Friday Night Firefight - A Cyberpunk 2077 Isekai

Friday Night Firefight - Chapter 5

The party outside Lizzie's lasted well into the night. Fred and Mor kept up a running list of introductions of all the people who stopped by to chat with them, letting them all know I was a newbie who'd be hanging around. All the names and faces started blurring together after a few hours and, by the end of the night, I had no clue how many people I had met.

I started drifting off on the couch, the day's adventure having caught up with me, and Fred jostled me awake. He said his goodbyes to Mor and the others and guided me out of the alcove and towards his small camp on a Watson side street where I'd be able to sleep. On our way there he explained that it was a hard rule that nobody was allowed to pass out in the alcove. It was the only place in Watson where people like us could meet up and hang out without having to look over our shoulders for the NCPD or Tyger Claws or Maelstrom. If we treated the alcove like any other homeless encampment in Watson, we ran the risk that the Mox would grow tired of us and kick us out. We'd lose the one safe haven that we had built in the neighborhood.

Fred's place was in a small dead end of an alley that he had cleared out and stocked with a mattress, blankets, and various odds and ends. I scrounged up a couple blankets to make myself a bed and conked out. I was able to get a couple fitful hours of sleep, waking up every so often to the sounds of cars racing past. When morning came Fred shook me awake, handed me a drink he grabbed from a vending machine, and had us set out into the city. As we walked, he started in on what he called 'the Night City finishing school.' It was mostly advice he earned through years of living on the streets: don't challenge gang members, always know whose territory you're walking through, don't pick fights with someone wearing a suit because they probably have corpo security at their beck and call.

"The first rule of surviving in Night City is: never work alone," Fred explained as we strolled up to a covered walkway that connected two streets. "You saw what that got you with Dennis. That's why I'm partnering you with someone today. You two will work together while I deal with the match."

"Match?" What match?" I asked.

"Stickball," he said with a fierce grin. "I'm running a match today. You joined at a good time Noah. You can be one of the lookouts."

We walked through the covered walkway which was packed with people despite the early hour. A sign on the street we passed said we were on Farrier Street, but I didn't recognize the area. One of the side effects of always navigating by minimap in the game was that I didn't really pay much attention to the places I was traveling to. Shops were sunk into buildings on either side of the walkway, creating a small shopping center where people milled about. In the middle of the walkway were several concrete benches, but nobody was seated there. Instead, a growing crowd packed into the stores along the walkway, setting up small barricades and claiming spots near the shop windows.

Fred muscled his way through the crowd and pulled me into a collection of people I recognized from last night's party. As soon as we appeared, the group broke out into excited chatter and threw greetings at Fred. He pulled a couple people in for hugs and back pats, and then motioned for one guy to step out of the crowd.

"Noah, this is Tomas. Tomas, Noah. You two will be working together today. I gotta see about setting up," he said as he grabbed a can of spray paint from someone in the crowd.

Tomas was one of the younger guys I had noticed hanging around the alcove last night. I say younger, but he was probably in his mid-twenties. Older than me but younger than both Fred and Mor. He kept up a conversation with a few people from the crowd as I watched Fred set up for the game of 'stickball' that I still had no clue about.

"Hey Tomas, what is all this?" I asked, drawing his attention away from the group he was chatting with.

"Stickball," he said, not answering my curiosity. I shrugged at him for him to complete his explanation and all he said was "you don't know stickball?"