"Rebecca!"
Maine gripped the wheel and barked the command. Rebecca, sitting next to Ethan, immediately swung half her body out the window, perching on the frame.
Whoosh!
Pilar's window rolled down too. The tech specialist pulled a Scorched Earth incendiary grenade from his belt and hurled it out.
Tech specialists like Pilar always had throwables on them.
BOOM!
The shockwave rocked their car sideways. The deafening blast transformed the Scav van into an instant fireball, tumbling end over end before crashing somewhere behind them!
Brass casings from Rebecca's gun bounced back through the window. With a wild whoop, she pumped a shotgun blast straight through the rear windshield of another pursuing vehicle.
Glass shattered. Mixed with red pulp. The driver's head was now a smashed watermelon. That car swerved and plowed into a burning garbage heap on the Pacifica roadside.
Now THIS is a proper Night City edgerunner crew!
Ethan knew he'd picked the right people.
"Time to work, Mr. Ethan!" Dorio leaned out her window with a pistol, joining Rebecca's suppressing fire.
The Scavengers were temporarily pinned down. Ethan got the message instantly—he popped the sunroof, stood on the back seat, and braced the Nekomata on the car roof. His scope locked onto a Scav poking his head out of a window.
The sniper rifle's electromagnetic cannon-like CRACK echoed through Pacifica's ruined streets.
"Nice fucking shot, asshole!"
Rebecca laughed as she praised him, her voice carried by the rushing wind straight into the Scavengers' ears.
"Fuck! Kill that bitch! This crew's got teeth—stay sharp!"
A burly Scav wore a jammer mask covered in garish flickering graffiti—their usual method of hiding their hideous faces. Massive build. Rubber butcher's apron stained with gore and tissue residue.
He didn't finish his sentence. All that remained was a neck stump wobbling in the wind.
How many is that now?
Ethan counted. Third one, maybe.
"Meat grinder's right here!"
Rebecca's rifle spat fire. Bullets riddled the Scavs' pickup until it smoked. Rounds whizzed past her ears. She wasn't scared—if anything, she squeezed the trigger harder.
The Scavengers shifted tactics, flanking through a narrower side street. Rebecca, lost in the firefight, didn't notice.
Ping!
A bullet sparked off the window frame beside her head. Her neck instinctively flinched.
Ethan's pistol had already dropped the flanking vehicle's driver. He and Rebecca locked eyes for a split second, then both resumed firing.
Several Scav rounds hit Ethan's arm. His subdermal armor stopped the bullets about a centimeter in—deformed slugs embedded just under the skin. No devastating cavitation effect. Just thin trails of blood.
Not that fragile body anymore.
Love you, Vik!
Ethan genuinely appreciated Viktor's work.
Steel Heart, Iron Courage and his other perks gave him even more resilience. Some of his wounds were already clotting.
Pain was real, sure. But at least he wasn't getting punched through like paper.
Through a symphony of crashes and explosions, Ethan and Maine's crew carved their way toward the Pacifica seaside.
After the battle, Ethan sat in the back seat, digging a bullet out of his palm with his fingers.
Rebecca patted his shoulder in approval, then crossed her arms and leaned back contentedly, eyes closed, face satisfied.
"Fuck those Scavengers!" Pilar's grotesquely long cyberarm extended out the window, flipping Night City's longest middle finger!
Following the corporate pickup coordinates, the car slowly approached an abandoned motel near the coast.
Rusted iron gates creaked in the coastal wind.
In the courtyard stood a man in a gray suit and sunglasses. Flanking him: two security mechs, several guards, and a figure wearing an Arasaka netrunner helmet, typing away on a laptop in the back seat of a car.
Maine slapped the rescued man's face. Vital signs showed he was alive—just in shock now.
Maine hoisted him over his shoulder.
Cigarette dangling from his lips, he grumbled, "This bastard's got no pants. Keeps poking me!"
The corpo waved them over. They walked into the courtyard. At his gesture, the security mechs lifted the man from Maine's shoulder and carried him to their vehicle's trunk.
"Not bad. Looks like the new dog on the block gets things done."
The man clapped his hands. The comment made Ethan's brow furrow slightly.
"Your boss explained everything to you, right?" The man surveyed the group.
Maine shot Ethan a questioning look.
Ethan shook his head. "Explained what?"
"Keeping secrets, of course."
The man pointed at the Biotechnica logo on the car behind him. "This guy was carrying company secrets. We had people corner him in Dogtown, then hired Scavs to eliminate him. Didn't expect those pieces of shit to try selling him back to us. We had to eat that loss."
"He didn't say anything to you, did he?"
Maine was getting irritated. "Just spit it out already. Stop dancing around."
"Just a little insurance. 755, come here. Give these folks a memory wipe."
Mid-sentence, the crew members around Ethan suddenly sparked with electrical arcs!
Amid crackling and popping, Maine's dark, muscular body kicked up dust as he struggled to stand.
Every piece of cyberware had gone dead. They could only speak.
"Ethan! What the hell is going on?!" Rebecca's expression was savage. "Fucking corpo dogs!"
Pilar howled: "I knew following this kid was a bad idea!"
Ethan's face stayed calm.
"What's the meaning of this?"
The Biotechnica man waved dismissively. "Hands told me about you. Said there's someone important backing you. I want to know who. As for them... 755 was worried your friends might do something irrational, so she shut down their cyberware temporarily. No objections, I hope?"
"Mr. Ethan!"
Dorio's gaze turned cold.
The entire crew was staring at Ethan.
"If I were you, I'd be thinking about how to get my friends back on their feet. And maybe dust them off while you're at it."
The man said nothing. But the netrunner, 755, spoke up.
A distorted, digitized female voice: "How exactly are you going to make me pay?"
Ethan didn't even acknowledge the netrunner.
"My boss said Dogtown work belongs to us now. Let me guess—you're trying to back up Hands? And you, Miss Digital—your mouth's too big. Your boss must be blind to hire someone this stupid."
"Seems you don't quite understand Biotechnica." The man shook his head. "Know what you mercs... and your 'boss'... look like to us? Dogs. Good dogs who get shit done."
Ethan asked, "You know there's a saying in Dogtown?"
When the man didn't respond, Ethan continued, expressionless:
"Dogs bite too."
Right on cue, the distant rumble of car engines drifted from the broken highway behind them. Two vehicles bearing the Arasaka logo—Lexus ZR-5000 armored security variants—rolled slowly into view.
"What the fuck? Why is Arasaka here?"
Biotechnica's security detail showed signs of confusion.
The lead Arasaka vehicle stopped behind Ethan. Two Arasaka operatives stepped out and opened the rear door. V hopped down from the back seat.
"Dr. Isaacson. Biotechnica R&D. Since when do you do field work?"
"Still haven't cleaned up the Securicine mess?"
V locked eyes with the Biotechnica man.
The man studied the woman. "Who the hell are you? Arasaka... Is your boss sure they want to fuck with us?"
"Watch your mouth. When Arasaka wants something done, we don't ask your boss for permission. We still need that man—"
755's netrunner helmet suddenly crackled with electricity.
The woman screamed and tumbled out of the back seat.
"Teach your people some manners. So—are we done here?" V's expression showed no trace of having just fried a netrunner.
Precise force. Enough to put someone in bed for a few days. Just right.
Dr. Isaacson's expression shifted. The Arasaka woman in front of him must be the handler behind this merc.
Fuck you, Hands. So this merc works for Arasaka.
Goddammit!
The doctor mentally cursed Dogtown's fixer a thousand times over.
Isaacson seemed to be calculating his odds. He fell silent.
Seconds ticked by. Everyone's tension ratcheted higher.
Ethan was sweating too. He wasn't sure if Biotechnica's bruised ego would escalate things with Arasaka.
Only V stood still, quietly watching the Biotechnica people.
The Arasaka operatives behind her had hands on their holsters.
"We're leaving!"
The doctor's face flushed red. He finally backed down.
V raised her palm and waggled her fingers. "Safe travels. Don't let the door hit you."
Everyone watched the seething Biotechnica personnel drive away.
As the engine noise faded, everyone exhaled.
Everyone except Ethan.
He wasn't relaxed at all.
No corporation backed mercs for free. And V never made losing deals.
Arasaka didn't do charity.
[Dr. Isaacson ]: Biotechnica R&D employee, member of "Project Nightingale." In CP2077, Dr. Joanne Koch's questline reveals brutal experiments on Nomad clan members—Isaacson is part of that project.
[Securicine ]: In 2070, Biotechnica's painkiller Securicine was proven to cause neural degeneration. Driven by profits, Biotechnica pushed it to market anyway. This drug caused Sasha's mother's death—explaining why Sasha (the crew's netrunner) despises corporations.