BARBARA: I found her!

V: What’s going on?

BARBARA: I found my daughter! Two weeks of only getting health updates from her biomon with corrupted locations, but I finally found her! V, you will help me extract her.

V: Fuck, Barb. Sure, alright. You got a timeframe for this?

BARBARA: Tonight. I’m not watching them pump even one more iota of morphine into her! Fuck! I’ve been watching the dose rise over two weeks through the ‘mon! They’re giving her enough to knock out a grown man!

V: Tonight?! You do know after Jenkins burned we don’t have backup? Fuck, I’ve been fighting the shakes ever since the hormone balancer got shutdown.

BARBARA: Get yourself a hit or something. I’ll pay and owe you a favour. Just get your ass to Kabuki. They’re keeping her in an apartment at Pinewood.

V: Fine. You got iron? I’m pretty bare at the moment.

BARBARA: I can give you a Dian.

V: Barb, I don’t have a smart link anymore. You got something else?

BARBARA: Well fuck, can you even hit anything then? I have a tactition, but I know you don’t like shotguns. Just chip yourself something cheap! Don’t go and whine that its not top of the line, we don’t work for Arasaka anymore.

V: Fine. I’ll get something, call in some favours. I’ll be there at 5. Do I bring backup?

BARBARA: Backup gonna be paid by a favour?

V: I’ll have to ask. You know Wells?

BARBARA: Never heard of him, but if you feel fine having him watch your back get him over. Just keep in mind how I treat unknowns.

V: I’ll bring him up to speed. Ping you when I’m there?

BARBARA: Alright. Thanks for helping, I owe you. Ping you then.

#----------------------------------

V sighed. He leaned against the railing above the river at the edge of Kabuki. The sky was covered with clouds. It would probably rain later. V took a deep breath. The smell of salt, rotting algae and heavy oil permeated everything. The air in night city felt foreign. Ever since Jenkins had been burned and, by extension him and all of Jenkins closer operatives, V hadn’t felt like himself. The requisitioning of his high spec biomon had really taken a lot out of him. But now, even though he was a wreck, everything felt so clear. His time at Arasaka felt like a dream, covered by a thin haze. He felt like a different person with different memories. He chuckled at that thought. It was kind of accurate. He couldn’t quite decide if he should look forward to or dread the future.

V gave himself a checkup. Dark green puffy jacket, t-shirt and regular jeans. A pair of heavy boots, bullet proof vest, holster for his revolver, ammo in the 5 quick loaders. He was just starting to check up on his iron and fiddling with the silencer when he heard the sounds of an Arch coming down the street. V turned towards the road and watched a big hunk of a man riding a motorcycle coming down the street. The usually bulky machine looked almost tiny in comparison to Jackies large frame. Whatever Mama Wells fed her boy, V needed to get in on that. Maybe something to ask her later. V was crashing at Jackies place at the moment and Mama Wells homemade cooking was something else. Nobody cooked at home anymore.

The bike revved up as Jackie cycled through the gears, coming to a stop next to V. Jackie flashed him a smile. He was wearing his signature motorcycle jacket and pants. “Hey Choom. You wait long?”. V stepped next to him as Jackie got of his bike. “Its fine. I needed a moment anyway.”. They slapped hands. Jackies eyes lit up. “Oh, Choom! You got new chrome?”. V chuckled as he looked at the new smart link on his right hand. It was crude in comparison to what he had in Arasaka, but Barbara was right. He couldn’t afford to be picky at the moment “Yeah, Barb talked me into it. I need an edge and maybe I’ll even get to keep the Dian she’s lending me today.” Jackie smirked. “Sounds like she’s got fire. A Dian? Thats the SMG, right? Wasn’t the ammo kinda expensive?”

“Yeah, but Barbs right. I’m going cold turkey at the moment without the corp stuff and my aim is shit. Having a smart weapon will mean I at least don’t shoot you in the back”. Jackie parked his bike and came around to stand next to V. They took a look at the apartment building across the small quiet street. “Soo, an extraction. Anything you know of the building?”. V looked at the run down 12 story building. It wasn’t in the worst condition, but was definitely in need of a new coat of paint. Of course, it wouldn’t be a building in night city if there wasn’t trash piling up against it. “Nope, I don’t have the deets. Barbara should be here any minute though, she’ll fill us in.”, “Speaking of, you already told some stories, but is there anything else I should know? She sounds kinda intense.”

“Just stay out of my way, Mr. Wells”. Barbara appeared out of nowhere behind them, prompting Jackie to jump and start a tirade of spanish curses.  “Jeez Hermana, nearly scared the good outta me. Hoooh ... Deep breaths, Jackie ...”. She handed V a Kang Tao G-58 Dian and two mags. “Here. Your iron. Good to see you chipped a smart link. V, setup comms would you? I don’t have Wells number.”. And with that Barbara was off, straight across the street towards the apartment building, shotgun in a sling on her back. V took the woman in for a moment. Black shirt and pants, combat harness, vest and helmet, Barbara had rocked up ready for war. Apparently she was on a mission when Jenkins got burned and was able to keep much of her gear, unlike V, who had been caught completely off guard. She had a silenced Nue on her hip, with a few mags strapped to her gear. “Hoh, chicks got fire.” Jackies comment got a chuckle out of V. He quickly set up a group call, setting up comms for their small mission. “Com’on Jackie. Game face.” V checked on the SMG while he quickly followed after Barbara, syncing it up with his link.

(So Barb, got any details? How do you want to handle this?) V caught up to Barbara as Jackie shook of his stupor and hurried after them. (She’s probably on sublevel two. I suspect this is a Tyger Claw safehouse. Sub one will be a kind of lounge where they rest and sub two is gonna be for everything else. I checked for cams 10 minutes ago, but they can’t be access from outside. I don’t know if they have a runner. I want to do this quiet, but without system access that’s gonna be hard.) Jackie chimed in over the comms. (She? Soo we’re really rescuing a kid?) (My daughter. We are rescuing my daughter, Wells. Didn’t V tell you anything?) Barbara answered with steel in her voice. Jackie was unsure how to handle the woman, (Well... V was more making sure I wouldn’t step on your feet y’know? Stay outta your way...), so he threw his choom under the bus. Barbara shot V a glare over her shoulder before stepping up to the door to the building. V looked at his choom. Aw come on, dick move! Jackie gave him an awkward apologetic smile.

They passed the door at the south corner of the building, entering a hallway. To the right was a reception desk behind a glass window. Some poor sod was sitting there, but before he could do more then look up in surprise, Barbara had already put a silenced bullet into his head, right through the glass of his booth. Without stopping she continued on. (Two doors in is the power junction for the building. We cut power to the basement and go in. If we can do it quiet, good. If not, too bad.)

V shivered a bit at the calculated hate running through Barbara. He knew she was cold and efficient when on the job, especially when she was personally invested, like right now. He had read plenty of her mission reports and assigned plenty of tasks to her. It was always comforting to know he could send Barbara at a problem and it would just disappear. Jenkins had valued her quite highly. Every step she took right now was filled with purpose and urgency. V would maybe even need to hold her back a bit before she did anything reckless. (Can you do more with direct access to the system?) They placed themselves at the sides of the second door in the hallway. It was a proper reinforced steel door, probably new and recently replaced, but the frame itself had not gotten the same treatment. The door wouldn’t brake easily, but that wouldn’t matter. (Maybe, but I’m not banking on it. They manage to hide everything very well.)

(Mr. Wells, if you’d please.) With their handguns raised, ready to rush the room as soon as the door was down, V and Barbara leaned against the walls. Jackie positioned himself in front of the door, raising his own Nue. He slid his left foot back, but Barbara stopped him. (Wait, you don’t have a silencer?) Jackie paused awkwardly and the intense woman sighed. She fumbled a bit with her tactical harness and pulled out a silencer. (You’re lucky you use a Nue. Here, I got a spare. They break easily so take care. Don’t go punching someone with it.) Jackie grunted in affirmation and wrangled the silencer onto his gun. (You always carry spares, Hermana?)

(I like to be prepared.) Barbara shot a glance at V. (You gonna be able to aim that thing?) V looked at his shacking hand holding his revolver and sighed. He reached into his back pocket and got one of the hypos Vik had given him. Just some blockers that would keep his hands calm for a while, nothing that would cloud his mind, together with some long lasting adrenalin compound. It was quite the powerful pick-me-up. They weren’t that expensive, but at the moment, he was strapped for eddies, so every use hurt. He pushed the hypo into his left elbow. Instantly he could feel himself perk up, whatever sluggishness he was feeling forgotten in a flash. His hands steadied and he took a few deep breaths.

(Alright, let’s go.) V felt in control. He had missed this feeling. Being in the field, in danger, life on the edge. It also felt entirely new to a large part of him, a giddy excitement running through him as he pictured himself move like an experienced operator. (Ready when you are, Hermana.) Jackie had installed the silencer and had aimed down the sights of his iron a few times, to get used to the new weight. (Good, go ahead. Don’t rush in.) With a grunt Jackie threw his foot into the door.

With a dry crack the frame of the door gave way and the piece of reinforced steel simply collapsed into the room. Jackie stumbled until his foot came to rest in the doorway, gun raised looking straight into the small room. V and Barbara had raised their guns towards the corners, their sightlines crossing. A quick glance and Jackie saw a woman lounging in an office chair. She had obviously just taken a hit of something, but the door breaking down had jerked her out of her stupor and she had fallen onto the floor. The Tyger Claw tattoos told Jackie everything he had to know about her and while she was scrambling on the bare concrete ground for the gun stuffed in her skin tight pants, he fired three rounds. The woman jerked and let out a quiet wheeze as the first bullet hit her square in the chest, another slammed into her shoulder and the last one missed and buried itself into the wall behind her. It wasn’t were he had aimed, all three should have hit center of mass. The silencer was throwing of his aim and shifting the recoil more then he thought. (Clear.), Jackie called and V and Barbara moved into the small room.

Barbara eyed the woman dying on the floor and the bullet hole in the wall behind her, but didn’t say anything. They passed a small computer setup besides the door, but Barbara focused on the electrical closets lining the left wall and there was a computer on a table next to the doorway. V guessed there was a closet for every floor, probably containing breakers. The right wall was bare except for another lone metal closet. That one probably contained the incoming powerline and the electricity meter for the whole building, along with even more breakers. The closets were actually labelled and Barbara went right up to the one labelled ‘Sub1’. She pulled a thermal knife out of her harness and with a quick swipe, the lock on the closet was cut in half. V turned to the computer setup. Waking up the rig, he jacked in. It wasn’t even protected so he had no problems scanning the system. Sadly, there wasn’t anything he could find. The network was properly setup and the computer only connected to a single server, which was heavily protected. Though the ICE on the server wasn’t untouched. Someone was working to break in, though V couldn’t tell if they already breached the ICE, or from were they were attacking. They had to be in the building though.

(Barb, someone else is breaching the system. They are probably in the building, but I can’t find anything. Someone competent set this up.) Barbara had finished with the breakers of sublevel 1 and was flipping the power to sublevel 2. After working a large breaker, she severed the powerline going down to the basement. (Yeah, there is a reason why Lisas biomon couldn’t properly send an SOS. It has a few backup communication modes though and one of the more subversive ones managed to send her health status, but the location data kept being corrupted and they used a lot of proxies, so tracking the signal down took time.) V could see the computer loose connection to the server as its electricity supply had been cut. V jacked out.

(Alright boys, lets get down there. Its gonna be dark, so I hope you have optics to handle that.) Jackie shifted uncomfortably. V knew his choom liked the way his optics looked, the way they filled his gaze with that certain something, but they weren’t exactly high performance. He threw a concerned glance at his choom. Barbara shot both of them glares. (For fucks sake...) She sighed in exasperation. Jackie chuckled nervously.

#-----------------------------------------

The gig was just a side job. Regina wanted more eyes and deets on the operations of the Tyger Claws in her territory and apparently they had something running in the basement of this building. It was just a simple info gathering job. Breach the system, snoop around, delta. Lucy would have preferred if she could have gotten access from the outside, but they had hidden their systems well. The sublevels were invisible to anything not in the building. So, the next best thing would be to skirt the edge of their subnet. Get in the apartment complex and breach from the first connected device she found. Go slow, work through any security they had. Of course, Maine had also stuck the newb on her so she could ‘walk her dog’. So there they were, the corpse of a Tyger Claw dumped in a corner, Lucy plugged into the computer in the security room on the north side of the building, lots of monitors showing camera views of the upper levels and David running overwatch.

Lucy sat in the chair in front of the screen wall at the security desk. She had made good progress through the system. The computer was linked to only a single server in the sublevels and Lucy had almost dismantled all of its ICE. It was serious shit and somebody had set everything up with care, but she could tell there was no netrunner standing guard. Otherwise she wouldn’t be able to leisurely sit there and breach. Slowly Lucy worked through the last bits of ICE in silence. David was being surprisingly quiet today. Usually he was more obnoxious.

Nobody came to check and Lucy had finally broken in. It had taken her the good part of half an hour, but she could finally start snooping. Looking through the file structure searching for anything of relevance, she was disappointed when she found nothing. The server was empty, basically nothing more then a proxy. She could see connections to cameras and other computers, but there wasn’t any info. No messages or emails, no files, no nothing. Letting out a frustrated sigh Lucy checked the cameras. She saw a few rooms, a few Tyger gonks, but nothing really concerning. Sublevel one had two stairways leading to it, one on the north, close to were Lucy and David were camping out, and another at the south side, but sublevel two was only accessible through a stairway located in the center of sub one. The two staircases from ground level should have continued down, but had been blocked off.

Before Lucy could get into breaching the security of sublevel 2, her connection was cut. She frowned as she tried to ping the server she had just accessed, but the pings went out into nothing. Either someone had cut the connection and shut out her access point, or the server lost power, or crashed somehow and had gone offline. This would complicate things. It would have been preferable to breach from here and delta, but now they would have to actually enter and find the info manually. She jacked out and stood up.

“You done? Can we leave? I have a bad feeling.”. It wasn’t like David to be this timid. “I got in but the server went down.” Lucy made her way over to the door. “We’ll have to do this manually.” She went out the door and made her way to the stairs.

#----------------------------------------

Lisas world was turning in circles. Minutes blended into hours, and days blended with weeks and years. Time had no meaning and space made no sense. Colours and smells blended together in a confusing mess of tastes and plenty of times she blacked out only to wake up yesterday. The room she was in changed size constantly, while she sat in a corner on the ceiling. The air felt solid and unmoving making even lifting her head a useless endeavour. Her world spun to fast to follow making her stomach churn violently, but she had gone hungry for what felt like decades and there wasn’t anything but bile rising up her throat. She thought there were people entering her room multiple times, but she wasn’t sure. Millenia in delirium made her second guess everything. Reality was coming apart at the seams, but suddenly everything shifted back into focus.

An earthshattering headache ripped through her skull making Lisa groan as she curled on the bed. The world screeched to a halt and returned to its euclidian nature, solid and touchable. Somebody else was shifting in the room, shouting, but her mind was overtaken by a different voice, one that rang through her without a source.

[Fuuuck, what the hell. Where am I] This headache was killing her. It felt like her brain was being pulled three ways. Her chrome arm felt numb, but its cool touch against her head helped. [What ... what was I doing... ?] The voice was male, Lisa decided. She felt weird, split. Like someone had cut her in half and then ripped her into parts. She could hear, smell, taste, see, but not all at once. At the moment she could hear angry japanese shouting. Lisa spoke japanese, though understanding anything right now was impossible. [Okay, whatever. First, breathe... ]

She felt her breath measuring out, no longer gasping for each bit of air. Slowly she stopped shuddering. She pressed her cool metal hand against her forehead. [No, cool the neck first, my neck is burning]. Her hand moved away and towards her neck. She gasped and tensed as she felt like someone had dumped sub zero ice down her spine, but thinking became easier. [Good, good... alright, assess the surroundings.] Finally she could open her eyes. Lisa blinked. It was pitch black. There was no light. [Alright, fuck, how...? Oh, eye implants...? What? Alright, sure, fine. Ah good there’s brightness, colour and contrast.] Lisa should be worrying more as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, seemingly on their own, but she still wasn’t sure if reality had stopped using dream rules and was back to normal. Her vision cycled through a few options, first brightening, then shapes became diffuse and then sharp again. After a moment her vision settled on a grayscale version of her surroundings, with objects having sharp visible edges. It kind of reminded her of some sort of wireframe constructs, but fuzzy. [Alright, this should also not be blinding when there’s light. Good, okay. Fuck! What is going on? Shit! Okay, just breathe, breathe.... I need to get out... Is that a door?] Lisa still had her hand on her neck and took stock of her surroundings. She still felt like every movement needed an exorbitant amount of effort, but she could see she was in a small room, maybe three by three meters. Most of the space was taken up by the bed she was kneeling on. There was an open doorway to what looked to be a bathroom to her left and next to it was something that looked like an IV-drip. There was also a port with a bunch of cables on the wall. That spot looked awfully familiar. It felt like she had spent a significant amount of time in that spot, leaning against the wall next to the IV-drip, cables in her neck and ...

The headache came back with a vengeance. [Fuck okay, don’t focus on that! To the right. The other door.] Lisa winced, her left hand shot up to her forehead. She turned right and saw there was indeed another door. And somebody was sitting before it. Or rather crawling towards it. There was a relatively bulky man crawling on his hands and feet towards the door. Obviously he couldn’t see in the dark as well as she could. He wasn’t armed, but for some reason he had no shirt on and looked like he had been interrupted while undressing. Why would he ... “Ugh.”, the headache slammed back into her. Staying on the subject of clothes she wondered what she was wearing. Looking down Lisa could see some sort of very loose shirt and a... minidress? What ... am I ... wear..ing?  [What? What the fuck? Why... boobies?] The male voice seemed confused. No, those were hers, she had always had them. Why was this male voice confused? And where were her clothes? Her thoughts were still sluggish. [Wait. Who are you?]  Wh...at..? Her breathing had become ragged.

[Okay, not important right now. That on the floor there, what’s that? Is that a gun?] Lisa focused on the floor next to the crawling man. Indeed, there was a holster with a gun. She grunted a bit as she slowly made her way off the bed and towards it. As she got closer to the edge, Lisa could tell it was some kind of handgun. The barrel was boxy, but she knew the silhouette. The voice did to. [Wait, is that a Kenshin? The hell?! Where am I?] Lisas naked feet met the cold, textured plastic of the floor as she made her way over. Her metal hand still cooling her boiling hot neck. The crawler must have heard something, because he soon looked up and in her direction. He babbled something in japanese, but Lisa didn’t care. She was fully focused on the iron. As she took it with her left hand and felt its weight in her hand she felt... grounded. As if she finally had some measure of control.

[Okay. let’s see. Thats a tech weapon right? So it can charge? Maybe test it...] Ye...ah. That sounded like a good idea. She looked over to the man. He was half crouched on his knees, his left hand hovering close to the floor for balance. He was looking in her direction, but Lisa couldn’t actually see any details on his face. Just the outline and, sometimes, his mouth when it moved. Taking a second to look at him, shirtless, she was overcome with overwhelming disgust. She pointed the Kenshin, her Kenshin, at him. Arm straight, elbow locked, she pulled the trigger halfway. A quiet humming quickly turned into a nest of loud angry bees as the pistol charged. The man flinched. He tried to raise his hands and started to scream.

Lisas arm shook from the recoil, but she stayed on target. The gun rapidly discharged a volley of lead, ripping into the shirtless gonk. The charged projectiles did significant damage to his unarmoured flesh. In her wireframe world, Lisa could see his right shoulder separating from his torso and half of his head simply vanishing. [Hoh... cooool...] She found the voice funny. It sounded so innocent and excited. Let...s g..o. The voice took a moment to answer. [Yes, let’s.] She made her way to the door

She took her metal hand from her neck and slowly pushed the doorknob, keeping her Kenshin in her left hand. No light entered through the crack, the outside was also pitch black. Poking her head out, she saw what looked like a living room. A couch against the left wall, a kitchen to the right, a table with some bottles in the middle. There was even someone standing behind the table, gun drawn and aimed her way. He fired. Faster then Lisa could have ever reacted, her body jerked forward into the room. She fell into a forward roll, ending up crouched, aimed and fired three shots without charging. Slowly she saw the silhouette sliding down the wall. She could hear some muted shouting from somewhere. Wh..at just h...appe...nd ? Her thoughts were still painfully slow. Lisa hissed as her neck was on fire again. [Fuck, hot! Okay, shit, is that how it works?] Ho..w what ...wor..ks? [Okay, so, somehow we are both using this body? But when I move us our neck grows hot. I also don’t ‘just’ move us, but... I can’t really explain... Just now, everything was in slow motion?] You... sa..ved me. The voice took a while. [Ok weird thing to focus on, but yeah, its me getting shot at, too.]

The shouting grew louder. Lisa stood up from her crouch. Now standing she could see it really was some kind of living room. From the door she came out from there was a short hallway to the right, with what she assumed would be the door to this apartment. Suddenly that door flew open. Lisa could still only see wireframes, her eyes making no difference between complete blackness and blinding light, but the woman entering clearly had some sort of flashlight in hand. She froze in the doorway. “What, how did you..”. Lisa didn’t let her finish. Point, charge, release. The woman staggered back with a chocked scream as bullets now riddled her chest. This was so ... easy. More surprised noises from the hallway. [Ammo! How much ammo does this thing have? And can we loot more?] Ye..ah. Before more people could rush her, she stumbled her way to her second kill near the wall and quickly pat down his pockets. She found two full mags. [Shit, we don’t have pockets. Do these fit?] It..s all j...ust ha..han..dgun... amm...o. [Okay, ditch the current mag, slot a new one and hold onto the other.] Lisa fumbled a bit as she did just so. The half spent magazine clattered to the ground. Something shuffled behind her. Glancing over her shoulder she could see someone slowly making their way into the room with a flashlight, although they seemed focused on the door to... her... room.

She felt disgusting. The room she had woken up in. She felt like she had been trapped there for centuries. Her room. It made her feel dirty, helpless. Her heart started racing and a high pitched ringing filled her ears. No, never fear again! Hate. Hate. Burning rage, nothing else mattered, but seeing everything burn. Her mind not her own, her body moved by itself. Point, charge, release. She couldn’t see any gore with her vision, but she saw his head vanish and his body flopping out of the hallway into the living room. [Nothing will remain. EVERYTHING WILL BURN!!!] Pure hate pulsed through her veins. She got up in one smooth motion. Her ears were still ringing but her vision was clear. Keeping her breathing shallow she watched as she slowly made her way toward the apartment door, gun raised and ready. It was still open. She peeked out and saw a long hallway that continued for what looked like 20 meters and an offshoot only a few paces away. Doors lined the hallway in regular intervals, leading to probably more apartments. Her apartment was in a dead end. Maybe she was in the basement of a building and she was in one or the corners? Then the hallway would probably go once around the whole building and have a bunch of apartments lining the outside. Quietly she made her way forward and peeked around the corner. The hallway did run just as she... just as he thought. After 20 meters there was another junction just like the one he was at right now. There was also a four way junction about halfway down the corridor.

Always making sure to check over his shoulder, he quietly made his way to the junction. He didn’t bother to check any doors. If the complete darkness and gunshots hadn’t sent the inhabitants scurrying to the outside then he didn’t care. He didn’t know how much ammo he had left in his mag, but it would probably be enough for three more bursts. At least, that’s how he remembered it from the game. And his new memories confirmed it. [Fuck, my head.] He winced as the throbbing returned, not crippling, but almost debilitating. [Shit, no time to loiter! Burn everything and leave!] He soldiered on, returning to his rage. With the ringing in his ears calming down, he could hear shouts. Japanese voices mixed with regular english. He could hear confusion, panic and one voice that seemed to be in control.

“Shit! Hey, were did the lights go? Why’s the power out!”, “I don’t know! I am practically blind! Were are the flashlights?”, “(Calm down! Shit, I heard a shotgun from above! Someone’s attacking us. Get your shit together and group up at the staircase!)”, He didn’t want to think about why he could understand japanese, lest he get another headache. He snuck towards the junction. To his left he could see a staircase that lead to nothing. Someone had put in a ceiling, sealing the stairs. To the right there was a sort of atrium. Shadows were moving in between overturned tables, building barricades and distributing flashlights and weapons. There were a few concrete support beams sprinkled all around in regular intervals. He saw a figure standing a bit off to the side with a drawn katana. He had to hold in a chuckle. Running around in a cyberpunk world with a subpar bladed weapon was just so stupid. This felt almost just like the game. There was also a makeshift staircase in the middle of the room. [Thats probably the exit from this hellhole, with how it’s a nicely defendable choke point and all.]

Regardless, he counted 12 shadows in the room. He would need to keep them distracted, have them focus on something else, or simply confused, if he wanted to take them on and get through. Lucky him there was somebody crouching behind a flipped table, checking some sort of box. His back was open. [Time to thin the herd.] Slowly he gleefully snuck up on the oblivious gonk. Only when he was right behind him did he debate how to take him down. He settled on the method that would keep his hands free. He rose a bit from his crouch and readied his chrome arm, magazine still in hand. Elbows made very powerful weapons. Unlike a fist that required one to stabilize the whole arm, hitting something with an elbow offered a more reliable impact in this scenario. There were simply less moving parts to an elbow strike, even if slamming ones fist into the side of a head could potentially deal more damage. The unsuspecting gonk was still crouched over his box behind the table, rummaging, with a flashlight in his mouth. 

Slowly he wound up his hips and shoulders. With a meat arm, an elbow strike carried the risk of injuring oneself, but with a full metal arm he wasn’t worried. Gripping the floor with his bare feet, he violently turned his hips, before transferring the rotational energy into his shoulders and cracked the idiots temple. He went out like a light and the shuffling and shouting, combined with the gun noises from upstairs, perfectly masked any sound of the collapsing body. Everybody was still focused on the makeshift stairway in the middle of the atrium. [Ha! One down, 11 to go. Oh damn, jackpot!] The idiot had been rummaging in a box full of grenades. Taking stock, he saw some that were oval and heavy, some that had weird bulbs on the top and a multitude of other shapes and sizes. [Okay, this is unusable.] Throwing an unknown type of grenade in an enclosed space? Probably pretty effective, but also dangerous as fuck. He had never actually handled grenades before, so he wanted to play it safe. Luckily, he found a type of grenade that he recognized.

A sleek cylinder covered in holes. A flashbang. He grinned. This would be doubly effective in the dark and wouldn’t even hinder him with how he had configured his eyes. After a quick search he found four flashbangs. Setting down the spare mag in his right hand he placed the grenades side by side. He took one and held the pin with his teeth, then he quickly pulled the pin on another. Tossing it over the table he grabbed his spare mag and started taking out targets. A group of four people was standing to his left behind another flipped table. He charged his Kenshin and released. Two gonks went down, one stumbled and held his shoulder. The forth backed away in surprise. Two more shots and all four were down. People turned around, drawn by the sound of shots being fired. The flashbang he had tossed went off. Screams of surprise erupted throughout the atrium. To his right a group of three was covering their eyes, stumbling in different directions. He turned and fired until his gun clicked empty. Three more down.

He went back into cover. With a click the spent magazine fell free and he slotted the new one. Picking up another flashbang he pulled the pin, but kept it in his chrome hand this time. Then he sprinted out of cover over to the now dead group of three. Darting across the room, he kept his iron trained on the last group of enemies. Three people with guns and the idiot with a sword. He stepped behind another table and aimed. The hand holding the flashbang held up in defence. Drawing sharp breaths through his clenched teeth, past the grenade in his mouth, he fired into the group. They had just recovered a bit of their sight, when they came under fire. The single shots drew their attention and the three that weren’t hit dove for the nearest cover. He started charging his Kenshin. The momentary pause in fire caused the two gunners to peak out of cover, just in time for the flashbang in his right hand to go off. Blinded once again, they recoiled back. The makeshift barriers did little to stop the charged burst of lead from his Kenshin. Both were peppered with bullets through their cover. [That’s 11 down. Were’s Sword?]

A quick movement was caught in his peripheral vision. Someone had darted behind some cover to his right. Quickly getting up and backpedalling to his starting point, he trained his eyes on the agile woman quickly sprinting towards him. “(DIE!)” Charging at him with her Katana screaming murder in japanese, ready to strike him down, he quickly charged his handgun and when he released the womans legs were shredded. With a scream she stumbled and crashed two steps in front of him, her Katana clattering to the ground as she lost her grip. Her screams continued as he took the flashbang from his mouth and pulled the pin. “(Fucking doll! How dare you! You will die for thi..)” She didn’t get to finish her sentence, as the flashbang went of right in her face. Her screaming resumed.

With no more ammo he quickly started scrounging around, leaving the Katanaless woman rolling around on the floor shrieking. She would make for a good dramatic entrance to the next floor. Some psychological warfare would raise his chances to escape. He couldn’t help but grin like crazy. [Oh, this will be so much fun!] Quickly running across the room he scrounged for some handgun ammo.

Having found a new magazine he stuffed the last flashbang into his mouth and made his way back to Miss Legless. Her screams had tapered off as her vision recovered and were now more of a whimper. He couldn’t see any blood in his wireframe vision, but he assumed she was bleeding pretty badly. “(Fuck you, doll! You’ll never get away. Nobody gets away!)” The commotion and gunshots upstairs had stopped a while ago. Perhaps the intruders had finished everything off, or the psych warfare was working. With every step of his bare feet her voice faded a bit. She was lying on her back. “(You hear?! Nobody ever survives! Nobod..)” Her voice cracked as he entered her vision, gun in hand. Crouching down he took a long look at her. He couldn’t actually see her face, but her breathing quickened anyway, as he assumed they had met eyes. His sadistic glee at her panic was quickly overtaken by cold hatred. [Now, you cower! NOW, you fear! You will BURN! Burn just like everything!] His metal hand took her neck into a vice grip.

Slowly he dragged her across the floor. Her hands were trying desperately to find purchase. She was heavy, he couldn’t actually lift her. Staying in a crouch, he took one step at a time and dragged her along over the ground. Every time he lugged her further his grip would tighten, every time he prepared for the next pull she sputtered and gasped for breath. When he got to the stairs he was already breathing heavily. It was a single line of steep stairs with no bends. [Fuck, maybe not the best idea ever] Slowly he dragged the woman up to the next level.

#-----------------------------------

The infiltration had not gone well. After Barbara had cut the power they had quickly made their way to the stairs. Jackie had to stay as overwatch, since he couldn’t see in complete darkness. Quietly hurrying behind his former colleague, they made their way downstairs. Turning around the bend in the staircase, they immediately came face to face with a Tyger Claw goon. He was stumbling a bit and was fumbling with a flashlight. He was probably supposed to stand guard at the bottom. Barbaras gun clicked twice and the goon went down. Loudly. It wasn’t a clean kill.

Already people were alerted, someone screaming ‘Intruders’ in japanese. Some more screams of confusion could be heard, but Barbara was already making her way further down. Only to stop dead in her tracks. Somebody had blocked of the stairs. Barbara cursed. (Fuck, fine. Time for loud and quick.) She holstered her Nue and went for her Tacticion. A door opened in the hallway to their left, another Tyger with an assault rifle with a flashlight attachment. Before he could make it fully out of the door, Barbaras shotgun boomed and the gonk was sent flying as he ate the pellets. No, slugs. She’s using slugs. And that thing is probably custom. Fuck, she could shred borgs with no difficulty. Suddenly, V was sad that he had gone for the SMG.

Turning his back to her, he checked the other two hallways. With quick, practiced moves, he switched from his revolver to the smart weapon. Barbara was moving down the left hallway and V followed, weapon at the ready. When she came to the door where the goon had come from she threw in a quick glance only to back away when a spread of bullets came her way. Waiting next to the door and pushing a new round into her shotgun to top it off, she waited until the bullet storm abated. Once the shooter went back into cover she stormed into the door. V didn’t follow, trusting her to clear the room on her own, while he kept overwatch. From the door he heard Barbaras Tactician booming, followed by breaking concrete and panicked shouting. V smirked. Barb had probably just nailed a gonk through a wall. (Clear, two down.), her voice came through their comms. While waiting for her to return and guard his back, V saw someone peaking around out from the path straight across from the stairs. Obviously the gonk didn’t have good optics, because before his flashlight even fell upon V, a burst of micromissles were already turning the corner to greet him. Arcing a smart weapon around corners never failed to be fun.

(V, double back. Check straight across from the stairs.) Barbara tapped his back as she came up behind him. (Roger.) V moved quickly and with purpose up to the corner. There hadn’t been any movement further down the hallway, but that didn’t mean nobody was there. Somebody could always pop out of a door. Slowing down at the corner, V moved away from the wall so his SMG had a clear line of fire while he peaked. A few flashlights were already illuminating the hallway, but he hadn’t stepped into any of the cones of light yet. His smart weapon did most of the targeting job. Even with the flashlights partially blinding him, his sights had already identified three targets. He pressed the trigger, releasing a storm of whistling projectiles and jumped back to break line of sight just in time for a hailstorm of bullets to come his way. He could hear some shouting over the deafening roar of automatic weapons and the bullet storm ended.

Right then Barbara charged out and without stopping sent a slug downrange before hiding behind on the other side of the corridor. A little return fire buried itself into the concrete she was hiding behind, but the surprised pained scream meant, she had hit something.

“(Fuck, Hiromi’s hit!)”, “(Shit! His arm’s gone!)”, “(Where’s the medkit?!)” Something else caught their attention though, as V could hear a grenade go off, probably a flashbang. “(What the hell?! What’s going on downstairs! Arami, go and check!)” V glanced at Barbara. She was getting restless. Downstairs was where she thought her daughter was. “(Shit, boss there’s more from behind!)” Gunshots rang out from across the room, distracted the Tyger Claws and Barbara charged. V cursed and ran after her. Her shotgun barked twice before she took cover behind one of the support beams to the left in the large open room. V ran up behind and past her and took cover at a stack of crates, aiming his SMG into the large room searching for targets and quickly finding them. To their right, three Tyger Claws were hiding behind some flipped tables on the other side of the room, unsure of who to focus first, them or the unknown third party that had apparently come up behind them. V fired and a volley of metal whistled through the air and hit flesh.

Barbara was peaking out towards their left, finding a target and fired. V flinched. That tactician was deafening up close, he felt like his ears popped out of his head. He didn’t know how Barbara could stand firing that beast, the recoil should be a bitch to handle. Suddenly he felt better about the SMG. (Sandi!) Barbaras voice came over the voice call, loud and clear even though V’s ears were ringing. Barbara fired again, straight into a concrete pillar, ripping it apart, the cement and steel crumbling like wet tissue paper. Ok, maybe the ringing ears are worth it. V didn’t quite know how to feel. (Sandi got away, backed out into the back hallway. V, keep him pinned!) On the other side of the atrium was another corridor, similar to the one they had come from. V trained his Dian down range. If the Sandi returned, the smart weapon would be a significant threat, even if V couldn’t follow him with his eyes.

Thats when he heard a scream from downstairs, followed by another flashbang, that spilled blinding light out of the staircase leading down in the middle of the room. The scream from downstairs intensified while the standoff with the unknowns continued. (Barb, check our 6, they could circle.) Barbara went from scanning the room for more targets to watching their exit. The scream from downstairs had turned into incoherent cursing, that soon cut out in a way that sent shivers down V spine. Absolute silence overtook the room. His heart was beating hard in his chest and even though his ears were still ringing from Barbaras Tacticion, V strained for any sounds in their surroundings, until he heard something being dragged. V and Barb kept still as laboured grunts and desperate gasps mixed. Slowly inching her way up the stairs was a girl. With his optics set for low light conditions he could clearly see her coming up step by step dragging something heavy along. Coming to rest on the last step she lifted a woman onto the floor by her neck. (...Lisa...?) Barb sounded unsure. The gleaming chrome arm definitely matched the picture she had shown him, but her bearing sent shivers down his spine. Shivers he had felt only once when he had a surprise encounter with a cyberpsycho.

The girl took a moment to steady her breathing and with a jerk lifted the woman and slammed her back into the ground. V still couldn’t see her face, her straight black hair concealing her features. She lifted the woman again, then slammed her down. The woman had stopped trying to remove the chrome hand clamped around her neck and was only clutching the girls wrist weakly. She lifted the woman, then slammed her down. The woman gasped and coughed, only half conscious, as the girl released her metal reinforced death grip. She took something from her mouth with her now free hand and stood up from her half crouch. The sputtering continued for a moment, as the girl loomed over her. “(Re-Red eyed demon ...!)”

The girl simply huffed, then started to chuckle. V recognized the model of handgun she was suddenly holding, before the angry whirring of the Kenshin made the head of the Tyger Claw disappear. Breaking out into deranged laughter, the teenager threw her head back, and V could finally get a look at her side profile, only to focus on the red glow coming from the eye he could see. Piercing and merciless, a gaze that burns down everything in its sight, insane laughter tugging at her lips as her shoulders shook. She had V’s full attention. Nobody ignored Cyberpsychos.

“Lisa!”, Barbara had left her cover standing in the open. In an instant the psychos head snapped towards her. As if time had slowed down, V saw her as she went into a crouch and aligned the sights of her Kenshin with Barbara. V was just about to drag her down onto the ground when the psycho buckled and shrieked in pain. V once again trained his SMG towards her, but didn’t lock her as a target yet. If she really was Lisa, then ... well, V didn’t really know what to do then. Through his sights he saw her buckle down and dry heave, her metal hand dropping something before shakily grasping at her neck. Quickhacked, Overheat. V had seen countless gonks taken to their knees with the same symptoms. (Netrunner!)

“LISA!”. Barbara nearly tossed her Tactician as she started towards the psycho, but the sights of his SMG caught movement to fast for the human eye. The Sandi was back and in a single moment he was suddenly above Lisas prone form holding a gun to her head. On reflex, V pressed the trigger. A barrage of tracking bullets whizzed toward the Sandi, but before they could hit, he darted out of the way and vanished once again. Thats when the thing the psycho had dropped exploded in blinding light.

V cursed as the flashbang took his vision and grabbed around blindly to pull Barbara down towards his cover. The sound of a Kenshin charging and firing echoed through the room, followed by staggered shuffling of bare feet. Once again, he could hear the Kenshin charging and V held Barbara close to himself as he furiously tried to blink the stars out of his eyes. Having recovered enough of his sight, he saw a small shadow dart unsteadily past their cover, vanishing into the corridor they had initially come from. “Lisa, wait!” Barbara jumped up and tried to follow her, but V managed to pull her back behind cover just in time, before charged projectiles pelted the walls and floor.

(Fuck, Barb, don’t get reckless!) (Shut up! That’s my baby!) V blocked a punch from the panicking woman, as Barbaras voice echoed over the call. (Shit. Jackie! Targets coming in hot! Don’t confront her! She’s gone psycho! Move out of the way, well be right there! Barb, focus! She ran towards the exit, let’s cover her retreat and we’ll find out what to do once we’re out of here!) V barked orders over their comms as he stood up, Dian still focusing on the opposite hallway, where the Sandi had vanished towards. Barb was breathing heavily, but checked for clearance before rushing around the corner after her daughter/ psycho.

(She just passed me, Hermanita came up and ran towards the doors.) That was Barbaras cue to start sprinting. V cursed as he backed up as fast as he could, before sending two bursts downrange as a deterrent and sprang after her. Bounding up two steps at once, they quickly returned to the light of day. Jackie was already waiting at the exit of the building for them, keeping an eye on their target through the doors. He shot them a quick glance as they came up the stairs. (She ran out but stopped mid sprint. Girl’s kneeling in the middle of the street) Barbara simply ignored Jackies comment and bulldozed past him through out the exit. “LISA!”

“Fuck!” V ran after her. Bounding out of the doors, he took a moment to take stock of his surroundings. Barbara had taken off her helmet and had stopped a few meters behind the teenager, who had half turned while kneeling, pointing her Kenshin straight at his colleague. Pure instinct drove V to ready his Dian and lock onto the psycho, when he finally got a good look of her face through his scope and paused. The red glow in her eyes was slowly fading into a faint pink, her face was contorted from fear and panic. As V fought with himself to put down the menace that was threatening his teammate, he could see the fear slowly dissolve into recognition. “...Mom...?” The quivering relief in the soft voice made V finally relax his trigger finger. Her arm holding the Kenshin started shacking until it finally fell down at her side, her face dissolving in tears. Barbara rushed up and buried her kid in a hug.

V fully relaxed his stance and let his Dian rest in its shoulder strap. He looked towards the sky, covered by thick clouds heavy with rain, and let out a long breath, releasing the pent up tension he was feeling. He still wasn’t sure if Barbara’s kid, Lisa, had gone full psycho and actually clawed her way back, or if something else happened, but for now it seemed the mission was over. Gig closed.

Jackie came up from behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. “Everything’s fine, I see. Hermanita give you trouble on her way out?” V scoffed. “We didn’t even get to sub 2. She came up on her own in the middle of a gunfight acting all psycho and scaring the hell out of me.” Jackie whistled. “So, girl rescued herself, then?” V shrugged his shoulders. “Dunno.”

(Hey you lugs, stop standing around uselessly! We still have that netrunner on the loose. Wells, give me your jacket, my kid’s practically naked.) Jackie chuckled. “Aaaand she’s back. Well V, I better bring a blanket to cover the princess. Keep your eyes peeled, choom.” They smiled, and Jackie went over to the mother and daughter, shrugging of his XXL jacket on the way. Barbara was still snuggling Lisa in a bearhug, having hoisted her into her lap and resting her head in the teenagers hair. She glanced in his direction and V quickly looked away, back towards the building they had rescued the little red eyed devil from. Gripping his SMG tightly once again, he thought back to the encounter they had with that mysterious third party. He had only gotten a glance of the Sandi user before he had vanished again, but he seemed familiar.

Thinking long and hard were he had seen the silhouette jostled some of his... newer... memories before it hit him like a ton of bricks. He used his Sandi like 5 times and had a netrunner as backup. Fuck, did I just have a run in with David and Lucy?!

#-----------------

Corrections/ edits:

so he through his choom under the bus. -> so he threw his choom

showing camera view of the upper levels and with David running overwatch. -> showing camera views of the upper levels and David running overwatch.

 he was suddenly above her prone form holding a gun -> he was suddenly above Lisas prone form holding a gun