Japantown

April 6th

2069

Rita had come through with the information Sophie asked for, thus she was on her way to the location provided. The Mox woman had seemed…disturbed and slightly unwilling to give her the information on a group of Tygers when she called, though Sophie wasn’t entirely sure why. Eventually, she’d caved, providing a location, though not without telling her it was far more than she could handle. Her specific words had been something along the lines of ‘you’ll die if you go there. At least wait a while, I’ll get some people together and we can hit them as a group’.

She didn’t give the words much thought though. Her simmering rage had once more been ignited once she read through exactly what the Tygers were up to and she had no intention of waiting for help.

She raced through the streets of Japantown, hoping that she would make it in time before her prey finished their business.

Around ten minutes later, she reached a street near the location, close to the bridge that would lead over into Watson. She jumped off her bike and raced towards her target location. As she ran, she checked over her gear. Everything was reloaded and although her hands were still covered in a thin layer of blood, she’d done her best to wipe it off. She didn’t have to worry about her weapons slipping out of her hands at least.

She ducked through an alleyway and instinctively picked out a path to reach the rooftops. She lunged up a set of crates, jumping onto the top of a grimy dumpster. From there, she leapt up, catching her hands on some kind of box, jutting out of the building. She scrambled up until she was standing, then turned to face away from the wall. Across from her was a rooftop that would provide a good vantage point to survey the night market.

She pushed off the box, launching herself across the gap. Her right hand caught the edge but her left slipped off. For a moment, she dangled precariously. The fall wouldn’t kill her, but it would hurt. She swung herself until her left hand shot up, catching onto the ledge. From there, it was easy to pull herself up onto the roof.

Sophie crouched on the edge of the rooftop overlooking the night market. The beautiful, glowing lanterns felt like a stark contrast to the chaos occurring amongst the stalls. A group of Tyger Claws, just over ten strong, wandered around the various stores. They were easily identifiable, considering the classic biker jackets but also because of the violence they all seemed to revel in causing.

They were a mixed group. That was Sophie’s first impression. Some of them were tall and broad, including one of those annoying sumo inspired punks. Others appeared lithe and quick considering more than one of them had a katana strapped to their waist. Oddly, there appeared to be a few women mixed in, a somewhat uncommon sight. Most of the gangers Sophie had encountered tended to be men.

One of the men, a hulking figure with a dangerous looking chrome arm, barked orders at a terrified vendor. A woman with a shaved head and a glowing tiger tattoo on her neck grabbed another shopkeeper by the collar, dragging them over the stall’s bench.

Nearby, two women stood defiant, desperately trying to fight against the gang’s demands. Unfortunately, the nearby Tygers didn’t care. They punched both women, instantly knocking them out before picking them up. They moved the unconscious girls over to a set of vans at the market entrance. From her position, Sophie could see more bodies in the vans.

The sight churned her stomach, reigniting the rage that had been simmering after her slaughter of the scavs earlier in the night. It brought back memories of the first night she spent in Night City, with Mia and her family. To be precise, the way they had all been kidnapped and thrown into the back of a van.

She shook her head, forcing herself to focus. As much as she wanted to, charging in blind wouldn’t work here. There were too many Tygers. She needed to thin their numbers before anyone noticed her.

Before she could do anything, Sophie had to find a way down from the roof and locate a target. If she could silently take out a few of them, the subsequent fight would be far easier. She held no illusions of being able to eliminate them all silently.

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To her right, there was a crosswalk that led in the direction of the market entrance. All her experience in the military told Sophie that taking out the enemies on the outside of a hostile area and moving inwards was a better idea thus, she would start at the perimeter.

Two Tygers were stationed at the entrance, separated by a low wall from the market itself. One of them leaned casually against a streetlight, smoking, while the other idly fiddled with her gun.

Sophie crept along the crosswalk until she was crouched above the smoker. Her plan was risky but she had high hopes that it would work. If it didn’t, she’d be in massive trouble. She drew one of her knives, holding it in her left hand. With her right, she pulled one of her Nues.

As the woman playing with her gun turned away slightly, she made her move. She stepped off the crosswalk, allowing gravity to catch her. With a thud, Sophie’s feet landed directly on the smoker’s shoulders. His body folded under the weight and he let out a sharp gasp. It turned into a crunch when a knife was driven through his skull, splashing blood all over his killer’s hand. However, there was no time for her to pause.

The gun-toting woman had heard the noise and turned to look at the scene of her comrade dying. Sophie’s Nue came up and fired without stopping. She missed a couple of shots, but the rest landed. Ultimately, it was the last bullet that ended the woman’s life as it tore through the side of her head. Clearly, she possessed subdermal or bulletproof gear, considering nearly a full magazine failed to take her down.

The female Tyger hit the ground with a wet thump, blood pooling all around her on the ground. Even though it wasn’t a loud sound, someone heard it. They turned and one of the female Tygers with cybernetic legs spotted her instantly.

“Fucking bitch!” She screamed, drawing a katana. That seemed to be the signal as the area immediately descended into chaos. Plan’s fucked!

Bullets tore through the air as the Tygers opened fire. Sophie ducked behind the low wall separating the market and the street. Concrete shattered as her opponents unloaded their magazines at her hiding space. She tried to return fire during the onslaught but was immediately discouraged when a bullet slammed straight into her shoulder.

It didn’t do any actual damage, though the force of the impact hurt. Fuck, I’m so glad I bought this gear. As that thought raced through her mind, she realised there was a brief lull in the gunfire.

Sophie went on the offense, switching from her Nue to the Copperhead and leaning out briefly to aim. Her first burst hit a smaller Tyger in his extremities, dropping but not finishing him. A second burst clipped the shoulder of another, but he kept walking forward, snarling as he unloaded his SMG.

Sophie grit her teeth as a round impacted her left arm and she dipped back down behind cover. The netrunner suit held up, drawing a quiet sigh of relief. She switched to her Nue pistol and shuffled along the low wall. The wounded Tyger stormed around the corner, expecting her to be in her previous position. Instead, he received a burst of bullets. He toppled to the ground, clutching his side as blood spilled from his guts.

The downside of killing that Claw was the exposure of her new location. The sudden barrage of bullets forced Sophie to move again. A brief pause gave her just enough time to identify the positioning of each opponent.

The remaining six Tygers had spread out, attempting to perform a pincer attack on her. Sophie cursed under her breath and looked around, rapidly coming up with a plan. But she wasn’t given a chance to implement it.

One of the women; tall, muscular and wielding a shotgun, charged her position. A blast of pellets assaulted her. Sophie leaned to the side at the last moment but it wasn’t quite enough. She felt the impact all across her torso and at the same time, air was forced from her lungs. The plate carrier she’d bought from Ricky proved itself as nothing penetrated it, though the pain in her chest was intense.

Regardless, Sophie absolutely couldn’t stop to recover. The shotgun wielder was almost on her, charging like a bull while wildly firing her weapon. Those attacks were fairly easy to avoid but the sudden abandonment of the shotgun and subsequent tackle were entirely unexpected.

Sophie was not a heavy girl. The Tyger who had tackled discovered that quickly and used it to pick the teen up, clearly intending to slam her into a wall or the ground after she built up momentum. As she charged however, the sudden feeling of a barrel pressed against her chest quickly brought a horrified expression across her face.

With a quiet hum, the Satara that Sophie had retrieved from her inventory made its debut in brutal and bloody fashion. A giant, gaping hole appeared in the woman's chest, drenching the teen in blood and cybernetic fluids. The wild charge halted and the smaller girl stumbled to the ground, trying to recover her footing.

Before she could though, a heavy impact slammed into Sophie’s back, throwing her forward. She hit the ground hard, the taste of blood filling her mouth.

One of the Tygers, a man with clearly augmented arms, had somehow gotten behind her and slammed into her small frame. He raised a massive fist, but Sophie rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the blow. The ground cracked where his cybernetic limb struck.

Sophie scrambled away and up to her feet, firing the second shot in her Satara at point-blank range. The electromagnetically propelled, razor sharp spikes didn’t do much as his armor absorbed most of the damage. He lunged again, catching her by the wrist and twisting it painfully. The shotgun clattered to the ground but she didn’t have time to worry about that.

In a desperate manoeuvre, she spun with all her strength, dragging the Tyger holding her along for the ride. It placed him directly in the line of fire from his friends. The friendly fire caused him to instinctively let go of her wrist. With that opportunity, she bolted into the market itself, hoping to use the stalls and small structures as cover. She didn’t forget to scoop her fallen shotgun into her inventory.

Sophie ducked behind an overturned stall, swinging her Copperhead into her hand. She checked the magazine and quickly reloaded after finding it empty. At that moment, she heard the clink of something metallic. She peeked over her cover and took in her situation.

Five-no, seven Tygers remained, all armed. Even the one that had his back shredded by gunfire was still up. However, the numbers were off. Where did those two bastards come from!? Her mental screams were cut short when she saw a grenade arcing through the air toward her. Fuck!