Kiragan_Natsuki — Roleplayer Guild

@Eviledd1984

youtube.com/watch?v=bBs-lPvk3Zk

	Hiro eventually stumbled his way out of the crowded bar and into the parking lot despite the constant throbbing from where that spiteful bitch kneed him directly between his legs.  A good shot it was but not enough to disable him completely.  It didn't take him long to reach his car, but as he slipped his hand into his coat pocket, he noticed there was something missing.  "Where's my keys?"  He wondered aloud to nobody but himself, his brow furrowing as frustration and dismay overtook his face.  "Where the fuck are my goddamn keys?"  His nostrils flared as he turned back towards the bar, thinking one of those drunk pricks in there picked them right out of his pockets, but just as he started in that direction once more, a shrill whistle, followed by a familiar voice caught him off-guard.

"Looking for these?"

	Hiro whirled around, locking eyes with the smarmy look of the blonde twirling his car keys around on her index finger while she leaned up against his cruiser nonchalantly.  "You know, for a cop, you sure are dull.", she snickered, her lips curled into a teasing smirk.

"I oughta cuff you for stealing my keys."  Hiro growled snatching them off of her finger.  Then he whisked her away from his vehicle with a wave of his hand, throwing open the driver side door and climbing in.  Before he could shut the door however, she reached over and grabbed it.

"I bet you'd like that, wouldn't you?", She resumed in her playful yet somewhat spiteful tone.  Hiro looked at her confused.  "Having me handcuffed?  Leaving me vulnerable to whatever you wanna do to me?  I mean you did try to force yourself on me earlier."  She grinned raising an eyebrow at the detective.

"That was just so I didn't blow my cover.", Gruffly Hiro remarked, attempting to close the door again despite her firm grip on it.  "Besides, you were the one forcing yourself on me earlier, so let go."

"Heh, well it was a pretty stupid cover, if you ask me."  She snorted shaking her head.  "Why are you here anyway?"  She glowered at him inquisitively.  "I mean, I know you're a cop."

"Detective."  Hiro firmly corrected her, momentarily cutting her off.

"Right...a detective."  She continued, issuing an eyeroll towards Hiro's not so subtle hostility.  "So what is it you're doing here?"

	Hiro sighed bitterly, feeling as though he could bash his head against the steering wheel.  "If you must know, I was here for a drink."  He answered as calmly as he could muster himself to be despite her getting on his every-fucking nerve.

	Unfortunately for him, she resumed her inquiring, seemingly with no intention of leaving him in peace, "Until you saw that girl, the one with the spiky hair?"

"Which one?"  Hiro replied.

"You know which one."  She answered back.  "Her name's Mags by the way, but don't tell her I told you.  She's a...well...she's helped me with some things in the past.  Things I couldn't do by myself."

"Really?"  Said Hiro slightly intrigued.  Slowly he climbed out of his vehicle closing the door behind him.  Once more the rain was pouring down upon his head, as though God or whoever above was dumping a bucket of ice cold water from the heavens on him.  Nevertheless, the detective merely turned up his collar and resumed questioning her, "Like what?"

	The blonde shrugged her shoulders softly giggling, "Well I mean I know my way around a Fender Strat and a bottle of Jack, but I'm practically brainless when it comes to computers.  Mags on the other hand, well, you could say she was born with it.  She cracks databases like they were safes."  She paused a moment, her smile gradually fading, transitioning towards a more concerned expression as she lifted her face towards the detective.  "Is she in some kind of trouble?"

	Hiro was about to answer until he saw over the woman's shoulder a vehicle fast approaching, the phosphorous glow of headlights beaming directly into his eyes nearly frying his optical implants.  He grimaced and turned away quickly, unaware the car that pulled to a stop behind his belonged to his partner Emma, at least until she turned off the ignition, thus killing those blinding high beams.

"Sorry I'm late, Nishida."  Emma apologized climbing out of her vehicle and slamming the door shut, her thick combat boots splashing through the puddles as she moseyed over towards Hiro and the blonde.  "We got another call, some shootout at an appartment. 
 Lots of bodies, but none we could identify.  My guess is it was a gang hit gone south."  She glanced at the blonde woman then to Hiro, her brow wrinkling.  "I thought you didn't like whores."

"Uh, beg your pardon?"  Quipped the blonde cutting her eyes at Emma.  "I'm not a whore, lady.  I'm Nina Smith."

"Who?"  Asked Hiro looking at Nina puzzled.  "I scanned your face earlier.  Our database has no file on you."

"So are you some kind of crook, Nina?"  Emma joined in, scowling at the blonde with a firm hand placed upon her hip.  "What is it you do?  Are you a merc?  A runner maybe?"

"I was getting to that.  Jeez."  Nina huffed rolling her eyes at Emma while reaching into the small breast pocket of her teal leather jacket.  Afterwards, she held out her hand to Hiro.  "Maybe this will explain things."

	Hiro looked down and saw nestled in her palm a tiny microchip, his eyes narrowing on Nina's beaming face suspiciously.  "That's a braindance chip."  He responded firmly.  "So you deal in that shit?"

"It's not gonna fry your brain, Columbo."  Nina assured him, nudging the chip in Hiro's face despite his apparent displeasure towards it.  "Just put it in.  You'll see."

"I wouldn't do it, Hiro."  Said Emma hesitantly shaking her head.  "Who knows what she's laced that thing with.  It could have a goddamn worm on it for all we know."

	Nina turned to the other detective, stating boldly with her arms crossed under her breasts, "If I was gonna kill him, I'd have done it with a gun or a knife.  I'm telling you both, it's totally harmless."

"Fine."  Hiro returned snatching the chip from Nina's hand and issuing a stern glare.  "But if that thing fries me, my partner is gonna blow your pretty little ass away."

"You're fucking right I'm gonna."  Added Emma giving a threatening stare of her own, her hand now resting on the handle of her gun at her side.  "Go ahead, Nishida.  Plug it in and let's see what's on it."

"Alright."  Hiro nodded.  Reaching back behind his head, he slid the tiny chip into the slot embedded at the top of his spine.  Immediately upon installation, his vision went blank.  A startup screen with glowing magenta text and a status bar soon greeted him.  Intently, Hiro watched as the little percentage above the bar ticked upward

50% Complete

68% Complete

91% Complete

youtube.com/watch?v=Yg6-CZsqaNA

	The percentage eventually reached 100%, where upon completion what met Hiro's eyes...was some sort of concert, except it was viewed from someone standing on the stage.  The pounding of the drums rattled his eardrums with resonating vibrations, as did the screaming guitars and synth riffs.  He then heard the singer's voice, realizing he was viewing everything through her eyes...Nina's eyes.  As the song ended, Hiro ejected the chip and handed it back to Nina, his vision slowly adjusting back to his current reality.  "So you're a rocker, huh?"  He said with a small amount of impression.  "Let me guess.  You spoke out against the corpos, and now they got a bounty on your head.  Correct?"

"You could say that."  Nina answered with a frown.  "I had Mags scrub my file so I would be harder to track, but hell, in this city everyone knows everyone."  She paused, exhaling a weary sigh as she looked down at her slightly muddied boots fidgeting on the wet asphalt, before looking up once more at Nishida.  "I'm just gonna be blunt with you, detective.  I know Maggie's involved in some deep shit.  That guy who hired her, he's a corpo.  I think he works for Yamagata or something."

"Yeah, I got that already."  Nodded Hiro.  "That's why we need to talk to Mags. 
 She might be getting involved in some business that may or may not be connected to a murder we're investigating."

"Wait."  Said Nina, her face wrought with apprehension as she lost all color, leaving only a milky white complexion.  "There was a murder?  Who?"

"A young woman."  Emma responded flatly.  "Probably the same age as you.  Her name's Jenna Hayworth."  She then looked at Hiro.  "Hiro, we don't have time to fuck around with her.  We need to get to Mags before she's tagged and bagged."

	Hiro turned to reply but paused momentarily.  "Tell you what, Em."  He said as he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a slightly crumpled pack of Seven Star Cigarettes, clenching one between his lips then lighting it and taking a drag.  A thin wisp of smoke trailed from his lips as he resumed, "You go tail the netrunner.  I've got a date in the Venus District.  Remember?"

"Oh, right."  Replied Emma with a cheeky grin.  "Little Miss Sweetie.  Just remember to wear protection."  A sly wink she gave before turning around and heading back to her car.  "If I find anything new from Maggie, I'll let you know."

"Hey, hold up!"  Nina hollered after Emma, racing to the woman before she got in her vehicle. 
"I'm coming with you."

"W-what?"  Emma stammered, glancing at the blonde puzzled.  "Like hell you are, rocker girl.  This is official police business.  Besides, your scrawny ass will just get in the way."

	Nina wasn't having none of it though as she grabbed Emma's door firmly before the woman could shut it getting in her car.  "Maggie's my friend, okay police lady?"  The blonde proclaimed issuing Emma a determined look in her eyes.  "I'm not going to let her get killed by a bunch of greedy corpos!"

	Emma stared at Nina blankly for a moment then to her steering wheel, vigorously chewing at her bottom lip in a brief bout of silence, only to be broken up by her relenting sigh, "Goddammit... fine.  Get your ass in the car, Blondie!"  She said motioning towards the passenger seat.

	Nina nodded quickly and hurried over to the side, jumping in as Emma threw it in reverse and peeled out of the parking lot, nearly running down some poor pedestrian who had to leap out of the way.

	Hiro laughed to himself quietly having watched the bizarre scene unfold.  Then, he climbed into his own vehicle and drove away.

&

youtube.com/watch?v=ZhhQrFfzFM4

	It didn't take long for Nina to identify Maggie's van while they were driving on the road.  Emma pulled in behind it but stayed back far enough so as not to incur any suspicion from the driver or whoever else might be inside.  As the van began to pick up speed, so did she while still keeping her distance tailing the vehicle.  Soon, the van came to a stop outside what appeared to be a fairly large facility.  Emma pulled her car underneath an overpass just a few blocks nearby, killing the ignition and gazing out the windshield towards the towering skyscraper lit in bright teal neon.  "Oh shit."  She muttered.

"What is it?"  Nina asked, glancing over at Emma with a worried look in her eyes.

	Emma replied gravely, "This is a BemaTech facility.  Whatever your little netrunner friend is getting into, it has to be some serious shit."

"Then let's go, dammit!"  Said Nina hastily unbuckling her seatbelt.  She was about to bolt from the vehicle before Emma grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back in.

"Wait a damn minute, will you?"  She chided the blonde.  Nina flopped back into her seat, eliciting a huff of warm air from her nostrils.  Emma kept her eyes trained on the van.  Before too long, the woman in question emerged along with another female and a few heavily armed males, mercs by the looks of them Emma assumed.  "Alright, they're on the move.  Let's go."  Emma was the first to get out of the car, followed by Nina closing the door carefully behind her.  "Here, take this."  Emma said, quickly sliding over the roof of her car to Nina a compact nine millimeter pistol.  Nina grabbed the pistol off the roof giving a curt nod back, "Gee, thanks."

"You know how to use one of those?"  Emma asked of her.

	Nina smirked in response, racking the slide and ejecting the magazine in smooth succession.  After checking that the mag was full, she popped it back into the well and released the slide lock, flipping the safety off and handling the weapon expertly with two hands.  "That answer your question?"  She quipped dryly.

"Yeah, I believe so."  Said Emma with a nod.  She then unholstered her own sidearm, a .44 revolver which she cocked back the hammer and took into her leather gloved hands.  "Alright, let's move out, but be quiet.  Follow my lead."

	Carefully but as hastily as they could, the women made their way across the street towards the facility, every once in a while taking cover behind the concrete pillars and shrubbery outside.  They skulked their way around the building towards the back, making sure to avoid the ever watchful eye of security cameras and motion sensors and other security countermeasures these buildings were sure to have installed.  Emma always wondered why these corpos would go to such great lengths in the name of security, as if they all had some dirty secret to keep hidden.  Maybe her partner Nishida was right about them, how far their greed and corruption stemmed in Nova City, perhaps even far beyond.  As the duo rounded the corner, Emma couldn't help but feel something was amiss.  There were no guards stationed at the loading docks.  In fact, there were no personnel at all present.  She knew it was late at night, but even so, there had to be someone on the clock to look after this place.  That was when she noticed the bodies laying near the rear entrance.

	Nina took one look at the limp figures, immediately her hand going to her mouth to stifle her frightened yelp into a frail squeak.

"Shhh!"  Emma turned with a finger pressed to her lips, a firm glare shot towards the blonde.  "Keep it down!"  She whispered sharply under her breath.  "You'll set the whole fucking facility off."

"But you're a cop."  Nina murmured in reply, a bewildered expression upon her face.  "What would the corpos do to you?"

	Emma sighed, "Let's just say cops and corpos don't really get along, aside from them selling us guns and kevlar.  It's a long story."

"Guess I'll hear it some other time."  Said Nina with a shrug.  She looked over the bodies once more, "What do you think happened to them?"

	Emma knelt down, placing her two fingers against one of their necks.  Sure enough, no pulse.  "My guess is those mercs took care of them."  She answered blunt.  "They were professionals too, no cheap guns for hire.  These corpses are practically clean.  I can hardly see any bullet wounds on them."  She rose to her feet, clutching her revolver firmly.  "Let's keep moving.  We need to find your friend before she trips some alarm and alerts the corps.  After that, well..."  She paused, a grave look overtaking her delicate features.  "Let's just hope you shoot as good as you claim."

	Nina gave a brief nod in reply, and with that, the women continued further into the facility.  Just as Emma figured, more bodies met their cautious approach through the halls.  Emma had to admit, she was impressed by how quickly and quietly the mercs mopped up the place.  She had to figure Maggie and that other netrunner were already in the server room by now.  At least that's where she assumed they were going.  Turning a corner, she immediately spotted the muzzle of a Milicor assault rifle poking out from behind a wall.  "Fuck!  Stay down!"  She quickly ordered to Nina, using her other hand to shove the blonde back against the wall.

	Nina gasped stumbling backwards, fumbling her gun in her hands before she caught it and grasped it tight.  "Jesus!  What the fuck?"  She hissed at Emma, a slight hitch in her breath as she glared daggers at the woman.  "You scared me!  What is it?"

"Trouble up ahead."  Replied Emma, carefully peeking her head out from behind the wall to get a better look at the mercs.  "Looks like two, no, three men.  Heavily armed, 7.62 rounds, possibly with FMJs.  That's some nice Milicor hardware they got."  And with that nice hardware they could shred both her and the blonde to pieces.  Emma cursed her luck.  Between the high profile mercs and the netrunners tapping into a heavily guarded facility, she knew there had to be more at stake than just some data grab.  She readied herself mentally, taking in calm, deep breaths as slowly she slid her finger into the trigger well of her gun and prepared to open fire at any given moment.
Kiragan_Natsuki Member

SynthWaver

Status

Recent Statuses

Bio

Most Recent Posts
