A week later, at The Veil…
Harry wasn't much of a fan of clubs. Everything contributed to a massive sensory overload for her. Sounds, lights, colors, motion. Focusing on one given thing was something she thought herself adept at, but focus was beyond her grasp when it was hurtled in her general direction. The thumping music alone was enough to make her ears hurt. She didn't even know where the front door of The Veil was from where she was standing.
“You ain't plannin' on staying?” Oni asked as she leaned back into a booth seat. She was only half paying attention to Harry, with the other half of her attention being on Asphyxia, who was across the main hall dancing on stage. “A bit sour to dip out and ditch during Cherry's welcome back party, ain't it?”
“I am not,” Harry responded, her dead eyes locking onto the distracted hacker. “I would prefer not overstaying my welcome, regardless of my preference of not staying in one place for long.”
“That's a damn shame. You know we don't got any issue with you stayin' about if you wanna stay around, right? Switch was sayin' as much.”
“I have repaid my debt. I do not wish to burden your group any further than I have.” Harry shook her head. “Thank you for allowing me to lodge for as long as I have.”
Onigiri furrowed her brows. She was about to make a comment before Harry simply turned and left, disappearing through the nearby crowd of gyrating clubgoers.
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Elsewhere in The Veil…
The VIP section was away from most of the music and lights, making it one of the more tolerable areas of the club to have a conversation in, short of the employees-only or Banshees-only spots. Though Mary wasn't usually part of the security team, she often found herself up here, if only to get away from the crowds and noise. She felt like she hadn't earned her stay enough to enter the break rooms without being invited, on top of feeling as if she should keep a wide berth from the possible politics brought on from what occurred last week.
“Why are you moping around here all by your lonesome?” Hotrod turned the corner and leaned against the wall, two unopened beer bottles in hand.
Mary jolted upright, looking as if she got caught slacking on the job. “Just, uh, keeping the VIP area secure. You know?” She laughed. Awkwardly.
“From what, handsy perverts? We're the VIPs for the night, you know?”
“I know, just—I'm still thinking about all that junk with Shy. I didn't get to know her like you did.” The cyborg paused to tilt her head curiously. “—Stiletto told me that you two were seeing each other or something.”
“No big loss for you, really. The side you've seen is who she really was.” Hotrod paused to flick the cap off one of the bottles and took a big gulp from it. “I'm going to beat Stiletto's ass upside down.”
“—Wait, what for?” Mary asked, before holding her hand out for one of the bottles. She froze mid-motion.
Hotrod handed the unopened bottle to Mary. “What do you mean, ‘what for?’”
Mary shook off whatever was on her mind, popping open the bottle with her thumb. “I'm, uh. Guessing she put up a big social chameleon act, then? If she managed to sneak into the gang, right?”
“I don't know if I'd give her that much credit. She was just a dumb bitch who did the whole runaway thing without realizing what it means.”
“So, kinda like you and me.” She went to take a swig, only to pause with a need to clarify. “Uh, sans the dumb bitch part— I'm kinda dumb, but…”
“And I'm kind of a bitch, so it evens out to us being nothing like her.” Hotrod pushed herself off the wall and walked up to stand next to Mary. “Why were you thinking about that anyways?”
“—I dunno. I figured you'd be in a shittier mood after the entire debacle.” She cautiously sipped at her drink. “I know it's been almost a week, but. Totally here to talk if you need it.”
“Are you kidding? I got a weight off my shoulders, never felt better. If anything, Harridan is probably feeling some type of shitty about the whole thing.”
“Harry? Feeling crappy over anything? I don't think that's possible.”
“I got three reasons why she might be feeling like shit. Her team broke up because the members had to go into hiding because of Shy's bullshit, the operator community got hit by a purge wave, she was pretty much half-dead herself when she came to us… I'm sure there's more, but those are the easy ones.” Hotrod linked her arm with Mary's. “Anyway, we're supposed to be celebrating. Whaddya say we grab one of the empty booths and fool around for a bit? Just long enough for anyone to not notice we've been gone.”
“Wait. One of the booths here? Shouldn't we have to pay—” Mary could barely get an answer out as the awkward giggles took over. Despite her apparent questioning, she took the lead. For once.
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It didn't take long for the meeting room to turn into an absolute mess. The girls were already getting rowdy. Hotrod and Mary still hadn't shown up. Switch was getting impatient over the ruckus. Though she wasn't trying to show it, having craft beer spilt onto the nice carpet didn't make it easy to contain a twitching eyebrow.
She would have to get this show on the road without those two. Whatever they were up to must've been important, especially if they hadn't called ahead to say they'd be late.
She tapped a chrome finger against the table. The sound dampening of the room meant she only had to contend with the noise of conversation, the club's thumping music barely audible through the walls. That still turned out to be a big ask, considering that her girls kept on chattering away.
She tapped on the table again, with more force this time. The glass top cracked. “Look what you made me do.”
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The room suddenly dropped to a dead silence, most of the girls in the room getting the picture that they should quiet down. Including Onigiri, which may or may not have been a big surprise.
“Well, don't just stop talking altogether like that. Now you're making me look like the bad guy.”
Onigiri slowly raised her hand, as if she needed permission to speak. “I kinda just figured you were needin' to say somethin' important?”
“Yes.” Switch cleared her throat. “It pleases me to see all of you still in high spirits. Before we get lost in the festivities, I would like to welcome Cherry back into fold after her speedy recovery.”
There was a pensive delay, before Growler clapped loudly. Once. Melody followed suit with less loud but more enthusiastic clapping. The room almost immediately burst into a series of deafening applause and cheers, punctuated by the occasional sharp whistling.
“You can't even tell she looked like burnt rotisserie meat before!” Pizzazz shouted at the top of her lungs.
A bottle flew across the room. It was hard to tell who threw it, or if they were even aiming at Pizzazz specifically.
The shadow of a smile tugged at the corner of Switch's lips, ever so briefly. The stoic expression snapped back into place like a latex mask. “Of course, I will also have to pay my respects to everyone who bled in one way or another over the course of this whole... issue.” She swept her gaze across the table, stopping and nodding at every single one of her girls. The ones that were present, that is. She couldn't ignore Hotrod and Mary's absence anymore. “—can someone find out where the absentees are and summon the both of them here?”
“Can do!” Onigiri shot to her feet and made towards the door, only to bump straight into Harry, who walked in the moment she was walking out.
Despite Harridan's flat expression, she somehow held an aura of confusion. “Apologies.”
“—I thought you were leavin'?”
“I was not.”
“We just had a conversation that—”
“No.”
“Ah, Harridan.” Switch beckoned her to come into the room. “I wondered where you went. Join us.”
“Okay,” she stated simply as she lumbered into the room, seeming more even stiff than usual. Onigiri looked like she was trying to ask at least six things at once, but couldn't get any words out in return.
“Another toast, this time for Harridan, who has gone above and beyond in helping us with this matter.” Switch raised her beer stein.
“But she said she was leavi—”
“I did not,” Harridan interrupted Onigiri. She definitely did not want to directly voice that she couldn't find the exit and had simply stumbled into this very room. “Thank you.”
The rest of the room once again burst into applause and cheering. Albeit, without any flying beer bottles this time.
Switch shot a questioning look at Onigiri. “I thought you already went to get Hotrod and Mary. When you find them, return immediately. I have one more thing to say before we celebrate the night away.”
Onigiri once again made for the door, only to crash into Mary and Hotrod this time, who were busy making their way into the room while mutually looking a touch disheveled.
“Hey! Sorry for, uh, being late.”
A wave of eyebrows being raised washed over the room, crashing to a halt when it reached Switch who kept a straight face. “No matter. You only missed two rounds of toasts and applauses.”
“We did?” Mary brushed her hair out of her eyes and stumbled across the room to find an empty seat, Hotrod in tow right behind her. “Uh, sorry.”
“So,” Switch didn't miss a beat. “Not to dampen the mood, but we have only won a single battle. What we have accomplished, while not insignificant, is establishing ourselves as a stumbling block to whatever designs the megas have.”
The room fell to a deafening silence as Switch got serious. The mood, counter to her wishes, was indeed dampened.
“It is likely a war now, yes,” Harry spoke out of turn.
Switch nodded at Harridan's addendum. “We have bought ourselves some time, but we still do not know why the megas—at least one of them—want to move into this district after decades of neglect. It is in our best interest to figure that out, and so we must remain vigilant while doing business as usual.”
“What're we gonna do besides bein' vigilant? We got messed up pretty bad over the last few weeks,” Onigiri cut in.
“Without the intel from Harridan, it would have taken us longer to realize that the corpos have already set up safehouses this deep in the district. We were too preoccupied with the troubles within to see the threats from outside.”
“Plus, we never would've thought the megas would be interested in this district in any way,” Hotrod said, acting as if she was here from the start.
Switch nodded. “We will need to eliminate one factor, the factor we can influence directly. We must accelerate Banshee's plan. We will spare no effort in taking over the Slag.”
Harridan's head swiveled back to Switch. Those dead eyes carry a scant amount of curiosity for once. “Not just Blackwell?”
Switch returned Harridan's stare and nodded again. “Strengthening our foothold in Blackwell is just the beginning. We have three other chapters, all based in different neighborhoods. I will begin coordination with the captains tomorrow. By force or diplomacy, each chapter will take over the surrounding areas first.”
Harry nodded. It was evident she had questions, given that she almost actually had a vague semblance of a facial expression for once. Harry being Harry, she didn't ask them whatsoever.
Switch kept staring at Harridan, boring into those dead eyes with her own inorganic ones. After a pause that could be best described as uncomfortable, she spoke. “Feel free to speak your mind.”
Harry stared back for nearly half a minute. The silence flooding the room was beyond uncomfortable. “I did not realize there were multiple chapters. I apologize.”
Onigiri burst into laughter from the other side of the room. “Our gang isn't this small, y'know.”
“No need for apologies. You would not have known, since you have only dealt with ours.” Switch jutted a chrome thumb in Mary's direction. “Mary is loaned from another chapter. I am quite close with her captain.”
Mary jolted up from fixing her still disheveled hair and offered up a timid wave in return. “Speaking of my captain, we might need to go and swing by and speak with her sometime soon. Considering all the stuff going down.”
“Hold up,” Pizzazz piped up.
Switch turned in the direction of her voice and saw the mohawked girl standing on her chair, one boot on the table.
“That's all important and urgent, I get it. But I thought we were supposed to be celebratin' tonight?”
“You probably shouldn't have your foot on the taaaable,” Onigiri stage-whispered in Pizzazz's general direction.
A soft smile made its way onto Switch's visage. She raised a chrome fist. “You are right. We will resume this discussion tomorrow. For now, drink and dance to your heart's content.”
With that, the room erupted back into a wall of indecipherable noise, cheering and laughter intermingled. And the occasional thrown beer bottle. It might not have been the end of all the troubles, but at least they could pretend it was, if only for the rest of the night. A few hours to pretend things were going to be the way they were back a few months ago, prior to this mess.
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Harridan's eyes drilled into the wall across from her. The best she could do in a situation with so much noise was to give herself some time to think. At least she might've found some friends and solid work. This wasn't her initial plan, but maybe it could work out.
All of this only because she couldn't find where the exit was and accidentally stumbled in here.