Chapter 35: 35
V's POV*
V groaned as he got up out of his bed. His body was still hurting a bit even after 2 months of rest and meds, taking multiple bullets wounds and a headshot was no joke. He looked around at his apartment flat, the clothes lying around on the floor, the various instafood bags piling up in a corner, and his gun room door still open revealing a glimpse of his weapons and ammo. Honestly, he was not such a slob, but with the combination of his failed job, nearly dying, the pain, and the death of his best friend Jackie, it just made it very hard to work up the will to get things done.
Oh god Jackie, his funeral was today too. How was he going to face Jackie's mom? No, even if he did not know how he was going to apologize and make it up for getting her son killed he still had to go. Jackie deserved that much at least.
"Man are you going to get up anytime soon today or what? Paint drying would be more alive than you at the moment." Said the unexpected guest in his head. Seems that luck was not the only reason he survived his head trauma. According to Victor the Relic chip that they stole from Yorinobu Arasaka activated when he died and revived him. The chip also contained the engram of Johnny Silverhand an old terrorist who nuked the previous Night City Arasaka tower. Needless to say he was quite shocked to see him inside his apartment and got into a 'fight' where he seemingly got tossed around by Johnny until they both realized what happened and Johnny almost killed him by unplugging the chip. Now they were stuck with each other and he had to take some pills Missy gave to help shut Johnny up for a time. He was going to have to eventually find someone to remove the chip and get Silverhand out of his head, but first, Jackie.
Finding the will to finally do something V stood up and proceeded to search around his apartment for a clean suit to wear and his weapons. 20 minutes later he was out the door and getting into a cab to get to Mama Well's Bar.
Stepping out onto the cracked sidewalked he walked into the old style saloon like building and looked around. The lighting was dimmer than usual casting the old western like atmosphere into a dull mood. All around were groups of people. The Valentinos, Jackie's old gang before he left, his mother by the bar, the bartender, and other random people he did not know. Off to the side in an alcove was a small candlelit shrine where Jackie's picture sat along with his dual pistols. He was so proud of those, spent a good chunk of eddies on them to get them all detailed and golden. Only thing he spent more eddies on was his bike.
*After the funeral*
Mama Wells was very understanding and said there was nothing to forgive regarding his part in her son's death and gave me the keys to Jackie's garage and his motorcycle. He also spent some time with Missy, Jackie's girlfriend, searching his garage for mementos to present to the funeral and even convince both Missy and Mama Wells that Missy should be allowed at the funeral citing it would be what Jackie wanted. Everyone in the bar came up and gave a story about how they met and he was no exception. He talked about how they met by Jackie saving his life time and time again.
In the end he left the bara with his friend's bike and his weapons and a burning desire to not waste his second chance and achieve Jackie's dream as well, to become a Night City Legend.
With a determined face he stepped out the back to where Jackie's bike was only to stop and pale as he beheld the grinning face of the so Radio Demon standing in the alleyway waiting for him.
"Hello there V~"
"Tri2 POV"
"Hello there V~" I said as I took in the appearance of the previously-at-Death's-door corpo man I had dropped off at the ripper 2 months ago and it looked like the doc did some good work, could barely even tell he was almost dead not long ago, though he looks a lot more low born than before, must have been the suit, or maybe he really was not a corpo?
"I thought Vic and Missy were pulling my leg and that I was hallucinating when I thought they said the Devil saved my life." V said slowly.
"Well more of a daemon then Devil but close enough." I said buffing my nails on my coat. "And this Demon has come to collect."
"What do you mean?"
"Come now V, I saved your life that night, so you owe me big, a life for a life."
"What do you want with me?" V asked warily one his hands stealthily moving towards his inner jacket.
"I want you to-" I began before getting cut off as suited Asian man dropped out of the sky right between us and fired off a micro missile from his forearm at me while darting towards V at high speed.
With huff I simply ripped off a piece of the wall next to me and tossed it at the missile, ignoring the shrapnel simply by sidestepping the shards as I watched the fight.
The obviously cybernetically augmented Asian man quickly reached V who at this point just pulled out his pistol from his jacket and let loose a few shots. The assailant avoided the shot by pushing up on V's pistol arm before he could shoot causing the shots fired to miss and then proceeded to gut punch him with his other fist and then tossing him over his shoulder into the ground hard. All of this took only 3 seconds since the man landed.
I am not sure what is going on but it seems like he did not want to kill my employee as he could have easily just crushed his throat with his first punch instead of just winding him and nonlethally subduing him.
I proceeded to use my stealth to approach the man while listening to him.
"Did you really think you could escape your crime? That you could hide from your punishment? Arasaka-sama will decide your fate murderer." The man spat angrily as he is about to smash V's face into the ground to knock him out.
At this point I was behind the man and grabbed his leg. Now to his credit the man reacted extremely quickly, most likely some kind of nervous system upgrade as the second my hand touched his leg he immediately tried to leap into a handstand and kick out at my face, tried being the word there. My grip was as strong as plasteel and my other hand easily caught the other foot by the ankle leaving me holding the man upside down and with a clear view of his surprised face that quickly became calm again.
Not that it helped as I immediately slammed him head first into the ground then proceeded to swing him repeatedly into the ground like a certain green skinned hero. I had to make sure not to hit him too hard or else I risked killing him, and I was curious on just what it is my soon to be employee did to piss off Arasaka for them to send an assassin after him. Maybe it would be something I could use?
After a few introductions of the man to the ground I held him up to see if he would try to escape. Nope, looked like he was knocked out; dropping him to the floor I then proceeded to hogtie the man with some duct tape from my inventory. Once that was done I looked at V who was just starting to get back up hacking his lungs out as he tried to get some air into his lungs.
Stepping over to him with my feet stopping right in his line of vision on the ground I kept my smile up as I spoke.
"Looks like you owe me your life again V~ So what exactly did you do to get Arasaka to send a hitman after you? As your new boss I should be informed if any of my employees are suffering from any...workplace difficulties~"
V just looked up at me in confusion and then at the now unconscious hogtied assassin next to him with a face full of more confusion before answering with a simple "What?"
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