“...Damn... Wait, ‘Put a bullet in’, so you didn’t zero the bitch?” Holo asked out of surprise,
“Come on you gotta share something like that! Did you or didn’t you kill her?”
Jack downed the first Silverhand, a drink immortalising the legendary Jonny Silverhand, paused a moment to debate, and washed it down with the second. He wouldn’t talk about this with a clear head.
“Nah... couldn’t do it...” Jack lamented.
“Her new output was easy but... yeah, she probably won’t be walking anytime soon anyway. Scavs’ll get her if a gang doesn’t.”
“Strange... you hate her enough to kill her latest hit, but not enough to flatline the bitch. And you aren’t expecting her to walk back into your life now her Output is gone like some gonks.”
Holo’s tone irked him, he was talking like it was a fun puzzle to work on.
“What’s it to you? Could you not fuck off elsewhere while I work!”
He gestures vaguely with a glass of Conine to the rest of the bar/merc hangout. The people here barely showed more enthusiasm then the ageing half century old furnishings.
“Ugh, fine.” he set the code aside for the moment to focus.
“Well... For a bit of background, it started like this.”
“My parents were both killed during a mid size gang war taking place around where 6th has now set up their little attempted dictatorship, neither of them was part of a gang, mind you, just got unlucky I guess.
But yeah... My dad would take me out to this one high park area that those damn Corpo’s couldn’t get the rights to build on, and we’d watch the firework shows every New Years. Still a great spot actually.
So you could see how when I got my first Mainline Input, I thought it would be great to bring her up there and spend the night together. That lasted roughly 2 years before she jumped ship and started chasing this older Gonk who’d klep anything of worth he could off of me.”
“Think he joined in the ranks of a gang, got himself some chrome, the missus simply decided to upgrade too.”
“Damn.”
“I mean I wouldn’t personally zero a fucker cause my Input moved on but-”
Jack ranted on. “That’s just the half of it. That was a year and a week ago, and her Output wanted ‘stake his claim’ so to speak. SO, Imagine my surprise, when I’m heading back up to my usual spot for the show, only to be oh so kindly greeted by the two making out over my parents columbarium.” By this point I was drinking straight out of the bottle as my friend here’s poker face started to crack.
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“Did I mention that? I don’t think I did!”
“For all those fucking corpo’s couldn’t get their hands on that land my dad knew the old fuck that owned it, so when their ashes reach my hands he gave me permission to bury them there though I am like 90% sure that was just to make the eventual forceful acquisition all the more difficult legally!”
“Fuck, man.” That’s about all he was able to reply to Jacks rant as all the alcohol
“But Fuck she was good, she had everything other than money! And that was like the one thing I couldn’t provide so it wasn’t completely unexpected that she left.”
“We split on alright terms too, but that leadhead started to beat on me and she quickly followed suit."
“Still, she was hot.”
“I don’t know choom, she seems a bit sadistic to me.”
“Like soo hot.”
He seemed to only realise how much Cinine I was drinking, and this stuff wasn’t light.
“Sooo... how long ago was this?” he asked curiously.
“Like... urhg... like 2 hours ago...”
That seemed to be the final straw as a look of pity actually got past his excessive grinning as he waved over one of the barmaids.
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“ah, aaah... I had no part in this! I tried to talk him out of it I swear! You must believe me!!“
Hinata stared terrified between his shadowed face and gun barrel.
She had first met Jack a little over two years ago.
He was pretty cute and had a sharp kind of intelligence she really appreciated at times, though it all really just started because she was bored.
Hinata had not expected how obsessive Jack would end up being, though at the time she had only seen it as a lingering effect of losing his parents, latching onto the first compassion he was shown with a mad intensity.
As time passed and she grew weary of the intensity he would show at times or just all the problems the trauma had caused him mentally, taking the first guy looking to have a clear enough path laid out for life in Night City.
The fact he had a gang backing was just more security against any retaliation.
But even with all that the obsessive little shit kept trying to meet up with her, almost to stalker levels. It only really tapered off once she joined in, taunting and bulling Jack at most opportunities. Her new Input had enough neurons left to recognise keeping Jack away was important.
The gonk really just couldn’t find a good hole to die in to make it easy too, somehow staying alive when Hinata knew he didn’t have a cred to his name most days.
For a moment, she thought Jack would let her go untouched-
*BANG*
Hinata screamed in pain as a bullet ripped through her leg, hitting and fracturing the bone. She curled up around it, clutching it tight as her sobbing filled the clearing. She didn’t dare look back up, as if hoping Jack would disappear if she couldn’t see him standing oppressively over her.
That meant she couldn’t watch as Jacks hand drifted slightly to the left.
Or as his grip tightened on the trigger once again.
*BANG*
She passed out from the shock, pain, and fear as a second shot destroyed the other legs knee.
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She could hear them moving.
Hinata had no idea how long she was out for, but she could hear the heavy steps of chrome on tarmac approaching her from just a few feet away.
“HA! And the others wanted me to stay back!!” The nasally sound of a scav taunted as it approtched.
She didn't want to die like this!
Torn apart for her pieces alive, as these freaks dug into her for hours, and anythign else they might have been tempted to do as she lay helplessly.
Hinatascry for help was cut off by a skeletally chrome hand covering her mouch, its sharp digits digging into her cheek. It twisted her head up to see the scav, her first look being its dismemberment from dual blades, mantis blades from another figure seemingly bleeding out of the shadows.
“Ay, no need to worry girl we gotcha!” a modulated voice called out from beside Hinata. “ Lets get you out of the puddle yea’?”
For a moment, a single moment, she idioticaly let her feel hopeful in the presence of these stragers.
Night City allways punishes such hubris.
The hand once again muffled her screams as one arm slipped under her back... and a superheated mantis blade slid clean through from behind her legs.
“Oops? Always forget to switch them bach ha ha!!”
Through her tears, in all the darkest shadows, a dozen pure red eyes lit up.
“Oh don’t be such a baby!”
“We’ll get you more legs then you could Ever Need!!”
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