Cyberpunk 2077: V

Chapter 20: Her

"V! WATCH IT!"

A blast of gunfire sliced through the air where V had been standing a split second before, slamming into synthcrete instead of her midsection. With a hiss, she rolled across the blood-splattered ground towards cover, careful to avoid stabbing herself with her own sword. Jackie kept blasting away with his hand cannons.

"One day, just one goddamn day is all I ask, chica!" Jackie yelled in frustration. "Sometimes I just want a nice, quiet day without worryin' about gettin' bullets up the ass!"

V smirked in reply, then rounded the corner of the concrete slab they were hiding behind and charged the last couple of gonks shooting at them. The little box alley was tight, which made maneuvering tough for the two thugs that were trying to shred V with their SMGs.

Swish, block, slash, stab, slash. So much for them.

After making sure the gonks were dead and no one else was trying to gun them down, V wiped off her sword and sheathed it while Jackie carefully made his way into the alley. Behind them, inside the garage that the thugs had been robbing, came a rattling sound. Jackie and V looked at each other before walking up to the garage entrance. There was a shaking piece of sheet metal in the corner, held in place by two trembling chrome hands.

"Hey, ya good?" Jackie shouted. V lightly hit his arm and hissed, "Don't scare 'im!"

The metal stopped shaking, and suddenly a flop of bright blue hair and a pair of brown eyes peeked from the top of the sheet.

"Y-you can take anything you want! I told the other guys I don't have nothin'! I swear!"

V held up her hands. "Hey, hey man, we don't want anythin'. We aren't robbin' you. Saw those thugs tossing you around and ripping your place apart and thought we'd help."

The guy blinked a couple of times, then stood up a little more.

"Y'all mercs?" he asked.

Jackie spun his pistols a couple of times before snapping them into his holster. He gave the guy a toothy grin.

"That's correct, amigo," he purred. "Just a couple'a mercs..." His voice lowered to say, "and one of us is a big ole softie."

V gave him a pointed look.

Suddenly, the blue-haired guy sprang up from behind his makeshift cover, the metal sheet clanging to the ground loudly and startling V and Jackie. He held his hands up and began sidestepping towards the back corner of the garage.

"I can't pay ya, I swear!" he cried. "I don't got nothin! Not an ennie, that's why I was scroungin' around in here!"

The man turned and ripped a panel off the wall, then spun around with a gold-plated tech shotgun in his hands. V immediately pulled her sword while Jackie's pistols rematerialized in his hands. The blue-haired man actually let out a squeal and held his hands up, shotgun pointing at the ceiling.

"WAIT WAIT DON'T SHOOT WAIT!" he screamed. "I don't got anything other than this! Don't shoot, I was gonna pay you with this! I don't got eddies!"

V and Jackie looked at each other again, and V nodded. She believed the poor gonk. That fear and surprise in his face couldn't be faked. Besides, if he did try and shoot them, V would end him before he could even get the thought through. She slipped her sword back into it's sheathe, though Jackie kept his pistols at the ready. The guy audibly gulped, then lowered his hands, keeping the shotgun perpendicular so the barrel didn't point towards them at all. Jackie stared daggers at the guy, whose eyes flickered nervously between them. V played good cop, waiting patiently until the guy was close enough that she could take the weapon from his hands.