When I first woke up in the clinic after coming back, I really thought that I would be ready for almost anything. I mean, I've lived through this mess, so it should be a pretty easy time. Right? WRONG! It's still as draining and hard as it was the first time around. Calling Mama Wells again was hard as fuck! The first time, I didn't even realize the amount of pain this woman was going through; I was too wrapped up in my own problems at the time. But now, after living with her for so long, I can tell just by her voice how much pain she's feeling right now. I have a much more clear picture now that the axe of time is not dangling in my head anymore.
So I spent almost all day with her, just sitting and talking. Damn, I wanted to tell her about my life so bad, but she was already going through so much that I just don't think that piling this on her would be a good idea.
The ofrenda was exactly how I remembered it to be; so many people have come from all over the city—the Valentinos, people from other gangs, Viktor, Padre, and so many others. It really just goes to show how loved Jackie was. Listening to the speeches made by people was as heartwarming and sad as it was the first time; even Johnny was paying his respects. He was standing quietly next to Mama Wells with his head down.
Soon I was being nudged by Viktor from my side, and looking around, I realized that it was my turn. Rubbing my face, I took a big sigh and stood up. "When I think of Jackie, I often think back to the day we met for the first time. Jackie and i… we were both from vastly different worlds. He was a good-hearted merc who jumped in defense of a scared little corpo rat who didn't know how to keep her mouth shut. I was the corpo rat who was about to get her ass kicked because I had no idea how to behave in the streets." That got a few chuckles from people who knew me, but some surprised looks from people who'd just heard of me. My ex-corpo status is not widely known, to be honest, so I shrugged and just continued. "I don't know what happened when he decided to step in that day. Maybe he took pity on me, or maybe he mistook me for someone else, but all I know is that that was the day I met my brother. I still remember the day my life changed completely. The day I lost everything in just an hour. I really thought my life was completely over, but there was Jackie again. He saved me again." I said with a watery chuckle, It's true. If it weren't for him, then I'm damn sure that I wouldn't have survived more than a few months. "He invited me into his home, all because he had a good feeling about me, taught me how to survive in this world, and most importantly, he gave me a family. Something that I never had." I finished looking at Mama, Victor, and Misty. The only three people I could truly count on, no matter how bad things get, And all of this because of one person, "Jackie Wells, one of the most kind-hearted and fair-hearted people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. My brother."
Taking the book out, I looked at it for a second, shaking my head with fondness. I turned towards the table and recited, "If we win here, we will win everywhere. The world is a fine place and worth fighting for. I agree with the second part, and that's what I'm going to do for you. Rest easy, choom."
Jackie was right—Hemingway was a tough bastard. Shaking my head, I turned around just to hear Mama Wells pick up a glass and say, "I would like to say a toast." Nodding, I took a glass too and said, "Here's to my son." and with a final nod to the frame, I knocked it back and quietly stood beside Johnny, observing others.
After talking to a few people, Mama Wells walked towards me and said, "Thank you for your kind words. V, a lot of people came today. Even that Putita Jackie was messing around with." Hearing that, my immediate reaction was to jump to Misty's defense, but that would be such an asshole move right now. (looking at you past V) "Mama, you once trusted me and invited me into your home. Please trust me just one more time, and invite Misty too." I said, pointing to the girl who was standing in the corner of the bar, looking uncomfortable and sad, "She was very important to Jack. In his last moments, you and Misty were the only two people Jackie talked about."
After looking at me for a few moments, she just shook her head and said, "You know what? You're a good woman, V. Jackie would want you to have this." and she presented me with the key to Jackie's arch.
"Are you sure?" I asked, despite every fiber of being just screaming at me, to grab the key!
"Like you said, he was your brother V."
"I'll take such good care of it." I whispered as I took the key and pocketed it.
"I know Mija." And with that, she turned around and walked towards Misty, who looked at Mama in surprise. Smiling, I turned around and began mingling with the people who showed up. No matter who I talked to, everyone had something nice to say about Jack. It was not often that you saw so many people from so many different professions and lives come together. Thinking about this, I walked towards the bar and gestured to Pepe for a drink, preferably something strong.
"This place won't be the same without him." I said that taking a sip of the drink was strong, but not my kind of drink.
"I know what you mean," he said, pouring one for himself as well. "It feels like I'll just turn around and find him sitting in his usual spot. Asking for another drink."
After finishing my drink, I looked around one last time and simply walked out of the bar. Looking at the key to the arch, I thought about calling it, but I was not in the mood, so I just pocketed it and called my vigilante.
After sitting in it, I just slammed on the gas and started driving aimlessly. It wasn't long before Johnny appeared in the passenger seat. 'You know, the first time I was here with you, I thought you all were being too pretentious.' Blinking, I just digested the words for a second before looking at him with an offended look, which he just waved off before saying. 'I mean, no one is that nice! Especially in NightCity. But after spending a few days with him in the afterlife, I agree with you all,' he said with a slow drawl. 'He was one of those rare people who inspires others to actually pick up the gun for the good of people. the kind of guy kids look up to.' Nodding my head in agreement, I said, 'That was Jackie. The best guy this city could've asked for.'
'Well, take comfort in the knowledge that you'll meet him again.' That's a good point. At least I can take solace in that knowledge. 'Anyways, what are you planning to do now?' he asked, pulling me out of my thoughts. It was a good question: do I just want to relax? Nah, I have too much energy for that. So what kind of jobs do I want to do? I can always find something to do in Heywood. But before that, I should give Hands a call; last time, it took him a few days before he got back to me.
Slowing down the car a bit, I rang him on the hollo and waited for a few seconds before he picked up. "Hey hands," I said before dodging some mox' shooting tyger claws. Shaking my head at the absurdity, I just stopped my car at the side of the road and paid attention to Hands.
"If it isn't V, how can I help you?"
"I need to make contact with the voodoo boys."
"Ahh, straight to heavy biz," he said with an approving nod, or at least that's what it looked like from his hands and arms. I mean, that's the only thing that's visible. "Now voodoo boys, led by one mama Brigide. I won't lie, V; it'll be tough."
Shaking my head in mock disappointment, I just said, "Eh, I didn't think you could swing that anyway."
"V! Reverse psychology on me?" He replied in a surprised but amused tone.
"So?"
"I'll ask around, but in return, how about you tell me what this is about?"
Sighing, I just shrugged and said, "I have something that they want." to which he just gave a small, startled laugh and said, "I'm sorry, my dear, but it doesn't matter what you might have; they don't need it."
"It doesn't matter; just get me a meeting."
"Alright, I'll ask around." and with that, he ended the call; now it's a wait game. If memory serves me right, then Rouge will also need a day or two, too. I should tackle that little problem today if possible.
'Now I'll need to wait at least two days; in the meantime, how about we go and see Rouge?' I asked Johnny, to which he just shrugged his shoulders and said, 'It's your show, V. Direct it however you like.' before lighting a cigarette. Nodding my head, I turned my car towards the afterlife, parking the car beside Rouge's. I got out and looked around for a second before walking into the bar.
"Hey," I said to Emmeric, who was standing at the door, looking at me for a second. He just nodded and gestured me in with a quick "go in."
Walking in, I started making a beeline towards Rouge when I was called over by Claire. "Hey V! Can I get you something?" she asked, pointing to the chair at the bar. Thinking about it for a second, I nodded and took a seat.
"Hey, Claire, a choom of mine earned a spot here." I pointed it out to her and saw that she had this sad and contemplative look. "The guy with the bun?" she asked.
Nodding, I said, "Jackie Wells. Remember his recipe?"
"Shot of vodka on the rocks, lime juice, ginger beer," "ooh, and most importantly, a splash of love." She said it with a slight smile, remembering the recipe.
"That's right," I replied with a smile of my own.
"How about the first Jackie Wells? On me."
"Thanks clair." I said with a nod and watched her make a Jackie Wells. It was just how I remember it being (I don't drink, so I have absolutely no idea how it would taste). After finishing the drink, I nodded her and, with a thanks, started moving towards Rouge's cubical when a thought came to my mind. I turned back and asked Claire, "Can you do me a favor?"
"Yeah?" she asked with furrowed brows, leaning on the counter.
"Can you bring me a Johnny Silverhand there? In around a minute and a half." I asked with a mischievous smile.
After looking at me with confusion for a second, she just nodded and said, "Sure."
Waving at her, I walked towards the cubicle and heard a very familiar voice shouting at Rouge. Shaking my head with fondness, I just waited for her to finish and watched Rouge rile her up more. It was more funny than I remember it being.
'Why were you into this chick again?' Johnny asked, appearing beside me. Looking at his face, I could see that he's looking at Panam with a look of disappointment and, dare I say, disgust.
With amusement, I just said, 'Don't be like that, Johnny; the past is in the past. As far as I'm concerned, she's not the one who turned her back on me. and for good reason, may I add.'
'But she will,' he said before disappearing and appearing beside Rouge in the cubicle.
"Not if I have anything to say about it." I murmured under my breath as I watched Panam storm out of the cubicle. "Be careful who you bargain with" was the only thing she threw behind her before disappearing.
"Oh, I will." I said, shaking my head as I walked up to the muscle standing in front of the cubical. Waving at Rouge, I shouted, "Rouge! Can we talk for a second?"
She looked at me for a quick second before waving her head and saying, "It's fine, let her in," and watched me with close eyes as I made my way into the cubicle. "Hmm, not here, not there. Who are you?" she asked with a tilted head.
"Name's V" I said with confidence and grace that I didn't have it the first time we met. That day, I was desperate and in a hurry to find an answer to my predicament. But now that I know the story and the players, I'm more confident than ever. So it was with this confidence that I sat down and relaxed on the couch.
Looking at me with amusement and curiosity, she asked, "And what is it you want, V?"
"Need your services; I gotta track down a guy, Anders Hellman, a hot-shot engineer who worked for Arasaka."
"One millisec." She held up a finger at me and contacted someone. My money is on Nix. "Anders Hellman, pinpoint him for me."
I just nodded and murmured a quick "Hmm, thanks." before looking at Claire, and it looks like she was preparing my drink. Good.
"Jumping too soon there, first my help's got a prize, second and third, Dexter Deshawn, Jackie Wells, T-Bug." She counted with a very minute sadistic glee on her face, so much so that if you didn't know her, then you would for sure miss it. But with the time I've spent with her and Johnny's memories, I could tell that bitch was enjoying this. "Multiple bells ringing V. left a lot of bodies behind; death walks in your wake; chalk it up to bad luck?" Like Johnny said before, there's the bitch I know.
Nodding my head in acknowledgement, I said, "Huh, no, no, you're right," with a small humorless laugh, before leaning back and looking at her with amusement. "But you know I remember the day that old arasaka tower was nuked; if memory serves me right, which I'd like to think it does by the way, then you were there. But there were others too, right? Murphy, Shaitan, and... What was that guy's name?" I asked, snapping my fingers, when Claire slid a glass in front of me on the table with a "Your Johnny Silverhand V.".
"That's right! Johnny Silverhand." I announced it with barely disguised glee and amusement. Which was amplified by the amount of hate and anger I could see on Rouge's face. Ignoring her, I just turned to Claire and, with a nod, said a quick "thanks, Claire!" who just looked at the entire scene with raised eyebrows before turning back without a word.
Smiling, I just shrugged and turned back to Rogue, who was trying very hard to not lose her cool here. Taking a sip of the drink, I began, "He was zeroed inside the Arasaka Tower, right in front of your eyes, and Shaitan was flatlined in the helicopter, also right in front of your eyes." As I said this, I saw Johnny sitting there, watching the entire scene with astonishment. After getting over his shock, he just nodded his head in approval and disappeared. I thought about stretching this a bit more, but I think this is enough. If her expressions are anything to go by, then I should back off now. "I got more if you want, or we could just talk?"
"You got nads on you, girl. I don't like them on everyone, but they seem to suit you," she said with an air of nonchalance before leaning forward. "Anyways... feeling be damned, I've always said." haah! sure. "This is pure biz, you need my help, so get those eddies ready."
Smiling at the admirable job that she was doing of looking closed off, I just nodded and asked. "Hmm, and how much does your help cost?"
"20,000"
"Damn! I really touched a nerve, didn't I?" I asked with a startled laugh before transferring her the money, "But that's fine. Here."
The moment money was received, she just turned away from me and waved me off with a "Give me some time," which was rude.
Nodding, I just finished my drink with a "I really love a Johnny Silverhand." and walked out without looking behind.
'You really had to do that?' was the first thing Johnny said after we walked out, laughing. I looked at his face and saw an exasperated but amused expression on his face.
Smiling, I just shook my head and said, 'Nah, but I really wanted to do that.'
'Now what?' he asked, looking around. And to be fair, that is actually a good question. Now what?
Calling my car, I just decided to go to one of the job listings by padre. Last time, I didn't do many jobs except for hands, muamar, and padre. But they too were too little; I mean, I didn't really have time to actually go around and stop a bunch of cyberpsychos. I was too busy saving my life to even consider that.
But this time, this time i have… well time…
Shaking my head, I just dropped a gear and looked for a parking spot somewhere when I got a call from Padre. "V this time, I need you to restore the natural balance of the city. A valentino dropped a cop, and it has gone unpunished." straight to heavy business, alright.
Nodding, I just asked, "And now you want me to be his reaper?" Surveying the area, I could see that the place was crawling with valentinos. But if I play this right, then I don't think they'll be a problem, to be fair.
"Hmm, and if you can find out how Jose Luis escaped his predicament, then you will have my gratitude." that I can do, too, actually. As far as gigs go, this was a pretty easy one.
Sighing, I readied myself and ended the call with a "Consider it done."
Taking my guns out, I slowly strolled toward the side of a building that'd give me a pretty good vantage point of the entire area. Once I was on top of the building, I just walked towards the edge and crouched down, looking for opportunities. And I found many. Hacking the cameras, I could see everything and now had a pretty good idea where my target was and what kind of security this place had, but what really boggled my mind was a militech truck just sitting in the garage. "What the fuck?" I murmured out loud.
'Can you spot the two things that don't match?' Johnny tossed in his two thoughts, appearing beside me.
"Militech," I said, looking at the other burned and destroyed Militech truck.
'And valentinos' he pointed out, which I figured out too, so I just flipped him the bird, which of course he ignored and plowed through. 'They are not even in the same league, so this truck being here is out of the question.'
Nodding in agreement, I thought about Padre's second request and asked, 'You think Miltech is covering for this guy?'
'Possibly.' was the only thing he said before shrugging and saying. 'But we don't have the full picture yet; how about we find this guy first?'
Nodding, I got ready and started taking out people by hacking them. It was fairly easy, with a simple stacked short circuit and overheating hack. Within a minute, I took out a good chunk of the goons before they detected my location. "Time to get my hands dirty, I guess."
There weren't a lot of them left, so it was fairly easy getting to Joe, especially when these guys don't even think before rushing into a room without checking for any potential threats. The only advantage they had on their side was their number and the fact that we were on their home turf, but of course these fuckers can't even find my location, and I'm actively hacking all of these people!!
Climbing the stairs, I came to a stop in front of the door between me and Jose. With a single ping, I could see that he had his gun trained on the door, but the guy was also shaking in fear. Opening the door just a little bit, I took out a grenade and cooked it a bit before throwing it in. It didn't even hit the ground before it exploded, heavily injuring Jose.
Whistling a merry tune, I threw open the door and saw Jose trying to reach for his gun. I could see that it was already broken, so I just leaned against the wall and let him crawl. I almost felt bad for him when he picked up his gun and turned it toward me. Scared and injured, his hands were shaking very badly. But the cherry on top was when he pulled the trigger, and instead of firing, the gun just exploded in his hand, blowing up his arm to the elbow.
Screaming, he again fell back on the ground. Shaking my head, I just leveled my gun and ended his misery. There is no point in torturing the guy anymore. I mean, as far as I know, he just killed a cop, and they are not exactly known for their upstanding moral values, so...
Shrugging my shoulders, I turned towards the cracked monitor on the desk. On the screen was a- 'Is that an Arasaka screen saver?' Johnny asked before I could even formulate my thoughts properly.
Sighing, I nodded my head. 'Yeah. I used to have one just like this.' Looking at it, I remembered how I used to feel proud of it. Now I feel nothing but contempt for it. Sighing, I turned to a laptop before hearing, 'I sometimes forget that you were a corpo cunt too.' from the resident rockerboy. Sometimes he really gets on my nerves.
Ignoring him, I opened the laptop and started snooping through files and mail. It wasn't long before we found the answer to the question as to how Jose dodged jail.
'Not what I expected.' I murmured with a look of shock. Looking at Johnny, I could see that he had a contemplative look on his face too. Taking a quick picture of the mail on the monitor, I stood back up before jumping out of the window. Dashing mid-fall, I safely landed and started making my way towards the car.
Once inside my car, I started making my way towards home. After a few minutes, I dialed padre, "It's done," I said the moment he picked up the call.
"Excellent, V, and did you find who covered up this entire thing?"
Taking a big sigh, I nodded. "Yeah, Arasaka." Looking at his expressions, I could see that he didn't believe what I had just said. or more like he didn't want to believe it.
"Arasaka? You're telling me a megacorp is involved in the shooting of some ordinary beat cop?"
"No, Joffrey's death was an accident; Jose was covered for another reason."
"I'm still listening," he said, gesturing to me to go on.
"Jose and his bitches were contracted to attack an Arasaka facility and do it using militech equipment." I said to park the car in the garage of Megabuilding H10. As I got out of the car, I could see that he was still digesting the news.
"Attacking Arasaka on Arasaka's behalf…? Shit… you need to get out of there." He said urgently, looking through something on his own end. Snorting, I just said, I'm already at home, before sobering up and wearily asking, "There's another corp war on the horizon, isn't it?"
Sighing with an exasperated look, he began, "I'm just speculating here, but Jose was not the first; I've heard of other cases. Same MO. This runs deep."
"But why so soon? They are still picking up pieces from the last one."
"There is no bigger smokescreen than a war," the biggest truth of the fucking century. "Maybe they need attention away from something else."
To be fair, it makes a little sense. I know that Yorinobu is going to try and take over Arasaka, but his faction is on shaky ground compared to the idealists and traditionalists.
Agreeing with my line of thought, Johnny nodded and said, 'By starting a war, he could easily make a play for the throne; it would also be pretty easy to get rid of the rest of the Arasakas amidst a war between two megacorps; if this is really the play, then you gotta hand it to him; the guys got balls.'
Entering my apartment, I just crashed on the bed. "Man, this is giving me a headache. What are you going to do about this?" I asked Padre, who looked a bit troubled but just shook his head before saying, "Nothing. Not my board, not my game. Anyway, the eddies are on their way. good job."
Nodding, I quickly said, "Yeah, see you." before ending the call.
'So another corp war? I didn't think I'd see two in a lifetime.' Johny said appearing somewhere around the apartment. Leaning on my elbows, I saw he was sprawled on the couch with a cigarette in his hand.
Lying back, I quietly asked, 'Do you think we should do something?' The only thing I got in response was a sigh before I saw him appear in front of my bed. 'War is inevitable,' he said, leaning against the wall, throwing the cigarette that was in his hand, and seeing as it disappeared into nothing. 'If not between these two, then the one between orbital air and night corp.' Right. If I follow the path just like before, then fucking Myers will start a war between those two.
'So what? I should do nothing.'
'It's not that you should do nothing, but more like you can do nothing.' He said, pointing to me, 'You are just a lonely small-time merc who is contemplating stopping a war between two giant mega corporations. I mean, you worked in Arasaka; do you really think you can stop it?'
Thinking about it for a second, I just shook my head before quietly adding, 'No. If they've made up their minds, then no one can. especially big ones like Miltech and Arasaka.'
Nodding his head, he just walked off before saying, 'It's not that I don't want to do something; it's just that I understand the gravity of the situation.'
After thinking about those words for a few seconds, I realized that Johnny was right. I'm just a solo; I won't be enough, even if I wanted to.
'What a Mess...'