Abernathy had already reached her claws into Arasaka Academy?
That was V's first reaction.
Her second reaction was…
Nice move.
Students at Arasaka Academy were the reserve corps of Arasaka's future workforce. Control the students, and eventually you controlled the entire employee base. Given enough time, every corner of Arasaka would be filled with Abernathy's people.
At that point, she would be truly one step below the throne and above everyone else.
Classic Abernathy—always planning far ahead.
V silently gave her rival a nod of respect.
And memorized the tactic.
Once Abernathy was dead, V could copy the playbook.
The ponytailed woman went straight for the principal's office—confirming all of V's suspicions.
Anyone who could walk straight in to the principal was definitely executing Abernathy's long-term infiltration.
V slipped into an empty room, locked the door, hacked the hallway cam feed, and infiltrated the full monitoring network, easily pulling up a real-time audio stream of the principal's office.
She expected the two to discuss the handover of the Sandevistan.
Instead, to her surprise, they didn't mention it at all.
They were talking about…
disciplinary violations.
Using pirated software that damaged school equipment.
Fighting with classmates.
Breaking school rules.
Code language?
V frowned. None of it made sense.
She was preparing to brute-force decrypt their phrasing when—
Knock knock.
The principal said, "Come in."
A brown-skinned teen with a spiky red mohawk stepped inside. His expression awkward, he greeted the principal first—
—then reluctantly greeted the ponytailed woman.
"Mom."
Fuck.
V cursed internally.
David Martinez.
The protagonist of Edgerunners.
The kid who physically climbed Arasaka Tower with his bare hands and a dream—and died for it.
So this ponytailed woman was his mother, Gloria Martinez.
Her misery… the "storyline" V had forgotten she was walking into.
V's memories as a "player" were fuzzy; many events only resurfaced once she saw them. Now that she saw David and Gloria, the entire Edgerunners timeline slammed back into her head.
Her stomach twisted.
Painful déjà vu.
V closed the feed.
She had no time to babysit a middle school scuffle.
Edgerunners was a great show, each character vivid—
but that was it.
V could pity them,
pull strings for them when free,
maybe intervene out of boredom—
—but right now?
She had her own problems.
She was a corpo dog, not a saint.
She couldn't take bullets for others.
Gloria's storyline could run its course.
But the Sandevistan had to be recovered.
If Lieutenant Norris had been Abernathy's assassin, then his gear would contain the trail V needed.
Moments later, Gloria and David left campus, driving onto the orbital highway.
V hacked an ARCH Nazare off the curb, mounted it, and followed.
How to retrieve the Sandevistan?
She already had a plan.
All she needed was to tail them.
Bored, V hacked into Gloria's car and enabled the interior audio feed.
Gloria lectured while driving:
"Didn't I tell you to go to a proper netrunner shop for upgrades?"
David stared out the window.
"Sorry. Going to a ripperdoc for black-market software was my fault."
"Your impulsiveness means we owe ten times the damages!"
"Sorry…"
"If you want to apologize, maybe try not doing it in the first place!"
"You said you didn't have money! I was trying to save us some cash!" David shouted back.
"That's because payday hasn't arrived yet! We obviously don't have money just sitting around!"
Silence swallowed the car.
A moment later David spoke.
"Mom."
"What?"
"I want to take a break from school. Maybe look for a job."
Gloria froze.
"What did you just say?!"
"We can't pay the compensation!"
Now that he'd started, David's frustration spilled out in a roar:
"I get bullied every day! That academy wasn't built for people like us! We're poor—no matter how hard we work they'll never see us! Even if I get perfect scores I'll never be like them! Don't you get it?!"
The car fell silent again.
V hadn't cared about domestic drama—
but somehow she was listening closely.
Why?
Maybe… resonance.
Mother and son resumed.
"Then what have I been working so hard for?" Gloria's voice trembled despite her attempt to sound strong. "I bust my ass every day so you can have a better life. You're smart… talented… always top of your class. That's why I work so hard to support you. If you stop studying—what am I supposed to do?"
A tear streaked down her cheek.
David was stunned.
His mother had never cried—not once.
"Mom… I…"
He clenched his fist where she couldn't see.
"I shouldn't have said that crap. I'm sorry. Don't cry. I'll keep studying."
Gloria let out a choked laugh.
"Good boy. I know how they treat you—I went through the same. That's why we must show them—prove we can rise just as high!"
She raised a finger, eyes shining with hope.
"My son, David Martinez, is talented. One day he'll be an elite—standing at the top of Arasaka Tower, living a happy life. David… don't give up. I believe in you. You can do it."
David couldn't help laughing.
"You make it sound so easy."
But inwardly:
I'll try. I won't let you down.
Unspoken—but mother and son understood.
V watched quietly.
Moved by their warmth.
And by their fate.
Because she remembered what came next.
And—sure enough—
not long after, David and Gloria were caught in a Maelstrom firefight, resulting in a devastating crash.
Their car flipped.
David trapped but mostly intact.
Gloria thrown clear—unconscious, near death.
All that fragile hope annihilated in an instant.
That was Night City.
That was 2077.
Oh—right.
Still 2076.
V parked roadside, hacked a vending machine, opened a can of beer and leaned against her Nazare.
Bullets, flames, blood, tragedy—
the best drinking snacks Night City had to offer.
David screamed inside the overturned car:
"Mom! MOM! Somebody help! PLEASE!"
V didn't move.
Because—
A Trauma Team AV descended from the sky.
Their scanners were too advanced; she couldn't risk exposure.
Trauma Team rushed Gloria first.
David sighed in relief.
A medic approached him.
"I'm fine! Please—save my mom first!"
But Trauma Team's reply was a knife:
"He is not a client."
"This woman is not a client either."
"Priority: confirm client safety. Leave the others for City Morgue."
They left without hesitation.
"WAIT! Don't go! She's not dead! PLEASE SAVE MY MOM!"
Not strange.
Nothing strange at all.
This was Night City.
People died every day.
Even V—
after her parents died, she'd been thrown out of her Charter Hill home like trash.
She was only eight.
"Welcome to hell, David Martinez."
V raised her cheap canned beer in a toast to a future legend, then downed it.
Trauma Team gone.
Time to work.
David heard an engine roar—
a bike?
No—a car.
A masked woman stepped out.
Terrifying mask or not, David begged:
"Please! My mom—she's dying! Call an ambulance! I'll pay—whatever you want!"
V crouched, reached into Gloria's pocket, and retrieved the Sandevistan. Then turned away.
She'd said it—she had her own business to handle.
No time to play savior.
David shattered.
Fire was spreading.
He screamed, fought the seatbelt, but nothing worked.
Just as he collapsed in despair—
CRASH.
Another vehicle slammed into his overturned car, flipping it upright.
"Ugh!"
Blood blurred David's vision. The crash-car had no driver.
How did it move?
"Don't freeze." V rolled up in the stolen vehicle. "Before I change my mind—get your mom inside."
Hope exploded in David's eyes.
He crawled out desperately, hauled his mother out of the fire.
"Thank you! Please—take us to a hospital!"
V drove them to Viktor's clinic.
Hospitals were unsafe—according to "the plot."
Under Vik's effort, Gloria was pulled back from death.
"She's still unconscious. Could be twenty minutes. Could be twenty years. Her body's in terrible shape; her implants are severely degraded. This is the best I can do."
"Thank you so much, Mr. Viktor! I'll repay the medical bill as soon as I can!"
"No rush. You need money more than I do," Vik chuckled. "Pay me once you're stable."
David, who hadn't cried even through despair—
broke down at that kindness.
"T-thank you… Mr. Viktor… I promise I'll pay you back…"
Vik only patted his shoulder.
"Good. But only this once—next time, no credit."
"Yes, sir!"
But V knew—next time, Vik would still save them first and bill later.
Her eyes glowed blue—she hacked Vik's clinic system and dropped 100,000 eddies.
Good people were too rare in Night City.
Letting one starve would be stupid.
V turned to leave.
At the doorway, she saw Misty.
The two passed. Misty whispered:
"You really are a good person, V."
She was the one who sold V the Reaper Mask.
V never expected to fool her.
"Keep it secret."
V saluted with two fingers and left on her Nazare.
"What an interesting person… Her energy fits the Reaper so perfectly."
As Misty murmured, David approached her.
"Excuse me… did you see the masked woman earlier?"
"She's already gone."
"Oh…" David's shoulders slumped.
Misty smiled. "Did you need something important from her?"
David shook his head.
"No. I just wanted… to thank her. She saved my mom. She saved me."
"Gratitude is a wonderful trait," Misty said warmly. "Don't worry. The higher energies tell me… you will meet again."
"Really?" David brightened. "Um… what are 'higher energies'?"
"The mysterious magic of tarot cards, of course! Want a reading?"
She kept hustling her struggling business.
Meanwhile V cracked open the Sandevistan in her motel room.
As expected—
a Militech prototype, codename "Falcon"-class Sandevistan.
Not yet on the market—clearly a lab product.
And—
military-grade, top-tier chromeware.
No wonder Lieutenant Norris could go cyberpsycho at that level of power.