Civi-less

The sun beat down heavily upon them as Ori drove into the desert. Even with the shaded windows the heat inside the truck kept climbing, as if they were sitting in an oven. Even with the air conditioner on, he and Sasha had sweat dripping off of them... Then again, it could just be all nerves, nerves for the approaching confrontation.

He follows the thin, dirt road until they spotted a building in the distance, half buried by sand and with four vehicles parked to one side... Had been hoping to see only the Netrunner present? Yes. Had he been stupid enough to expect it? No.

He stops the car a dozen meters away, and they could already see the shutters behind the windows twitching, meaning the mercs knew they were here. "End of the line..." Ori mutters, patting Six's revolvers to make sure they were there and gripping Bore tightly. "You ready?" he looks to Sashi.

She gives a small nod, extending and retracting her Cybernetic claws before palming her Militech Omaha.

"Last chance to back out." he quietly asks as the building's door opens, revealing the hooded figure from the TV.

She just smiles sweetly and shakes her head, stepping out of the car. Ori follows, gripping Bore tightly as they meet the kidnapper halfway.

"You're missing one." they remark, voice now clearly feminine without the voice modulation.

"She's watching the car." Ori firmly states, without any sign of deception thanks to the Nanite's manual control over his muscles.

"Hm? Well, whatever." they hold out a rucksack, "Your weapons please."

Ori frowns, "Are we going to fight or not? You've kidnapped my family, now you want me to disarm myself and wait to die?"

The hooded woman tilts her head, "We want to ensure that you stay, 'Zombie'. Once you're inside, we'll let your family go. That annoying bitch of yours can drive them home." she shrugs, "We're not psychopaths, we don't harm innocents unless necessary."

"And if I just blow your head off here and now?" he inquires in a low tone.

She shrugs, "Then your family will die. And my impression of you caring more about them than yourself will be proven incorrect." she leans forwards, "But if you really want to throw it all away, go ahead."

...

They stand there like that for a couple minutes at least, tension thick as Ori contemplates shooting the bitch standing in front of him. In the end, he just sighs. Hopefully Rebecca would get here with reinforcements fast enough, if not, well, he'd be too dead to worry about it.

He drops Bore into the bag, prompting Sasha to do the same with her pistol. Unfortunately, the woman was too savvy to miss the large revolvers on his hips, his jacket not hiding their prominent bulge well enough to avoid notice.

"Good! Now, follow me please!" she says, leading the duo into the building.

Immediately as they enter, Ori spots other mercs poking their heads into the hallway and glaring at him and Sasha. "You need something, shithead?" he grouses, causing one of the men to scowl.

"You can fight later!" the woman orders, "Let's get the hostages outta our hair first."

She kicks open a door which reveals a large room along with Bats, Cat, and Fujino who were still tied in the centre. They all blink as they spot him, Cat struggling against her restraints as moisture builds in her eyes.

"Well, you're free to go! Now get the fuck out so we can get started." the woman says, cutting their restraints.

Cat pulls the gag out of her mouth and runs to Ori, "Bro! W-what are you doing!?"

"Saving you. Now leave." he orders, pushing her towards the door and sending a firm nod at Bats as he pulls over a chair and sits in it.

"B-but you can't just-" Cat presses, but stops as Bats presses a hand over her mouth and pulls her away, all as she squirms to escape.

Fujino stands between Ori and the exit as if weighing the decision of trying something. But a glare from Ori sends him on his way... Leaving Ori and Sasha alone with the hooded woman.

A couple minutes later Ori could hear the engine of his car starting, then trailing off as it drives into the distance. Safety.

*Clack!*

The metal door of the room closes as the last of the mercs step into the room. There were ten of them excluding the Netrunner, all either heavily built, highly modded, or lithe and quick-looking. Clearly, after the Netrunner's failure she'd elected to bring all the other merc groups together to assure the completion of the bounty.

Ori leans forwards on his knees as Sasha stands beside him, eyeing the gathered mercs as if they were premium cooked steak. "It's gonna take more than you just lot to kill me." he states, causing some to laugh.

"Hah! We know you, Zombie. You got lotsa' defensive chrome, but I ain't never seen you with anythin' else." one of the larger men grins, revealing his metallic teeth, "You've had us runnin' around Night City lookin' fo' ya, now it's payback for the wasted time and Eds'"

Ori takes a glance at Sasha before refocusing on the men, "So what, you just gonna bum rush us and hope you get lucky? Or maybe you'll have the balls to go one-on-one?" he taunts, hoping they'd be stupid enough to accept.

"Hhaakh! Fuck off, we're mercs, not fookin' samurai!" he hefts his shotgun, "You're nuthin' but a paycheck."

"Just me, or her to?" Ori questions, pointing a thumb at Sasha.

"Both of 'ye, but your head's worth more." he grouses.

"How 'bout me versus you all then? Leave her out of it... Unless you're scared?" Ori presses, knowing he could handle a lot more than Sasha.

The guy cocks his shotgun, an automatic if Ori had to guess, "What part of no don't you fuckin' get? You gonk prick!" he raises his gun towards Ori's head and fires.

*BAANG!*