “C’mon, Clagg,” Vi said softly, leaning down to grab Jackie’s pistol off of him. “He’ll get a proper memorial later. We can’t stick around.”
Claggor nodded, but his jaw was visibly tense as he got back to his feet. Without another word, the three of them continued back to the bar, a little quicker on their feet now.
After Mylo let them in and they made it back into the main room of the bar, Vander frowned and asked, “Jackie?”
Vi shook her head and set his pistol on the counter before stepping away.
Vander cursed under his breath. “And the customers?”
“They’re safe,” she assured him, glancing over at Claggor, who was talking quietly to Mylo. Vi didn’t know Jackie—or most of the others here, to be honest—very well. They were folks who’d come into Vander, Claggor and Mylo’s lives after Vi had moved away and started to make her own way. She recognized their faces, even their names, but she couldn’t relate to the personal loss the others were feeling right now.
Vi glanced around at the somber faces around her, trying to figure out what to say or do, when a message came through her holo. From Caitlyn, who was safe. Vi felt relief flood her at the knowledge that she’d successfully made it in and out of the hotel, gotten what she needed and hadn’t gotten caught.
The relief was good, gave her less to keep shoved in the back of her mind.
She took a deep breath and then looked over at Jinx, who was leaning on a different part of the bar counter, lips twisted in thought as her eyes glowed red-violet. Vi approached her and cleared her throat quietly to get her sister’s attention. Jinx blinked out of her tech and focused on her. Before she could ask or say anything, though, Jinx was saying, “Ekko says Chembarons are basically flooding the streets—can’t tell where they’re comin’ from.”
Vander growled in frustration. “The one upside to this damn lockdown was supposed to be blocking out Pacifica.”
“The Chembarons can barrel through one of those NCPD barriers easily,” Mylo muttered.
Vi shook her head. “The fuck do they even want?”
“What don’t they want?” Mylo snapped. “Eddies, guns, implants, each and every street of Vista del Rey, all of fucking Heywood? Take your pick, Vi.”
“So this is them officially tryna lay claim? Push out the Firelights?” Vi asked, shrugging off Mylo’s pissed off attitude.
“It doesn’t matter,” Vander interrupted. “We aren’t part of this war.”
Vi scoffed. “Like hell we aren’t! We’re standing in the middle of the fucking battleground!”
Vander stared her down, arms crossing over his wide chest. “My responsibility has always been The Last Drop. I like the Firelights, don’t get me wrong. They run the streets well enough, and some other businesses might partner close with them, but my bar isn’t the place for that shit. Anyone comes in here with a gun drawn, I shoot ‘em dead, that’s been the understanding for years.”
Vi didn’t back down, hands on her hips, standing as tall as possible even though she couldn’t rival Vander’s height. “Right, but as soon as someone steps out ‘cross your threshold, then it’s not your problem?” Vander’s eyes narrowed into a glare. “You’re always tryna convince me to come back and help you with The Last Drop, framin’ it like I could do so much good for Heywood, but you don’t do a damn thing for anyone outside these walls, Vander!”
Vander’s folded arms tore apart as he took a step closer to her, intimidating to maybe anyone else. Vi stayed stock still, meeting his glare with one of her own. “I tried the vigilante shit when I was young and stupid, Vi, ‘lot like you,” he spat, “and like everyone in this city eventually does, I learned that gang shit ain’t worth getting involved in.”
Vi shook her head. “I can’t fucking believe you. Always talking to me about making a difference, keeping the peace—bringing back the peace, you said? But you’ll shit your pants soon as I try to do anything about it!”
“Everything you try to do about it involves punching someone, getting yourself hurt, and if you keep doing shit like that, all it’s gonna do is end with you getting zeroed, Vi!” Vander growled. “None of our lives are worth tryna help those goons settle a score that’ll never fucking end!”
“That’s all just some bullshit excuse, Vander” Vi scoffed, sidestepping and shouldering past him, cracking her knuckles. After a second, she turned, looked back up, meeting his eyes since he’d rotated to face her. “People in Heywood trust you, respect you. They and the Firelights won’t barge in here today for that reason. But that makes you, and this place, even more of a target to the Chembarons.” She glanced around at the rest of the bar’s occupants, who had all gone silent in the midst of her and Vander’s fighting. She made eye contact with Claggor, then Mylo. “In case you couldn’t tell, those fucking gonks only care about two things—eddies and power. They’ll kill whoever they gotta for whatever it is they want, and they’ll never stop setting their sights higher.” She looked at Arnav, the other folks she barely recognized. “Trust me, it’s not just Heywood. The people running this gang right now, they’d take all of Night City tonight if they could. If they’re really making a push to unseat the Firelights tonight…” She looked at Jinx, who was worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as they locked eyes. “They’re not going to stop here. It’s not just gonna be Firelights and just a few other folks in the crossfire dying.”
She looked back at Vander, who looked ready to boil over. “Vi—”
Before he could finish, Claggor spoke up, “What would you have us do?”
“I can’t make you do anything,” Vi said, crossing her arms. “But if there’s a way I can stop the Chembarons from zeroing every last Firelight tonight, I’m doing it. And I won’t say no to some help.”
Jinx’s gulp was audible in the quiet, and Vi glanced her way. She was quite visibly distressed, and if Vi weren’t trying so hard not to fall apart with her own nerves and stresses right now, she’d run over to give her a hug.
For now, she asked instead, “Ekko said they can’t tell where the Chembarons are coming from, right?” Jinx nodded. “My guess is they’d avoid making a bigger scene outside the lockdown area. They’re probably going through the underground—sewers, probably. And if that’s the case, there’s really only one spot that makes sense if they’re coming outta Pacifica—down in the Glen.”
“The Firelights are mostly holding them off around the border between the Vista and the Glen,” Jinx added, and Vi nodded. “There are a few fights happening in Wellsprings, too, but seeing as the Firelights’ HQ is closer to here…”
“Got it. Then I propose we cut them off.”
Mylo raised an eyebrow. “How, exactly? Even if we find whatever sewer they’re crawling out of, how we supposed to make enough of a dent if even the Firelights can’t?”
Vi glanced over at her sister. “Pretty sure my ripper also has a thing for explosives, or did I dream all the grenades she was passing out earlier?” A small smile tugged at Jinx’s lips.
“You won’t let me come with, though, will you?” her sister asked.
“Of course not,” Vi confirmed. “If you’re there, you’ll be all I can think about. So you’re gonna stay here with Vander. Anyone else can stay, too, of course. But I’m taking whatever explosives we’ve got around here, and I’m going to cause a cave in. Help is more than welcome.”
She looked at Vander, waiting for him to challenge her, yell some more. But after a beat, he just deflated and shook his head. “I’m not going to stop you, Vi. Or any of you. Just… be careful, yeah?”
Vi nodded, cracking a small smile. “You know who you’re talking to, old man? I’m always careful.”
Jinx snorted a laugh and shook her head. “Gimme a sec, Vi, I think there are some spare canisters of CHOOH2 down in the basement, too.” She disappeared into the back to head down to look for the fuel canisters.
“How we going to get all of it down there without, ya know, getting shot at?” Mylo asked skeptically.
“We can take Demiurge,” Arnav offered, getting a raised eyebrow from Vi. “My super customized Thorton—finally fixed her up after my last uh, incident. Seats four. She’s jacked up huge, and runs hella fast—”
“When you don’t run her into walls,” Mylo sneered.
Arnav leveled him with a glare and then looked back at Vi. “She has a built in machine gun.”
“Nova, I’ll drive,” Vi breathed out warily.
‘Demiurge’ did its job of getting them out of Vista del Rey and into the Glen in one piece. It was Vi driving, Mylo in the passenger seat, and Arnav and Claggor in the back. Mylo jacked into the machine gun controls on account of having the fanciest smart link out of the bunch of them, and Vi took them the most indirect route to the entrance to the underground that she suspected was where the Chembarons were coming into Heywood. She stayed on roads as close to City Center as possible without alerting the NCPD officers blocking the roads, and only veered south when they got too close to City Hall, which she figured had its security beefed up to the nines if any of the city’s leaders were still there when the lockdown had started.
For a brief moment, Vi considered that Ambessa might be there, or Caitlyn’s parents.
She quickly stopped that train of thought, though, parking it back in its station and barricading the tracks.
They had a run in with two vans of Chembarons, one of which came up behind them just as the other came into view ahead of them. Mylo had the machine gun firing at the one on their flank as Claggor and Arnav leaned out the window with their respective weapons firing ahead. Demiurge took a few bullets, which all seemed to mostly clink the car’s armor and then ricochet off onto the road, but the four of them were still intact after the van behind them blew up and the one in front stopped moving, its driver dead.
Vi parked the car a block away from the sewer entrance, and gently tossed the bag of grenades and fuel canisters over her shoulder.
Mylo hissed nervously, “Careful with that!”
“You think I can’t handle some explosives?” Vi snapped back at him. Before he could snark back, she asked, “Hey, can you detonate one of these things from afar, with your—” She gestured at her head to refer to his netrunning, feeling the Caitlyn train in her brain trying to push through her barricade.
“Yeah, definitely, ‘s long as I can get line of sight.”
“Preem,” Vi murmured, glancing around. “Arnav, you take Mylo and look for a spot that has a good view of the sewer entrance. Clagg and I will go drop the goods. Soon as you can see it and we’re clear, you blow it up, yeah?”
Mylo shifted nervously but nodded, and Arnav lightly elbowed him before nodding in the direction of some of the taller buildings that might have fire escapes or balconies with a good view. The two of them hurried off that way, and Claggor looked at Vi with a raised eyebrow. “Didn’t know you were so good at organizing,” he commented. “Thought you were more of a lone fighter type.”
Vi shrugged. “Usually am, but part of the job is being flexible, right? I’ve worked with other mercs before, not to mention clients who insist on being directly involved with a job.” She started down the street, Claggor falling in step next to her.
“You think this’ll be enough to actually collapse the sewer entrance?”
“Not sure,” Vi admitted. “But I’m kinda hoping there’ll be something else to work with when we get there.”
“Something else like…?”
“More explosives? Cars?” Vi shrugged. “If they’re really coming in this way, it’s not going to be unguarded. There’s gotta be—”
She stopped in her tracks and went silent as soon as she heard a voice ahead of her, and dropped to a crouch at the same time as Claggor. “—making a little progress. Nah, don’t worry, boss, things’ll—er, uh, I mean, they got a good line of defense, we—” Vi heard the man speaking gulp as she crept forward, realizing that he was standing in an alcove of the buildings lining the sidewalk, near the corner they were headed for. He sounded to be distracted on his holo. “Right, yeah. We got the foothold, so—yes, sir. We’ll be ready to get them straight up to Mercado Sonora.”
Vi glanced at Claggor with a raised eyebrow, neither of them missing the name of the marketplace just down the street from The Last Drop, and likely close to the Firelights headquarters—although Vi wasn’t privy to that exact location herself.
“Yes, boss. Mmhmm. Yep. I will.” The man suddenly let out a frustrated grunt, and Vi assumed the holo call had ended. She crept closer, ready to jump him in the alcove and take him out, but then he was saying, “Hey, man,” startling her before she realized that he was making another holo call. “Boss is sending the fucking ‘runners. Yep, Sonora. Preem. Out.” Another huff of air, and the man, silent now, stepped out of the alcove a few feet ahead of Vi and Claggor.
She had him on the ground in seconds, the bones of his neck snapping. She patted him down for anything useful, finding an unidentifiable access card in his jacket. Pocketing it just in case, she nodded to Claggor, and they silently continued down to the street corner.
Once they had eyes on the sewer entrance, it became clear that it was, in fact, the source of the Chembarons’ reinforcements. The entrance to the sewers connected to one of the underground tunnels that were often filled with illicit businesses, druggies, and folks with no other shelter from bad weather. The tunnel entrance itself was a decently wide staircase down into the ground in an open pedestrian area, and the sewer entrance was via a secured metal door at its bottom. From the street corner, they could only see the staircase, but two big, weaponized trucks with Chembaron insignias painted on them were parked on either side of it, and various goons were pacing around, talking idly, enjoying the easy job of guarding their entrance.
Easier than going head to head with the Firelights, that is. Vi was about to make sure their job was not actually easy.
“Cars,” Claggor noted, and Vi nodded, assessing the situation and trying to piece together the right plan. They needed to be careful, stealthy, which wasn’t her usual method.
For the first time maybe ever, Vi actually found herself wishing she had a netrunner with her. Well—one specific netrunner, that is. Caitlyn could blow up both of those cars with ease.
Vi’s holo suddenly started ringing with a call from Mylo, and when she answered it, she realized that it was comms between all four of them. “Hey, Vi, we’re in a good position. There are two cars—”
“We see,” Vi whispered. “Any ideas for how we take them with the grenades? Might actually stand a chance at actually collapsing the tunnel ceiling if we can get one or two in there.”
“I can’t do much to the cars,” Mylo answered, the frown likely on his face audible through his voice. “Other than trigger the system to floor it.”
Vi and Claggor exchanged interested looks, and she looked back at the trucks. Both were parked diagonally on either side of the staircase, facing different directions. If the one closer to them took off in a straight line, it’d fall off the edge, diagonally down the staircase. “If I get the explosives inside the closer one, will you be able to step on its gas and then detonate one of them once it’s down the stairs some?”
“I think so,” Mylo answered nervously. “I’m not—you know the timing is kinda tricky sometimes—”
“I know, Mylo,” Vi reassured him, trying to keep the impatience out of her voice. “Look, I know we give you a lot of shit, but you are no fucking amateur, man. You been on how many jobs with me? Saved my ass how many times?”
“I can’t even count,” Mylo laughed out, the nerves still there.
“Exactly. Fancy, professional netrunners buy all their tricks, you may not have the eddies to do that yet, but you’re not lacking in skill, okay? You can handle some close timing, you hear me?”
“Yeah, yeah, you’re right.” Mylo took a deep breath, and Vi glanced back at Claggor.
“I’m gonna get close,” Vi decided, “and Clagg will cover me. You two keep a lookout, lemme know if I’m missing anything. As soon as I get this bag in the truck, you do your thing Mylo, yeah?”
“Yeah. Alright.”
“Go slow, Vi, let us get a good read on your trajectory,” Arnav said. Vi nodded to Claggor, who had his gun out, held ready to cover her. Then she crept forward, looking around, eyeing the Chembarons that she could see and their trucks. “Okay, we got eyes on you. You’re clear, keep going.”
Vi’s heart was beating loud in her ears as she crossed the street to the open pedestrian area, getting closer and closer to the truck and the goons. She could hear two of them chatting now, one asking, “When do we finally get to kick some Firelight ass? Fucking hate this job.”
Another snorted and said, “Choomba, you’d be dead in a second up there. Firelights may be suck ups, but they ain’t pushovers.”
“Fuck, whatever, I just hate this standin’ around. Who’s to say NCPD isn’t gonna bust us any second? Out in the open like this?”
“Silco took care of the NCPD, they’re leaving us alone,” the second reminded him, making Vi roll her eyes as she finally reached the side of the truck.
“Careful, Vi,” Arnav said through her holo, Vi immediately tensing, “one of them is coming close to the truck—round the back.”
Vi pressed herself against the vehicle, hoping that the goon would turn around and walk back the other way, but unfortunately, he rounded the bed of the truck, eyes landing right on her.
She dove for him, barely managing to hold onto the explosives, and got a hand around his throat before he could scream or shout. She yanked him down, bashing his head into the concrete. Thankfully, it seemed that this guy was neither of the ones who she’d heard chatting, since she continued to hear their back and forth. She dragged the body of the one who’d gotten too close over to the truck’s passenger side door, opening it up and shoving him inside. Opening her bag, she carefully placed the fuel canisters in with him, and then began tossing the grenades, pins still in place, into the backseat of the truck. She was more careful as she placed a few in the bed, hoping that Mylo would be able to target one of those for the initial explosion.
“I got a lock on one of the grenades,” Mylo confirmed, and Vi let out a sigh of relief. She was starting to back away from the truck when Arnav cursed quietly over the holo.
“Five guys coming up the staircase now, but they don’t look armed—”
“Netrunners,” Claggor spoke up, “we heard a fella saying they were calling them in.”
“Well, let’s see if we take care of them,” Mylo muttered, “otherwise they’re definitely gonna trace my location as soon as that truck moves.”
“Delta right when you’re done, just in case?” Claggor offered, and Vi resumed her fleeing.
“Won’t really matter if they get a ping on my location, but yeah if we can get far enough away fast enough—”
“Vi’s clear, do it, man!”
Vi heard the unmistakable screech of tires that came when someone stepped hard on a gas pedal, followed by a series of shouts. She managed to cross the street at the same time as Mylo said, “Here we go!” and then the first explosion went off from partway down the staircase to the tunnel.
Vi had her pistol out as she turned, pressing against the wall of a building, knowing that any nearby Chembarons would be flocking to see what had happened. Her eyes widened as the second explosion triggered—followed by a dozen other smaller ones that were immediately encased in the huge eruption of the truck’s engine, all of the fuel engulfing the car in flames and sending shrapnel flying.
She couldn’t exact see it, but Vi could certainly hear the cracking of stone and concrete, and then she saw parts of the ground—the staircase ceiling—crumbling down.
One of the gang members was running to the second truck, and Mylo said, “Man’s holding a grenade, should I—”
“Yes!” Claggor and Arnav both shouted, and then Vi watched as the grenade in the man’s vest detonated. She didn’t look away fast enough to miss his body being torn apart, but she did miss the follow up explosion of the second truck.
When she looked back up, the staircase was almost completely blocked off by burning fuel, destroyed car pieces, and a shit ton of concrete rubble. “Think that should do it, boys,” Vi said. “The ‘runners?”
“One of them made it out,” Mylo answered, sounding breathless. Vi looked around and saw the netrunner in question. She raised her pistol for a second, but he was too quickly climbing into a different truck with another gangoon. “Arnav and I are heading back to the car, but the guy’s definitely tracing my last hack.”
“Drive toward City Hall,” Vi instructed. “These gonks won’t get too close to the fucking fortress the deputy mayor probably has set up there. Soon as they’re off you, go back to The Last Drop. Clagg, go with them.”
“Uh—and what the fuck are you going to do?” Claggor demanded, and she saw him peeking out from around the corner she’d initially come from, looking down the sidewalk at her with narrowed eyes.
“I dunno, make these fuckers worry more about their flank, give the Firelights an edge at Sonora Market?”
Claggor scoffed. “I’m not going anywhere. Mylo, Arnav, you go toward City Hall, then back to The Last Drop. We’ll drop off comms so the ‘runner can’t fuck with them. Let us know when you make it back.”
“Don’t die, you fucking gonks,” Mylo growled through heavy breaths, and then the call dropped, and Vi moved back over to Claggor.
“What’s the plan, boss?” Claggor asked, smiling at her widely.
Vi almost snorted with a laugh. “Don’t call me that, dumbass. And there’s no plan other than to kill some assholes. Good with you?”
“Fuck yeah!”
Vi had only experienced it a few times, but time always passed so strangely during a long, drawn out fight like this. Normally, a fight that took a few minutes would feel like an hour or longer thanks to the weight of every single second. But when a fight genuinely lasted an hour, two or three, when both sides were at a stand-off or constantly trying to track each other down, it was almost impossible to tell how much time was actually passing.
She could’ve paid attention—not like her cyberware didn’t literally put a clock in her head—but she found it easier to track time based on the enemies she took down.
She’d shot dead four more Chembarons, none of which had even seen her before her smart pistol locked on to give her a perfect headshot, by the time Mylo texted to say that the netrunner was no longer tracing him, and they were headed back to the bar. Vi told him to message Vander ahead of time, let him know that Vi and Claggor were staying behind but were okay, so that they didn’t walk in without the two of them and cause a panic.
She and Claggor had taken down six more between the destroyed sewer entrance and the flank of the main mobile base the Chembarons seemed to have, a formation of trucks right around the border between the two subdistricts. It seemed like no more backup was coming at this point, at least not from the sewers, thanks to the damage done to it.
They were tucked in an alley near the formation, trying to determine if there was anything they could do to put a dent in it from the flank, when Jinx texted.
Jinx
Was just talking with Ekko—he said the Firelights got word of the sewer explosion and so they’re charging the line
Mylo and Arnav just got back
Sounds like you’re the hero today
Vi
You okay?
Jinx
I’m fine
Why wouldn’t I be fine
Vi bit down on her lower lip, slinking further back into the alley. “One sec,” she murmured to Claggor, who nodded and kept a lookout as Vi called Jinx on her holo.
“I’m fine,” Jinx said as a greeting, but it sounded like her throat was too tight, “I’m safe in The Last Drop, the Firelights have kept the bulk of the Chembarons from getting closer. Arnav just sent a few of our guys out to pick off some of them that seem to be scouting. I think they’re looking for the Firelights HQ, which makes—”
“J,” Vi interrupted her sister’s anxious rambling. “I’m glad you’re safe. Is Ekko with the Firelights charging the Chembarons?”
She heard Jinx’s hard swallow. “Yeah, he called and gave me the update, then had to drop so that, you know, he doesn’t get distracted and fucking die.”
“He’s gonna be alright, J,” Vi said, voice shaking as she tried to promise something that she couldn’t guarantee. “Ekko’s good as fuck with his tech guns, he’ll have half the goons electrocuted with his fancy ass bullets in no time.”
“Yeah,” Jinx agreed anxiously. “He might be a shitty ripper, but he’s good with Chaos. That’s—that’s the name of his tech pistol.”
Vi chuckled a little. “Of course it is.”
“I named it.”
“Of course you did,” Vi followed up, voice softening. “Ekko can hold his own, alright? Look, Clagg and I are at the Chembarons’ flank. Based on what Ekko said, anything we can do to help?”
“Maybe you should just get out of there, get back here and—”
“We don’t really have a good way to get back, and we’ve got good cover right now,” Vi interrupted gently. “Hell of a walk if we try not to run in with this fucking—” She was cut off by the sound of rapid fire, and she turned with fear before relaxing, seeing Claggor safe at the end of the alley. The firing was happening in the Chembarons’ formation. The battle was probably in full swing now. “Tell you what, we’ll stay outta the fight, pick any off that we can. But we’ll stay safe, okay?”
“Yeah, okay, good,” Jinx agreed, and Vi thought she could hear her chewing on her nails. “Don’t, uh, don’t flatline, okay?”
Vi closed her eyes for a second, breathing through the emotional ache in her chest. “Don’t plan to anytime soon.” She took a breath. “Love you, Jinx.”
“Love you too, sis.”
The call dropped, and Vi moved back over to Claggor, relaying to him the plan to stay out of the way.
It felt like another endless amount of time that they spent skulking around the edges of the street that was taken over by the battle. Bodies were strewn all over the ground, cars burning and windows of various buildings shattered. She could tell that the Firelights were winning, though, based on the fight pushing further back through the formation.
Dread filled her stomach, though, when the sound of rumbling engines filled the air, and she glanced out of the alley they were crouched in now to see six big Chembaron trucks driving up from the Glen—probably from Pacifica, the gang deciding to give up on discretion altogether now that their sewer route was a dead end. Given what one of the goons had said about Silco and the NCPD, she had a feeling the cops had happily stepped aside to let this convoy in.
Vi was thinking about whether to call Mylo or Vander to let them know, then eyed the ongoing battle and wondered if it was worth it to try and get Ekko on comms directly—assuming he was still alive. She was distracted, didn’t notice that a gunner in one of the trucks had spotted her leaning out of the alley.
“Vi!” Claggor shouted as the shot flew through the air, and Vi was shoved forcefully out into the street. The unmistakable sound of a bullet meeting flesh invaded her ears, and Vi couldn’t hold back the scream that ripped violently out of her throat.
“Clagg!” she lunged back for him, and he groaned, bleeding from somewhere at his side. She couldn’t tell where, but redness was soaking through the bottom left of his shirt. “Fuck, fuck, fuck—”
“Vi—fucking—” Claggor was speaking through gritted teeth, looking past Vi, who blinked and got the message, turning around with her pistol raised in time to shoot the gunner who was aiming at them again. He flew off of the truck and smashed into the pavement, but the rest of the people in the truck paid them no attention as it veered right, into the fray. Claggor grunted with pain, trying to sit up. “We should—”
“Delta, yeah,” Vi agreed, swallowing her panic and engaging her gorilla arms to get a good, strong grip on Claggor, hoisting the bigger man up next to her and helping him hobble into the alley. They left behind the sounds of gunfire and shouting as Vi came to a chain-link fence at the end of the alley, not hesitating to tear its gate off of its hinges before continuing through. “Did the bullet hit anything bad?”
Breathing steadily but sounding pained, Claggor grunted, “Running, ugh, system diagnostics…” Vi nodded, leading him down the next alley, feeling so mentally scrambled. Only once he said, “No organs hit, just—fuck, just bleeding a shit ton,” did she calm down a little, just as the reached the next street.
“Hot-wired a car recently?” Vi wondered, eyes locking on a rundown sedan that was haphazardly parked half on the sidewalk, like the owner had pulled over and fled without a second thought. And, given the events happening two blocks away, she figured that was a pretty likely case.
“No need,” Claggor bit out, nodding to the window of the sedan as they hobbled closer. Vi looked back at it and grimaced when she realized that the car’s driver hadn’t actually managed to escape. Both she and the car’s key were still in the cabin of the vehicle.
Vi propped Claggor up against the car and tugged the body of the woman out of the vehicle, dragging her over to the sidewalk before helping Claggor into the backseat, having him lie down in case of any incidents on the way back to the bar. Once he was somewhat secure, she slipped into the driver’s seat and stepped on the gas, pulling out onto the empty road and beelining it for The Last Drop.
Behind the bar, as she was helping Claggor up to the door, knocking hard on it and shouting, “Open up, it’s me!”, Vi noticed that the sounds of gunfire had died down. She didn’t know whether that was a good or bad thing right now.
The door opened to reveal a panicked Mylo, who only looked more distressed as he took in Claggor. “I’m fine, bro,” Claggor insisted, voice strained, but Mylo was already tugging them inside and calling for Jinx.
They laid Claggor out over a table in the back prep room of the bar after unceremoniously clearing it of food and drink prep tools. Jinx was muttering, “You all are damn lucky I bring an emergency kit with me wherever I go,” even through the tears pooling in her eyes. Vi wanted to hold her, protect her, keep her from seeing the horrors happening right now, but Jinx was the only person here who could stabilize Claggor’s injury. She might still be Vi’s little sister, but she wasn’t a little kid—hadn’t been for a long time.
Vi went back out into the bar, pacing back and forth, mind racing, until Vander joined her and she stopped, bristling. “Relax,” he said, “I’m not going to scold you. You… did good. Glad you made it back in one piece—Claggor, too. He’ll be fine after your sister patches him up.”
“I know,” Vi muttered. “Do we know what happened? Clagg and I had to get out fast, but the Chembarons had sent in backup—not through the sewer, they had trucks with ‘em. Maybe I should’ve just let them use the sewer, least then they’d have capped out on vehicles.”
Vander shook his head. “You really think they wouldn’t have driven in anyway? The NCPD is in their pockets.”
“Yeah, I know,” Vi grumbled, before huffing, “shit, Vander. The shooting’s stopped—if the Firelights are in shambles—”
“I know, Vi—”
“And Jinx, she’s—”
“I know, Vi, but we don’t know what happened yet,” Vander interrupted again, stepping closer. Vi knew he was trying to be comforting, but it wasn’t helping, and she took multiple steps back to discourage him from coming any closer. “We just have to—”
“Vi!”
Vi burst into the back room with her eyes wide seconds after Jinx called out to her. Her sister’s hands were covered in blood, but Claggor’s shirt had been torn apart, and it was clear that his injury was already mostly cleaned and patched up. His only visible concern was directed at Jinx, whose tears had spilled out now.
“It’s Ekko,” she blurted. “He’s—they made it to—and he—”
“Jinx,” Vi said, voice quiet and firm as she stepped up to her sister, taking her hands, ignoring the blood smearing in their hold. “Is he alive?”
“F-For now,” Jinx stuttered out.
“Where is he?”
“Firelights HQ, they—he and everyone else left, p-plus the leaders—they retreated, but the Chembarons m-managed to follow them in. They’re secure right now in their safe room, b-but the Chembarons h-have a—”
“Netrunner,” Vi finished for her, and she nodded, another wave of tears flowing out of her eyes. “Okay, J, I’m going to figure this out.”
“We don’t know where HQ is,” Mylo reminded her, earning him a glare. He looked ready to double down when Jinx suddenly flicked them all the coordinates.
“He gave them to me,” she forced out, “earlier, j-just in case.”
The door from the main area of the bar swung open, and Arnav plus one of the other guys came in to say, “Streets look clear—fuck ton of bodies, though. Don’t know where the rest went, but there can’t be that many left. Of either gang, at least the members who were fighting, I mean.”
Vi nodded. “The Chembarons were outnumbered before their reinforcements came in. What do you think, Clagg, like… maybe sixteen more guys in those trucks?”
“Fifteen after you fucked that one up,” Claggor grunted out, wincing a little in pain.
Jinx tore her hands away from Vi. “Sounded like they were evenly matched,” she managed to say, her tears starting to calm again. “S-Similar numbers left from the battle on b-both sides.”
Vi nodded, wiping her hands absently on her pants. “Okay, we’re going after them. J, message Ekko and tell them to do everything they can to stay in their safe room, keep the netrunner at bay. We’ll flank, take out the rest of the Chembarons, and they’ll be safe to leave.”
“How the fuck are we going to do that?” Mylo demanded. “You can’t pep talk me into going up against a professional, Vi, I’m outmatched.”
Vi took a breath, looking over at him. “Guess we need to call in a professional then.”
Mylo’s jaw dropped. “Wait—are you talking about—”
Vi was already starting the call on her holo. “Yes.”
“Is she even going to want to help?”
“Who are we talking about?” Vander asked, eyebrows furrowed.
The call was answered, and Vi exhaled with relief when she heard, “Vi?”
“Cait,” Vi said back, biting on her lower lip. “Can you come to The Last Drop?”
“Is the lockdown lifted?”
“I-I don’t think so,” Vi answered in realization, wondering if Caitlyn could even manage to get in. “The streets have calmed down some, but—shit, Cait, I can explain easier when you’re here, I just—I need your help, please, if you can. I’ll owe you big time, we can work something out, I just—”
Caitlyn’s voice was firm, commanding, as she interrupted and insisted, “Don’t worry about that right now, Vi, I’m on my way. Just try to stay calm, okay?”
Vi laughed weakly. “Right, yeah. Thanks. Be careful.”
“You, too. I’ll be there soon.”
She ended the call and looked up at everyone else. “Professional netrunner en route. We need to be ready to go when she gets here.” No one asked any questions, instead bursting into sudden movement to gather everything they needed and ready themselves for the end, one way or another, of this miserable night.
Notes:
Eeeeep! What do we think?! We had Vander and Vi duking it out, some explosions, lots of fighting, Claggor taking a bullet, and poor Jinx worrying so badly over Ekko! What do y'all think is gonna happen?!
(Also if you've played Cyberpunk 2077 past Act 1 and you saw what I did there after the safe house drop off... I'm sorry lol)Thank you all for reading, I'd love to hear your thoughts!! See you all tomorrow with chapter 10!
Chapter 10: Can't Deny It Now
Notes:
Good morning and happy Wednesday!! I am soooo excited to share this chapter with you guys! The girlies are reunited after a very stressful night, but there's still some chaos to get through!!
Y'all's responses to the last two chapters have made me so happy <3 So thank you <3 And enjoy chapter 10!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The barricade had been removed from The Last Drop entrance by the time Caitlyn arrived, which was convenient since Vi had forgotten to tell her to come in through the back. The front door bursting open caused everyone to jump to attention, Vi included, but relief seeped through her at the sight of Caitlyn, still dressed in her clothes from the previous evening. Her hair was tied into a messy ponytail, her makeup smudged, but her expression was colored with relief when her eyes landed on Vi.
No one else in the room existed as Caitlyn hurried over to her. They might as well have been in another dimension or on another planet, because Vi didn’t think twice before allowing Caitlyn to grab her in a tight embrace. Vi hugged her back, burying her face into her neck, suddenly having to hold back tears that were trying to come out of nowhere. “You’re okay,” Caitlyn breathed out.
“Yeah,” Vi agreed, and although she didn’t want to pull away, didn’t want to lose the physical comfort that Caitlyn could apparently give her, she was back in The Last Drop now, remembering the urgency of the situation. She sniffed once and pulled her face out of Caitlyn’s neck, stepping back. Caitlyn let her, hands lingering only for a second on Vi’s bloodied hands with concern. “It’s Claggor’s,” Vi said without thinking, and Caitlyn looked up at her with furrowed eyebrows.
“What happened? What’s going on?” She looked around, glancing at the others in the room. Vi sighed, turning to where Vander and Mylo were leaning against the bar. Arnav and the others who were going to come with her were also standing gathered a few feet away, watching with curiosity. With her and Caitlyn included, it was a team of seven for the Firelights HQ plan.
The doors to the back of the bar swung open, Jinx coming out with crossed arms that had been cleaned of blood, unlike Vi’s. “This her?” Jinx asked, no trace of her earlier emotion in her voice or on her face. Her eyes glowed red-violet, and Vi was already opening her mouth to defend Caitlyn when Jinx gaped and said, “Your ‘runner is a cop!”
Arnav and the other guys tensed, Mylo rolling his eyes and Vander furrowing his eyebrows, looking at Vi expectantly. “She’s—”
“I’m not,” Caitlyn interrupted, “not right now anyway. And NCPD doesn’t know I’m here.”
“How’d you get into Heywood?” Mylo asked. “NCPD is blocking every entrance. Vi sweet talked her way in, but what’d you do, bribe ‘em?”
Caitlyn shook her head. “No, like I said, they didn’t even see me. Well—I mean—they did,” she clarified. “They just won’t remember seeing me.”
Jinx laughed in surprise, taking a few steps closer. “Huh, okay. I guess you can keep her, Vi.”
“Shut up, J,” Vi huffed, feeling warmth in her palms and her cheeks. “Cait, we need to get into the Firelights HQ, and take out the Chembarons there before they hack their way into the safe room where the rest of the Firelights are. They have a netrunner and Mylo can’t handle them himself.” She bit on her lower lip. “I hate to drag you into this, but—”
“Please, as if the Chembarons don’t already hate me,” Caitlyn interrupted with a harsh laugh, her expression softening as she met Vi’s gaze. “Whatever I can do to help, Vi.”
Vi smiled a little and nodded. “Thanks. Um—this is Jinx, my sister, she’s not coming, just patched up Claggor, and she’s gonna stay here, make sure he’s okay. This is, uh, Vander.” She eyed her adoptive father warily as he sized Caitlyn up, one hand in his pocket and one on the shotgun set on the bar top. “Also not coming, he’s gotta hold down this fort. You know Mylo.” She looked over at the other guys. “Arnav, Haru, Damian, Freddie. Guys, this is Caitlyn.” She swallowed, looked back at Caitlyn. “We’ve got coords for the entrance, it’s close, no need to drive. We’re on a bit of a time crunch, so…”
Caitlyn nodded, already backing toward the door. “Sounds like we should get going, then?”
Vander caught Vi’s shoulder as she moved to follow, Mylo and the other guys already doing the same. She stopped and looked back at him. “You trust her?” he asked.
Vi had already admitted it earlier, when Caitlyn had asked her that same question. Saying it aloud to someone else, though, especially Vander, felt so much more real. “I do. She’s not going to fuck us over.”
He nodded, dropped his hand. “Good. Go.”
Vi was the last out of The Last Drop, and Arnav was already leading them in the direction of Sonora Market. She caught up with Caitlyn just as heavy raindrops began to fall from the sky. She absently spread her palm under some of them, letting them wet the dried blood on her hands and start to wash it away.
“Nova,” Damian muttered sarcastically ahead of them, “rain, just what we needed.”
“Least it’ll wash all the blood off the streets,” Mylo huffed out, glancing ahead to where the area where a lot of the fighting had been became visible. Vi felt sick at the number of bodies she could already see, and she looked away, dropping her hands to her side.
Caitlyn gently grasped her forearm. “Is Claggor alright?” Vi looked up at her, reading the blatant concern and care in her bright blue eyes. Some of the tension in her body miraculously melted away just seeing this woman’s face, seeing Caitlyn look at her like that.
“Yeah, the bullet didn’t hit anything important. Jinx already patched him up.” She swallowed, hesitating to say the rest, looking down at the ground as the rain fell heavier, drenching her hair and pounding at the back of her neck. “He only got shot shoving me out of the way, cuz I was being a gonk, not paying attention.”
Caitlyn’s hand trailed down from her arm to her hand, massaging her fingers into Vi’s palm. “He cares about you, Vi.” Vi didn’t look up at her, instead eyeing their hands as they walked, watching Claggor’s blood get gently rubbed away. Caitlyn’s voice was suddenly so soft, a barely audible whisper, as she asked, “You’ve been awake all night, haven’t you, darling?”
Vi nearly choked on her response, emotion rising in her throat as well as almost spilling out of her eyes. She blinked back the tears quickly, looking up ahead of them and pointedly not at Caitlyn. “Yeah, fuck, it’s—” For the first time, she paid attention to the time: five in the morning. She shook her head. “Fuck, feels like it’s been days and yet barely a couple hours since I got here.”
“I can’t even imagine,” Caitlyn murmured, and Vi felt the netrunner’s gaze leave her face to look out over the carnage left by the battle. Vi used the opportunity to dare to look back at Caitlyn herself. Her blue-black ponytail was drenched, droplets of water sliding down the sharp, pretty angles of her face, rolling off of her jacket.
“You left Mitingu hours ago,” she realized. “Did you get any sleep?”
“A few hours. I was up going over everything, piecing it together, but… we’ll talk about that later, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Vi agreed. She glanced ahead as Arnav turned them down a different street, and she breathed a sigh of relief that they were getting away from the bodies. As they rounded the corner, she looked back at Caitlyn and said, “Didn’t even change before bed?”
In the cool rain, it was easy to see Caitlyn’s cheeks turn a little pink. “Actually, I—um, I went to your apartment.” Vi raised an eyebrow, heart rate picking up and a smirk coming to her lips. “It was closer,” was Caitlyn’s follow up justification.
“Uh, yeah, closer if you drive through Heywood,” Vi snarked out. “Which, y’know.” She lifted a hand, gesturing around them. Caitlyn opened her mouth, closed it, started to stutter out a response and then stopped, and Vi laughed a little, deciding to put her out of her misery. Soft enough that she was certain none of the others would hear, she murmured, “You don’t gotta explain, cupcake. My bed’s not too bad for such a cheap place, right?”
Caitlyn’s cheeks were thoroughly flushed as she insisted, “I slept on your couch.”
“Damn, well guess I’ll have to get your opinion on the bed another time.” The words were out of Vi’s mouth before she could think to hold them back, and Caitlyn’s entire face was beet red now as she gaped. Vi was certain she was blushing as well, but there was no time to tease one another as the guys started to come to a stop.
“Entrance is supposed to be around here,” Arnav was saying, wiping some wet, black hair out of his face and eyeing the doors of the buildings on the street. Vi considered the coordinates Jinx had sent and noticed that it wasn’t just two numbers.
“They’re underground,” she realized.
“I’m not getting in the sewers while it’s raining,” Mylo huffed out, and Vi rolled her eyes.
“They’re not operating in the fucking sewers, Mylo.”
“I mean, the Chembarons were literally crawling through the sewers like, two hours ago!”
“But no one runs a fucking gang out of the sewers!”
Caitlyn suddenly rested a hand on Vi’s shoulder, drawing her attention away from Mylo. Her eyes were glowing purple as she nodded to a door that was covered by an awning. On its steps were splotches of sticky looking blood—not fully dried. “Good eye,” Vi murmured, moving toward the door and skipping straight to brute force, gripping the edge and prying it open.
The building appeared to be a shop—racks of clothing and shelves full of random shit creating a few small aisles—but the blood trail continued down through the center of the store. The seven of them followed it to the back door, marked for employees only, although there wasn’t a soul in sight. Not in the front or the back part of the store, Vi realized as she walked through.
The room looked closed off, though, without even a door out to a back alley. “Hey, check this out,” Haru said, nudging past her and moving over to a metal shelf that was standing crooked. He and Damian pulled it fully aside to reveal a shutter door the same color as the walls.
Arnav gave Vi a pointed look. “Do the honors, boss?”
Vi grunted, shoving past the guys to yank open the door. “Stop with that, I’m not your fucking boss.”
With the shutter door pulled up, a dank hallway was revealed, leading only to a skinny staircase downward. An unconscious Chembaron was sprawled across the top of the steps, the source of the blood, apparently abandoned by her fellow gang members when it became too hard to help her along.
They carefully maneuvered around her as they headed down the stairs, Vi leading the way with Caitlyn just behind her. Mylo, though, squeezed past the other netrunner to say quietly to Vi, “Hey, just so you know… before we left for the sewer job, earlier… Vander, um, he told everyone to follow all your orders.”
“What?” Vi demanded, nearly stopping in her tracks. “Why? He was so fucking pissed at me.”
“I guess you managed to convince him,” Mylo told her with a kind smile. “Anyway, you’re a natural at all of this, Vi. There’s no one better to lead us right now.”
Vi shrugged Mylo off, not in the right mental state to process this. Mylo let her get a lead on him again, and Caitlyn was next to her as soon as the staircase reached solid ground, the empty underground hallway widening. “You okay?” is all Caitlyn asked, fingertips brushing Vi’s hand.
“Yeah,” Vi breathed out. “Let’s just get this done.”
The hallway led to a big metal door that looked heavily reinforced. It had probably been locked shut with pretty decent tech, the access pad next to it only granting access to Firelights, but the pad was just blinking green eternally now, the door stuck open. Vi reached for her pistol, the action instinctual after everything tonight.
“Stay sharp. We expect at least fifteen Chembarons, maybe twenty or thirty. They’ll be looking for the Firelights—who we gotta assume are still in their safe room, wherever that is.”
“Don’t forget,” Arnav said, “they have a netrunner.” He was looking pointedly between Mylo and Caitlyn.
“Untraceable hacks only,” Caitlyn said to Mylo, who nodded in agreement. “We need an access point…”
Pistol readied at her side, Vi moved to one of the doors, opening it to find another long hallway. With a quiet groan, she glanced over at her companions, who were also poking around without much success. Caitlyn and Mylo, though, opened a door to reveal a room that lit up both of their expressions, so Vi hurried to follow them into it.
The room was uninteresting—some kind of meeting room—but there was a TV on one wall. Both Mylo and Caitlyn were looking at it with their glowing, scanner eyes, and then, in sync, began to look around at the walls like they could see through them. “I see the safe room,” Caitlyn said, pointing in the direction of the hallway Vi had found, but downward. “Looks like it’s still locked—I see maybe… eighteen or nineteen people inside?”
“Firelights?” Freddie asked, moving in next to Vi.
“Yep,” Mylo confirmed. The red in his eyes faded away, and he nodded toward the doorway, Vi and Freddie exiting to let him head toward the hallway. Vi lingered back for Caitlyn, who was still scanning something. When her eyes returned to blue, Vi raised an eyebrow at her.
“Guess you couldn’t see the Chembarons?”
Caitlyn shook her head with a frown. “Their netrunner must be cloaking their signals. But they must be headed that direction, too.”
“They’ve been here a little while,” Vi said as the two of them started to follow the guys down the hallway, then into a downward staircase. “You think their netrunner just can’t get past the safe room tech?”
“The Firelights have an impressive system,” is what Caitlyn said by way of explanation, before expanding. “The netrunner probably needs to hack the safe room’s door. But since the controls for the door would probably all be inside, and since the door isn’t just going to have a standard lock, there’s a good chance that the ‘runner doesn’t have the expertise to get the door open without being able to jack into the controls.”
“You think they’re waiting them out?”
Caitlyn shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“I’d expect them to be ransacking the place if they were just waiting,” Damian said.
“If there’s twenty Firelights in there, it’d be stupid for them to spread out,” Arnav argued. “Then the Firelights would just need to quietly bust out and take them out bit by bit.”
“I bet the Chembarons are trying to talk them into taking a deal,” Freddie reasoned. “Tryna get them to leave the city or something.”
Haru snickered. “Can you imagine Ekko anywhere other than Night City?”
“Dude, I can’t even imagine Ekko anywhere more than a few blocks away from Jinx,” Mylo snarked back. “Man’s so fucking in love with that girl, it’s so gross.”
Vi frowned. “He tell you that?”
“Didn’t have to,” Mylo responded. “He’s at her fucking beck and call. Puts up with her shit all the fucking time. Pretty sure he doesn’t even like me or Claggor, but he’s there at The Last Drop anytime Jinx is there with us.”
“Nah, he’s chill with Claggor,” Arnav said with a laugh, “you’re the one who’s constantly a dick.”
Mylo cackled, shaking his head as they reached the bottom landing of the stairs. “Okay, fair enough.”
Vi took a breath. She didn’t see Ekko as much as the guys here, it seemed, but it wasn’t like she was surprised at their assessment. She’d been teasing Jinx about Ekko just a couple days ago, after all. But listening to Mylo laugh and joke with these guys had Vi realizing just how outside of her family she actually was. It shouldn’t be a shock, it was obvious really, but it still hurt a little.
Caitlyn nudged her softly, seeming to pick up on her feelings. “Ekko’s with the Firelights?”
“Yeah,” Vi murmured, taking the lead as she carefully pushed open the door to the next room, “and if we don’t get him outta here alive, I’m going to have a heartbroken sister to deal with, so.”
“We’ll get him out,” Caitlyn assured her, peering past Vi into the room. Her eyes glowed purple as she eyed a camera on the ceiling that looked to be powered off. “The Chembarons’ runner powered off the security system, but I should be able to override with a remote takeover…”
“Shit,” Arnav mumbled, “can you do that, Mylo?”
“Of course I can,” he huffed bitterly, “it just… takes longer and isn’t as useful. Caitlyn’s got like, a state of the art operating system in her head or something.”
“Yep,” Caitlyn murmured in agreement, sounding faraway. “Alright, I’m in. There are… twenty-one guys, it looks like. There’s a sort of… operations room, I guess, outside the safe room, and the netrunner is jacked into its main computer, but the door’s still shut. The others are just pacing around, someone might be talking through the door.”
“Told you,” Freddie offered, getting an elbow in the ribs from Arnav.
“So what’s the plan, boss?” Mylo asked, grinning at Vi even as she glared at him.
Caitlyn blinked and looked at Vi with those brilliant blue eyes. Vi swallowed. “The, uh, safe room door pretty solid? Could it handle a grenade going off?”
“Your solution to everything is to blow it up today, huh?” Arnav mumbled.
Vi ignored him as Caitlyn nodded. “It should, but only one of the guys in there has grenades on him. It wouldn’t take them all out.”
Of course Caitlyn had already scanned all the Chembarons to figure that out.
“The netrunner would also be able to trace me as soon as I detonated it.”
“Right,” Vi mumbled, glancing at Mylo then back at Caitlyn. “And you can’t just… factory reset the netrunner, or whatever?”
Caitlyn’s lips stretched into an amused smile but she didn’t make fun of Vi messing up whatever terms Caitlyn usually used to describe her shit. “No, unfortunately not. His system is really secure, almost as locked down as mine. Best I can do is see him on the camera and get an id. He’ll have to be taken out the old fashioned way.”
Vi cracked a small smile herself. “Y’know, that’s my favorite way.”
“Well, once we do anything, ‘running or not, they’ll know we’re here,” Haru reasoned, “so whatever we do that exposes us, let’s just make it big. Grenade might be the best bet, anyway, then they don’t got any to throw at us when we bust in.”
Vi looked between the rest of them, who all nodded in agreement. “We’re still gonna be outnumbered,” she reminded them, and they all nodded once more. She took a breath, realizing that the guys especially were literally just waiting for her order. “Alright. Caitlyn will stay here, fuck ‘em up through the cameras. Mylo—easier for you to do the same or to get closer?”
“Closer,” he admitted with a half frown.
“Alright, well you’ll stay in the back with Freddie. Damian, Arnav, you’ll be next, and Haru and I will take the lead. As soon as the grenade detonates, we bust in. I’m going for the ‘runner, rest of you focus on the goons, yeah?”
“Sir, yes, sir,” Mylo teased with a grin, and Vi smirked as she elbowed him this time.
“Shove that shit up your ass, man.”
Caitlyn softly cleared her throat. “You all go down the hallway—Mylo can get you close to the door to the operations room. I’ll be on comms—” as she said it, Vi’s holo rang, and she answered the call immediately, “—with Vi, and as soon as you’re in position, I’ll detonate.”
Vi reached for Caitlyn’s hand without thinking, grasping and squeezing it to pass on her appreciation, admiration, and the hope that all of this would go well. Caitlyn squeezed back, they nodded at each other, and then Vi gestured for Mylo to lead them toward the safe room.
They stayed quiet as they maneuvered through a few hallways, passing a few empty offices, until they were a few feet away from a door. Even though it was closed, they could easily hear the loud voices from inside—loud complaints and shouts and demands. The Chembarons were getting impatient.
“Cait,” Vi whispered, “we’re ready.”
“Stay sharp, darling,” Caitlyn said back, and Vi felt the already familiar jolt that the word triggered shoot through her.
A blast from inside the room wiped it from her mind, though, and she was jerking forward, triggering the door to open and running in with her fists already swinging.
The first guy she made contact with was flying back from the force of the explosion, and Vi more pushed him than anything, causing him to stumble while swinging around, eyes wide with a machete raised high. A knife flew past Vi from Haru’s steady hand, embedding itself in the goon’s eye as he screamed, dropped his weapon. Vi lunged forward to pull out the knife and stab it in his side, just under his ribs where he wasn’t wearing padded armor. She didn’t have time to make sure he was all the way down before a heavy club came swinging sideways at her. She couldn’t dodge it completely, taking a bruising hit to her right hip. It hurt like hell, but she knew her chrome kept anything from getting broken. As the woman bearing the weapon pulled it back again, Vi grasped it with all the strength of her gorilla arm implants, yanked it away and used the Chembaron’s own weapon to take her down.
She wanted to assess the situation—see how many goons were down, how her team was doing—but she spotted the netrunner jacking out of the computer, lugging out a machine gun from under the desk he was sat at.
Vi deked around a burly man trying to tackle her, then lunging across the room for the netrunner. He was about to trigger a round of fire from the weapon he could barely maneuver when Vi got to him, tearing the gun away from him with nothing but brute strength, and conveniently using it to bash an extremely built woman behind her, smashing out of her hand the pistol she’d had trained on Mylo. Furious, she redirected her attention to Vi, only for her chrome to suddenly start burning, catching fire, and she screamed as she tried fruitlessly to put it out.
“Focus on the ‘runner,” Caitlyn said in her ear, and Vi followed the suggestion happily, turning back to find the guy with his eyes now glowing an iridescent blue. She brought her fist back, landing a solid punch to his gut, but at the same time, she felt a zap of something like electricity in her system, something she couldn’t possibly identify as pain coursed through her. “Vi!” she heard Caitlyn exclaiming, but she couldn’t respond because apparently she was screaming, her throat raw with the effort as she crumpled forward. A knife slashed across her upper back, but the worst of pain from whatever the ‘runner had done to her was already subsiding, and she managed to throw herself completely to the ground and roll onto her back. Her pistol was in her hand in a second, a bullet flying through the forehead of the lean woman bearing the knife. As the woman slumped over, Vi twisted with a pained groan, pointing her pistol at the netrunner, only when she pulled the trigger this time, the gun jammed, and suddenly the smart-link targeting wasn’t working either.
“Fuck!” she hissed, shoving the gun back into its holster and trying to lunge for the man again. Her legs weren’t working quite right, the signals her brain was sending for them to move, get up, walk, weren’t reaching them in one piece. The ‘runner’s eyes were still glowing that unnatural blue, although now he was crouched behind the desk, looking between her and others in the room. Vi grit her teeth through the pain and effort as she threw her weight forward just enough to get a grip on his ankle.
“Shit—Mylo!” Vi heard from Freddie, her neck popping with how fast she turned to look, finding Mylo hunched over with pain.
“He’ll be fine,” Caitlyn said into her ear, “the sooner you kill the netrunner, the sooner he’ll be fine, Vi!”
Vi swallowed, gaze falling to where Damian’s body was sprawled on top of a dead Chembaron, the blade of a katana protruding from his back. Panicked, she tried to assess the rest of her team, but then the netrunner was trying to tug his ankle free, and she forced herself to focus back on him.
She held fast to his leg, yanked him closer, and brought his fist hard into his stomach. As he groaned with pain, his eyes began to glow again, but Vi was close enough now to grab a fistful of his hair, bash his head into the desk, interrupting whatever he was going to do. She heard Mylo gasping with relief, recovering from whatever the ‘runner had done, and she put all of her attention on forever silencing the man beneath her.
When she finished, she realized how eerily quiet the room was all of a sudden. She barely managed to roll onto her back, half propped up against the dead netrunner, and look around at the damage.
The Chembarons were all dead. Haru, bleeding from multiple cuts but still conscious, was knelt by Damian’s body with tears in his eyes. Freddie looked to be in one piece, although covered in bruises, and was wrapping a piece of fabric tightly around a deep slice in Arnav’s leg. Arnav looked to be alright besides the gash, his knuckles still white where he refused to loosen his grip on his gun. Mylo was sitting on the floor, head back against the wall, trying to recover his breath as his body shook.
The door from the safe room opened first, and she recognized the woman who peeked out with a gun as Eve, one of the leaders of the Firelights. Vi immediately called out to her, “Eve—it’s just us, the Chembarons are dead.”
“Vi?” Eve said, stepping out and looking around. “Is Vander with you?”
Vi shook her head and tried to sit up, feeling sparks of pain all throughout her body. It didn’t make sense for the pain to be coming from her physical injuries, and she really hoped that the netrunner hadn’t fucked her up too badly.
“Vi?” another voice called, and Vi looked up in relief as Ekko emerged from the safe room, along with the other Firelights. He immediately ran to her side. “Holy shit, dude. When Jinx told me what you guys were going to do, I—fuck, remind me never to doubt you.”
“Yeah, the fuck?” Vi muttered through strained breathing as he helped her sit up and propped her against the desk. “You should know better than to underestimate me, asshole. And like I was gonna let you fucking die. I’d have to figure out how to kill you all over again for leaving my sister like that.”
Ekko gave her a small smile, and then the door from the hallway opened, and this time it was Caitlyn’s panicked voice, “Vi?” It was only then that Vi realized that the holo call had dropped—the signal maybe scrambled by the ‘runner before he’d died. Caitlyn looked relieved to see her sitting upright, rushing over.
“There are more of us than just Vi here, y’know!” Mylo called, and Vi smirked and shook her head before hissing with pain. Caitlyn knelt next to her, and Ekko looked at her with suspicion.
“Who’s this?”
“She’s chill, Ekko, go check on Mylo before his ego takes another hit.”
Ekko looked hesitant to leave, but Caitlyn wasn’t paying attention to him at all, pulling out her personal link and jacking straight into Vi’s system. When Vi didn’t stop her, Ekko finally stood and moved over to check in on Mylo and the others.
“You could totally be putting a virus in my system right now,” Vi muttered, wincing as she tried to adjust how she was sitting.
“It’s a good thing you’re starting to grow on me then, isn’t it?” Caitlyn said quietly.
Vi managed a pained laugh, letting her head fall back against the side of the desk. “Starting? Who’s apartment did you go back to earlier, again?”
Caitlyn tutted at her as a fancier version of Vi’s system diagnostics started running, appearing in her vision and probably in Caitlyn’s, too. Vi paid enough attention to see that most of the assessments came back normal, but not enough to understand those that didn’t.
“What’d he do to me?” Vi wondered. Usually, after getting fucked up by a netrunner, she let Jinx do whatever she needed to fix her, follow her recovery orders, and never actually ask what it was that had fucked her up. Jinx had tried to explain some of it before, but Vi didn’t usually get it.
She was beginning to kinda like hearing Caitlyn talk about this stuff, though. “Looks like nothing too damaging, he was doing a lot of small things at once, so. Short circuited some of your systems, caused some malfunctions, including messing up your legs.”
“Fucked with your fancy gun, too,” Vi mumbled.
“It’s your fancy gun now, Vi,” Caitlyn insisted almost automatically before continuing, “It looks like he hit you hardest with cyberware malfunctions. Some of your implants aren’t working at all. Where are you hurting?”
“It kinda feels like my entire body got electrocuted, or something. It just hurts to move. Also, this shirt is fucked.” Vi looked down at her shoulder, where blood was, in fact, ruining her shirt from the cut in her back.
“We gotta get her back to Jinx,” Mylo said, approaching them and looking fairly stable.
Caitlyn looked up at him. “Netrunner do a number on you, too?”
“Not much, was mostly able to block him from doing anything too bad. I’ll be fine, have Jinx patch a few things later. But Vi, yeah we should get her back to J.”
“Dunno if I can walk,” Vi admitted, trying to lean forward and groaning at the pain.
Ekko was standing over her now, too, shaking his head. “Jinx would need her whole setup to get all Vi’s cyberware back up and running. Eve just checked, and the lockdown is still in effect. NCPD is finally sweeping the streets now that the fighting’s stopped.” He was leaning down now, at her side, one arm sliding under her legs. Vi groaned as he scooped her up. “Sorry, gotta move you somehow, I’ll help with the pain in a sec.”
“Pain’s not nearly as bad as how fucking embarrassing it is that you can lift me,” Vi grumbled, letting her eyes fall closed.
“If we can’t go back to Jinx’s shop yet,” Caitlyn asked as Ekko snickered a little at Vi’s comment, “where are we taking her?”
“Just a few rooms over,” Ekko told her. “Don’t usually use the setup here, but it’s got everything I’ll need.”
“Oh—you’re a ripper doc?” Caitlyn sounded a little surprised but mostly relieved.
Ekko gave a hum in confirmation and Vi heard the sound of a door sliding open. She was jostled a little more before being laid out in a chair that wasn’t quite as comfy as the one in Jinx’s shop, but otherwise felt pretty familiar. She opened her eyes again, looked at Ekko as he began hooking her personal link up to a machine. Caitlyn was pulling a chair next to Vi, concern in her eyes.
Vi didn’t think she could manage to say anything to the woman right now—at least nothing that expressed how she was feeling in a way that she was okay with anyone else overhearing. Instead, she turned her palm face up on the chair next to her, and Caitlyn didn’t hesitate to entwine their fingers.
“Jinx is gonna kill me when she hears I let you work on my chrome,” Vi muttered, and Ekko let out an amused scoff.
“You two are exactly the same, never stop cracking jokes.” He inserted a shard into a port in Vi’s skull, and Vi’s vision filled with some automated processes. As he continued speaking, he was pressing an autoinjector against her arm. “And I’m sure she’ll get over it when she hears I saved your sorry ass.”
“Hey, I’m not fucking dying,” Vi argued, already feeling the effects of whatever pain meds Ekko had just administered. Her eyelids felt a little heavier as she looked to Caitlyn, but her pain was subsiding, her brain going foggy. She tried to smirk but it probably looked more like a dopey smile given the way Caitlyn’s eyes filled with soft amusement. “Cait would be way more worried if I was.” She rolled her head back the other way to look at Ekko, stage whispering, “She totally likes me.”
Caitlyn scoffed, but her face was red when Vi looked back at her.
“Can’t deny it now, cupcake,” Vi murmured, words slurring a little. She opened her mouth to keep speaking, but the reasoning behind her statement was ultimately lost as her mind slipped into darkness.
Vi blinked in and out of consciousness a few times, vaguely aware of her cyberware being put through the paces—patches, updates, restarts. At one point, she felt and heard the rumbling of an engine, maybe a few words whispered in a pretty accent.
When she finally woke up, she was lying in a once familiar bed, and surveying the room told her that she was in one of the two spare bedrooms in Vander’s apartment above The Last Drop. The window was letting in bright beams of sunlight—the rain and the night both completely gone by now.
No one else was in the room with her, but she could hear voices and sounds coming from the bar below. She took a second to assess herself, breathing in deeply and wiggling her toes and fingers, pleased that the little sparks of pain were gone. Her cyberware seemed to all be functioning normally, at least as indicated by the basic scan she could run by herself.
She leaned forward and felt only a little pain in her hip. Looking down at herself, she realized she was dressed in a loose white t-shirt—Vander’s, probably—and a pair of sweat pants. Her cheeks flushed at the thought that Caitlyn might’ve undressed and dressed her, but she came to the conclusion that it was probably Jinx when she noticed a note on the nightstand, next to some kind of inhaler. The note was in Jinx’s signature handwriting—something Vi rarely actually saw thanks to the world of digital communication, but she did recognize it from when they were younger, when Jinx first started tagging billboards and walls in Heywood.
The note just told her to take the inhaler when she woke up and to rest as long as she needed. Vi obeyed the first instruction, taking a puff. She’d taken shit like this after Jinx had updated her cyberware before—something about helping her body adjust to the new or adjusted tech. It didn’t cause any noticeable effects, though, so Vi experimented with swinging her legs off the bed. They moved without complaint, her hip still the only part of her that was sore. Peeking under her shirt revealed that it was bruised, but it didn’t look too bad.
As she stood, she did feel an uncomfortable tug behind her shoulder, and she glimpsed in the mirror Vander had hanging on the wall of the spare room, tugging at the shirt to see the bandage over where she’d been sliced. One of those fancy, pro-healing ones that Jinx usually used, too. Ekko had clearly taken good care of her.
Vander’s apartment was empty of people the same as the bedroom. She found her gun and its holster on the kitchen counter and strapped it on around her thigh before she headed down to the bar.
The bar was very much not empty. The first people Vi noticed were Eve and some of the other lead Firelights, hunched over a table with beers, talking quietly. Ekko wasn’t with them, which was quickly explained by his being seated at a different table, Jinx’s lanky arm thrown over his shoulders. They were talking to Mylo and Claggor, the latter of whom was leaning heavily on the table between them, but looked to be feeling alright.
Arnav, Haru, and Freddie were gathered around the bar with some other folks from Vista del Rey, some of whom had been here earlier for the fighting, others newer arrivals. Noticeably absent from the bar area were Vander and Caitlyn, and Vi couldn’t help but frown a little as she walked down the creaking steps, drawing her sister’s attention first.
“Vi!” she exclaimed, jumping up and hurrying across the bar to be at her side, concern writ over her face. “Are you having any pain still?”
“Not really,” she assured her sister, “just my hip and shoulder are a little sore. Whatever Ekko did back at the Firelights HQ did the trick for the rest of it.”
Speaking of Ekko, he, along with Mylo and Claggor, had also gotten up to come over to her. “Yeah,” Jinx was saying begrudgingly, “guess he’s a halfway decent ripper when it counts.” Vi laughed, grabbing her little sister in a tight hug. Jinx sank into the embrace, burying her face into Vi’s neck and whispering, so no one else could hear, “Thank you for getting him out, sis. I—he’s—”
“I know,” Vi assured her, holding on for another few beats before pulling back. She turned her attention to Claggor. “You doing alright?”
“Yep, when everyone came back, Ekko had more of those fancy ripper bandages,” he said, tugging up the clean shirt he was now wearing and revealing the bandage over the bullet hole. “But I’ve been instructed to take it easy, still.” He gave Ekko a side eye, and Vi smiled at the Firelight.
“Ekko, thanks man. Still don’t know about all that ‘saving my life’ bullshit,” Vi joked with a small smile, “but at least feels like you did.” Ekko extended his arm, the two of them clapping their hands together, grasping and going in for a slight hug.
“Don’t sweat it,” he was saying, “it was the least I could do after everything you did. Chembarons would be owning the streets if it weren’t for you.”
Vi shrugged. “You know I don’t usually fuck with gang politics, but the Chembarons have been shady as shit lately, and I wasn’t about to let them fuck up my home turf.” She looked to Mylo, gave him a once over. “How you feeling?”
“All good, Ekko gave me a quick checkup before we came back here. Everything’s in working order.” Mylo gave her a proud smile, and Vi couldn’t help but soften.
“You did real good.” Mylo clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes, but Vi doubled down. “Seriously, Mylo. Sewer job wouldn’t have worked without you. You did really great.”
“Damn,” Mylo said, failing to hide the way his face was reddening from the praise. “Your rich and fancy netrunner really got you on board with the ‘running, huh? That—or you’re turning in a sap.”
Jinx snickered. “That could be her rich and fancy netrunner’s fault, too.”
Vi shoved her sister playfully, Jinx letting herself be moved and falling a little against Ekko, who had an arm around her waist without hesitation. “Speaking of, she delta?”
Claggor chuckled as Jinx rolled her eyes. “No, girl refused to leave. I barely even got her out of the bedroom to let you rest.” Vi smirked a little, tucking a hand into one of the pockets in her sweats.
Ekko gave her a smile. “She was putting up with all these assholes’ bickering—”
“Hey, you bicker too!” Jinx argued, looking up at him with furrowed eyebrows and being promptly ignored.
“—but Vander wanted to talk to her.” Vi’s smirk disappeared, lips falling into a frown instead. “They’re in the back.”
“Nova,” Vi muttered, shaking of her head. “I better go rescue her, then. Thanks again—all of you.” She clapped the guys on the back and gave her sister another squeeze before heading for the bar’s prep room.
The first thing she noticed walking in was that it was still in the state of disarray it had been in earlier, although the table had been cleaned of Claggor’s blood. The second thing she noticed was Caitlyn, arms crossed over her chest, perking up and obviously tuning Vander’s speaking out as soon as she saw Vi. “You’re awake,” she said, and Vander quieted, turning to face Vi, too.
“Yep,” Vi agreed, looking carefully between the two of them and walking closer. Vander wore his usual unreadable frown that might mean he was actually upset, but could also mean he was tired—physically, mentally, emotionally, or all at once. Vi focused back on Caitlyn, noticing that she was still dressed in her clothes from yesterday. “And dressed in fresh clothes, unlike someone.” She raised an eyebrow at Caitlyn, who looked down at herself. Her outfit was even more of a mess now, too, stained with Vi’s blood.
“I didn’t want to be a bother, but I wanted to be here when you woke up.” She glanced back at Vander hesitantly, before adding, “Since, um, we still have a job to finish.”
Vi nodded slowly, leaning against the table and looking up at her adoptive father. “What’s the sitch? Lockdown lifted?”
“Yep, few hours ago,” Vander confirmed. “Firelights are getting word out to the rest of their members about what happened, calling everyone to Heywood. Aimin’ to move their HQ, now that it’s been revealed.” Vi nodded along, then glanced between him and Caitlyn, waiting for him to answer the unasked question she was actually interested in. “I was just asking your…” he trailed off and looked at Caitlyn questioningly, before deciding on, “netrunner about her affiliations, and then we were speaking about her parents.”
Vi arched an eyebrow, surprised that Caitlyn would’ve shared her last name with Vander. “Oh.”
Caitlyn quickly demystified the situation, saying, “Your sister had no trouble IDing me. Her in-optics scanner is just a slightly outdated model of the one I use, so.”
“Nice of her not to drop the Kiramman beforehand, then.”
Vander chuckled a little. “I think she didn’t care who went in there as long as Ekko came out.” Vi nodded in agreement, curling her lips upward a little, and waited for Vander or Caitlyn to say something else—fill her in more, hopefully. But Vander only said, “Anyway, this former NCPD officer Kiramman is exactly why I always suggest keeping allies in as many groups in Night City as possible.”
“Yeah, she’s not bad as far as allies go,” Vi agreed with amusement tinging her tone. Caitlyn rolled her eyes even as a soft smile came to her lips. Vi smiled back, the expression suddenly contagious.
But then Caitlyn said, “I guess I should head home, seeing as you’re alright. I could use a little more sleep—and you should get the same, though I guess you’ll probably put it off until after you’ve delivered these.” She produced two shards from one pocket, stepping closer to offer them to Vi.
“Oh, fuck, right,” Vi murmured. “Fuck, this whole night and morning has been so fucking crazy, I practically forgot about this.”
“Luckily, I was on top of it,” Caitlyn reassured her, voice gentle.
Vander suddenly rested a hand softly on Vi’s shoulder. “I’m gonna go check on the Firelights.” She spared him a single glance and a nod.
Once he was out of the room, Vi took the shards and asked, “Guess you found the last link, then?”
“Yep. Seems like the late mayor was regularly meeting with SaloTech to get a look at upcoming cyberware and tech releases. He tried them out, paid big and early if he wanted to be the first buyer.”
“How do you think Ambessa knew about it?” Vi wondered, turning the shards over in her hands before slipping one into her pocket and the other into the port in her head. The data downloaded on her system as Caitlyn answered.
“My guess is Reveck. I don’t think he explicitly knew about the meetings with the mayor, but—”
“He was the one handing the tech off to Sky,” Vi said, nodding in time with the other woman.
“Right, so I bet he’d had her tracked one time in the past, figured out what was happening. Probably fed the info back to Silco, who we can assume at this point is working with Ambessa, given the involvement of the Chembarons in her dealings in Northside.”
Vi nodded, focus on Caitlyn dimming a little as she perused the data on the shard. After a second, she asked, “What about the cops? Find what you were looking for?”
Caitlyn sighed. “I did. The superior officer who gave me my unrequested leave of absence was one of the first to the scene, even before Trauma Team. It makes sense that no one would question his reports, given his rank and status.”
“You gonna get his ass fired?” Vi asked with a soft chuckle.
“That is the plan,” Caitlyn confirmed, lips spreading into another smile. “Tomorrow, though. Today, I’m heading straight for my bed and not leaving until I literally can’t close my eyes anymore.”
“Yeah, good, you should rest. And I’ll do the same, after I zip this data over to Mel and then meet with your parents.”
Caitlyn nodded. “Let me know once you’ve done that? So I know I can proceed with going to the head of the police department?”
“Yeah, ‘course. And hey—get some food on your way home, at least a bag of chips from a vending machine or something, alright?”
Caitlyn’s eyes brightened a little as she took a small step forward, a hand lifting and resting on Vi’s cheek. Vi’s eyes flickered closed without meaning to as Caitlyn stroked her thumb over the tattoo under her left eye. “You’re sweet, Vi. Actually, though, your father already fed me. Well—all of us, but… I did eat.”
“Good,” Vi murmured, forcing her eyes open and realizing that Caitlyn had gotten even closer. She swallowed, hard, and inched her face forward, her nose brushing Caitlyn’s, eliciting a shaky breath from the taller woman. It fanned warm and soft across Vi’s face. Vi waited, silently begging Caitlyn to finally kiss her, needing it. And when Caitlyn didn’t move, Vi threw caution to the wind, closed her eyes, and tilted her chin forward, their lips just barely brushing, sending tingles through her body.
But then Caitlyn tucked her chin back, stopping the kiss before it could really start, and the tiniest ghost of a whine eked out of Vi as she opened her eyes again. Caitlyn had her bottom lip between her teeth and worry swimming in her eyes. “Vi… it’s been such an emotional night, or—morning. You’re exhausted.”
“So are you,” Vi whispered, leaning into where Caitlyn was still holding her face and moving her hands to the woman’s hips. “Can’t I be grateful that we’re both still in one piece? You’re the only reason we got Ekko out of there, too, Cait, I—fuck, thank you, I-I don’t even know how to thank you.”
Caitlyn gently nuzzled her nose against Vi’s, then tucked it against her cheek, their lips so close again but not quite touching. Her words were so quiet, gentle. “Don’t kiss me to thank me. Kiss me just because you want to.”
Vi whimpered, pulling Caitlyn’s body flush with hers, her voice thick with emotion as she promised, “I want to, Cait.”
They stood there for another beat before Caitlyn pulled her face away and ran her hand down Vi’s cheek, across her neck, stopping over the t-shirt along her collarbone. “Tell me that again tomorrow,” Caitlyn pleaded, “after you’ve gotten some more rest.”
Vi’s exhale came out shaky, but she forced herself to nod. She could wait until tomorrow if that’s what Caitlyn needed to know that she really wanted this. “Okay,” she agreed, insisting, “I will.” Caitlyn smiled a little and stepped back, both of their hands falling away from each other. “Get home safe, okay?”
Caitlyn nodded. “I’ll message you when I get there. Keep me in the loop about Mel and my parents?”
“Yeah,” Vi agreed. Caitlyn stared at her for a beat, then nodded again as if to herself, before sidestepping Vi and walking out of the room. Vi kept her attention forward for a few beats after hearing the door close, giving Caitlyn time to explain her leaving to at least Jinx, who would definitely say something. She ended up standing there for nearly a minute before daring to follow, and only after peering at her warped reflection in a metal bowl to make sure the emotion she was feeling wasn’t painted all over her face.
As soon as she stepped out into the bar, Jinx hollered at her, “Your netrunner just left, sis!”
Vi laughed a little and shook her head, approaching her sister and the guys at the table. “Yeah, well you hooligans tired her out,” she teased.
“Heard your gig with her is coming to a close,” Mylo commented, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah, I actually gotta delta, gotta get the data to my client.”
Mylo hummed. “Right. Hm. It was actually kinda cool having an experienced netrunner around. Also nice not to have to babysit you on your gigs, ‘course.”
Vi opened her mouth to tease him right back, but Jinx interrupted to drawl, “I don’t think their gig ending is gonna keep her from being around.” She smirked at Vi, the rest of the guys sharing similarly amused looks. Those who hadn’t witnessed their earlier hug or overheard their whispers on the way to the Firelights HQ definitely knew that something was going on by now, given Caitlyn apparently being adamant to stay until Vi was awake. Vi honestly couldn’t bring herself to care, though, and she just gave her sister a smirk in return, shrugging.
“No promises one way or another,” she replied, before stepping backward toward the bar. “Alright, I really gotta go, need to get home, call my client.”
Everyone nodded at her, and Mylo added, snark in his tone, “Hey, and no more explosives for a bit, alright, Vi?”
Arms crossed, Jinx leaned backward against Ekko’s shoulder, peering up at him to say, “Apparently my sister is becoming a pyro.”
Vi just gave an exasperated laugh, shaking her head as she turned around, tossing a middle finger over her shoulder. A smile was playing on her face, though, listening to her family’s chuckles as she slipped out the back exit, climbed on her bike, and headed back to her apartment.
Notes:
!!!!!!! We got so close to that kiss!! What do you guys think is going thru Cait's head right now??? And, I mean, everyone's, after the most chaotic night and morning ever? As always, I would love love love to hear your thoughts on this chapter!!
We've only got 4 more to go! Goodness, it's always bittersweet drawing near to the end of a fic, isn't it? But, hey, we're not there yet, and we've still got quite a bit to get through honestly :P The last four chapters are all about this length, totally 36,000 words we've still got!! And I am even more excited to share those with you! Agh!
Thank you for reading, my friends! I'll see you all tomorrow!