The high-pitched ringing in her ears gasps her awake. Head spinning.. her visions blurred. Sat up with her back planted on a worn sofa, she looks about the dim living space.. its foreign. Her eyes fixate on a lone figure sat in a chair out in the center patiently watching her stir awake.
She winces in heavy pain.. glancing down at the patch work done on her torso now wrapped tightly in blue synth gauze. Her distorted hearing comes into focus at the end of a gentle question.
"...Know anything about that?" Carter's deep monotone finishes.
Gina gets a lock on his imposing figure sat in the chair across from her.. her heart rate increases… her breath shortens. He continues
"Don't know much about the claws but… info exchange def falls under their forte."
She glances off to the side… her purple Aikuchi Katana sat casually leaned against a wall near the door. Her eyes fixate on it… Carter's rambling fading into obscurity with each glance over to it then back into his eyes. The tension in her shoulders rises… her short breaths getting heavier.
Carter looks back over his shoulder, finally connecting her angsty gaze.
He looks back into her eyes before he promptly gets up… she watches his lanky basketball player frame rise nearly touching the ceiling. A clear look at his chrome. His weighted steps walk over to the blade and grab it… returning to her… his gorilla armed fist presents it genuinely.
Gina looks into his eyes… before slowly grabbing the blade. She clutches it tightly… dramatically slowing down her breaths… the tension in her shoulders subsiding... almost as if she can breathe again.
"Alright?" He nods with raised eyebrows.
"Wh-where's-" She mumbles… causing Carter to look down.
She feels the sensation of a firm grip down by her ankle. She looks down to see TuckTuck curled and sleeping… calming Gina even further. If he's asleep… a lot of potential hazards see their way out of her mind.
"Little guy really cares about you. Took some coaxing but... he let us help you. 'TuckTuck' was it?" He chuckles. "Cute name for a…. rollie pollie."
Gina winces reaching down and lifting TuckTuck onto her lap, waking him up briefly before he snuggles back in to sleep.
"Wh...where the hell are we." She asks lethargic.
Carter opens his mouth to respond but gets cut off.
"-Where we are is… not quite as important as… where we need to be. Don't you think."
Brian's voice interjects as he enters the living room… giving Gina a clear look at him.
His demeanor stands out to her… almost as if he knows the way he looks does half the work for him. His body language… his energy showed a man in tune with both who he is and what he's capable of.
With back straight and hands clasped behind his back, he paces past her… the heavy, augmented weight of each step shifting the ground beneath his boots and the very couch she's sitting on. A glance at his blood red gorilla arms… and a look at the back of his trench coat. The LEDs flowed orange like molten lava coursing throughout the length of it alongside stray bulletholes… the glowing eye in the center between his shoulders stares her down with a suppressed intensity… like its dying to get to her. He turns to face her… the deep scar running from his neck to his jaw grips her… he's almost the same height as the other one… but much bigger.
Gina's eye contact with him is in pain but unwavering… Brian notices this.
He glances down at her condition heartlessly… just stable enough to communicate and not pass out from the pain.
Down in the basement, Beatrice is jacked in… her pink net icon traversing the confines of a PetroChem datafort… using Netty's father's runner chair. Netty also jacked in runs point for her… a series of intricate spoofing techniques making her navigation much quicker and safer. Giving her the extended amount of time needed for this cyberspace surgery they're conducting. "Cmon mama… where are you." BugBear whispers to herself. Their faces both rested with serious concentration… their equipment running on all cylinders.
Through the lengthy traversal and thorough sort, she eventually locates Audrey's PetroChem issued biomon signature… one shes taken the time to become more than familiar with. A tried and true technique the ladies have used with each other countless times over the years.
"There's my girl." She gently exhales in relief with a nod.
"Ichiro's brother… what do you know about this gonk." Brian asks slowly pacing.
Gina responds petting TuckTuck while she checks his condition. "Other than being a... corpo lap dog not much. Just… preem tier huscle… choom's worked his way up some corpo circles overtime apparently. Most assumed he'd been spoon feeding his brother for a while now.. funding his street larp."
"He a crim? Considering his brother wasn't just some Tyger Claw no neck huddled up next to em. Maybe runnin' both sides."
"N-Not as far as I know." She winces in pain shifting her weight on the couch. Stirring TuckTuck awake momentarily before nodding back off. "Whenever he came around it was... always fireworks... wouldnt've exactly called what I saw a loving, brotherly relationship. Chooms were ying and yang… who-…. who the hell are you people?"
More heavy footsteps approaching grab her attention, she looks over to see Netty and Beatrice enter.
"Got a hit… she's still in house." Netaniel mutters deeply as they walk in together.
"Seems like fortune's favoring the brave on this one. She's slated for transfer which can mean one of two things… either she's soon dead or… a legitimate location change… must not have enough deets from her yet." BugBear mutters, making Brian quickly look over, feeling progress.
Gina finally gets a clear look at the yellow hoodie kid with house lights instead of dim street ones. She's taken aback.. he's a lot more worn than she initially thought. His getup.. his energy.. was far beyond just 'youthful rebellion'… a young, chromed out street tough? Some of her most potent Tyger Claw contacts didn't even come close to the level of implants she could spot. "Are those oracles?"
Her eyes drift past Beatrice stepping by... fixing on the scars below Netty's eye. His yellow kiroshis look down at a fresh cigarette popped into his mouth… flicking his lighter, he takes a heavy drag… gently billowing thick volumes of smoke.
Not a single cough to be heard.
"Good." Brian responds as we see Zaunya stood with arms crossed… staring down the Petrochem nuclear power plant. "Tell her to come back." He concludes as her trench gently blows in the calm breeze of the night... watching the steady ins and outs.
Brian paces past Carter, handing him a maxdoc inhaler. He stops and turns to Gina in the middle of her bloody and painful coughing fit... his back straight and hands still behind his back.
"What else can you tell me about this lappy."
"I-I mean… not much. Always busy? Guy was always in and out in minutes. Name's Yuki…? Although… assuming you all knew that already…?"
Brian doesn't budge... staring at her writhing in uncomfortable pain… he doesn't respond. She glances at the inhaler in Carter's hand.
"H-Hey! I'm being straight with you! Ichiro was... always…! Ugghh!! He was a sick perverted FUCK! Alright!?" TuckTuck stirs awake to her shouting. "His head rolling was… long overdue."
A steady silence rests alongside Gina's wincing. TuckTuck gently sniffs around her wounds trying to comfort her as he wriggles about on her lap.
Brian looks over at Carter… a subtle nod toward the girl.
Carter promptly walks over… stooping down and gently assisting Gina with a whiff as TuckTuck quickly sniffs his hand.
She inhales deeply, coughing up more blood before a sharp exhale of relief, struggling to catch her breath. She looks up to see Brian handing her a rag... she grabs it to wipe her mouth.
While tending to herself... it gives her a sweeping shot of this eclectic group of strangers sat and stood about. None look related… but they're definitely warm in each other's presence. All so different yet so imposing… no idea where their chrome began or where their ganic ended. They posted with an unflinching confidence… a level of poise and experience shes never seen in the street before.
Not a single shred of weakness she could see... as if the streets of Night City herself had bred them from her loins.
"So… y-you guys… you guys are cyberpunks… right?"
The crew sits in the silence with wafting cigarette smoke.
Subtle scoffs ring out among fleeting grins. She gets no response.
"Alright.. gonna draw this up. Netty, gimme another data run... look into this 'Yuki' and cross reference with that transfer. Beatrice, gonna need some net overwatch here for a while yeah? Carter, take the van… bag the claw n' drop her off over at that other-"
"-H-Hey! Wait! Yuki! That's the target right? I… I can help you all grab this guy!" Gina claims.
Groans and laughs ring out in the room… voices chime in.
"-haha.. as if-"
"-What? This one? Please-"
"-Couple slugs n' she can barely stand-"
"-She's tiny-"
"-tch…just another booster ganger with a pigstick-"
"-Chick's got rookie eyes-"
"-No way she can keep up."
The room silences as Brian finally chimes in… looking deep into her eyes with a subtle nod upward.
"Why."
She trips up.. searching her head for a response. She stammers confused. "...wh-..why?"
"Whatever bread you were breakin' with the claws' no doubt over now… and yet you're still lookin' to fuck with the edge? Corp-slave must be important to you-"
"-Not important…" She winces. TuckTuck gently crawls up onto her shoulder getting a look at everyone. "but the deets he has are… I just… I just need a chance… I need words with him."
"Mm. And how ya gonna do that little claw."
"Take me on the gig with you. Won't fuck it up."
The silence in the room is deafening… Brian looks into Gina's eyes.. searching for what he needs. Her gaze into his unwavering… reminding him of Netty's back at Audrey's hideout.
Standing tall, the expression on his face shifts with a slight smirk.
"Cmon, get up. Lets go." He says gesturing her over to the front door. TuckTuck hops off of her shoulder as she slowly stands.
"W-wait, we're doing this now?"
"Course not. Somethin' else- Carter" Brian beckons, gesturing Carter over to the door, holding it open for him to exit.
Gina being ushered out behind him and cradling TuckTuck looks up at Brian confused. "Where are we going..?"
"Leaving here." He says looking down at her with a half smile and raised eyebrows. He then looks over at Netty.
"Tomorrow huh." Brian says nodding.
Netty and Beatrice quickly glance at each other before returning the nod.
Brian slides the door closed.