Scavs

I jacked out of another session on the tall black tower pc I'd built in the months since joining up with the Valentinos. Damn thing was a money sink from start to finish. First I signed up for several public databases to get information about computers, programming, and cyber security. With my Science skill so high I pretty much memorized everything I read on the topics, understood how to use them, and how they all came together to form the beast resting at my bedside.

Even after it was all built it still sent my eddies down the drain, this time by fulfilling its purpose of making my online presence while using it keenly anonymous. It was overkill for just about anyone, but I wanted to be able to hide from both the Corpo AI's monitoring the net and from the netrunners I was sending payments to for information they gathered by hacking into those much feared megacorporations.

I'd bought a fair few schematics for weapons, vehicles, and cyberware as well as peeks into the R & D branches of Militech, Arasaka, and Kang Tao. It was all coming together in my mind, but I needed to ramp up my Medicine skill which is where I put my points when I hit level 9 while working for the shop. Even with my impressive performance the Street Cred gains for each day of work were low. Much bigger than when I was still in school, but I'm not going to hit 50 in a couple weeks like V. I'd level up again in about six months if all else is equal till then.

I needed Medicine to get that same effortless understanding of cyberware that I have for guns and pure machines. It'd all be worth it though when I get it all up and can produce bleeding edge advanced chrome.

I strapped my other major investments to my hips after getting dressed for going out on my day off with the chooms. A pair of preem Malorian Overtures that I'd put work in myself to turn into a mean pair of hand cannons. First off I'd machined some new trigger guards for them - don't know what the fuck Malorian was thinking with those stock half guards - and then I'd machined out some action hammers for them. Despite being a scifi company, Malorian was still using classic hammers similar to what Smith & Wesson first put out in the 19th century. In the early 21st century back home Revup Action designed an all new hammer system that worked like a dream come true for lightening the pull on revolvers, something my Guns and Repair skills perfected making my Malorians fire damn near as fast as I can pull my hair triggers.

I reverse engineered Saka's RC-7 muzzle tech and built a set of breaks that match the profile of my guns perfectly and amp muzzle velocity by 32 percent. With three Crunch Mods slotted in each I was getting an extra 51 percent velocity on my pistols without any accompanying recoil which was already helped by the custom grips I put on them for my giga man hands. They'll be gold plated and laser etched once I stack my eddies back up. Not that anyone would care about the color once they catch a .42 caliber bullet from one of them with a powder load set for bear and technomagic backing it up.

I pulled some cold burritos for me and the chooms from the fridge and hopped in my truck to go pick up Pedro. Him and Ralph were the two guys that signed up with me and Small Juan and I'd got to know them since. It was important to form a strong bond with the guys I came up with. Together we formed a little gang within the gang, taking on the problems of the world together.

My eyes lit up as I received a call from Jaunie, whose voice started playing in my head as I answered it.

Small Juan: MOTHER FUCKING SCAVS JUST SNAGGED MY ABUELA OFF THE PORCH. GOT THEIR CAR TRACED AND I'M CHASING THEM. THEIR SHOOTING ME AND GETTING AWAY! HURRY CHOOM! WE GOTTA CATCH THESE PANDEJOS!

Big Juan: Got Juanie. Got Pedro in the car with me. Will send word to Ralph. We'll get these pinche putos.

I contacted Ralph and sent him the deets as well as Manny. By the time that happened Jaunie called me again.

Small Juan: ENGINES SHOT TO SHIT, MAN! THEY'RE GETTING AWAY! GETTING OUTTA RANGE!

Big Juan: I already boosted your tracer with some code of my own. Got it tracking the gonks and your abuela too. They ain't getting away without leaving Night City, hermano.

Small Juan: Nova! Pick me up!

Juanie sent me a ping along my route to the perps and hopped in the back when I slowed to a roll in front of him. He had a shotgun in hand ready to go, but I slowed down and followed at a distance. Even if we caught up what would we do? Ram them? Hack the car? Not with his abuela inside. I messaged Ralph to cool his heels till they stopped as the guy drove around in a turbo'd Type 66 he inherited from his late father and could blow my doors down in a race.

They finally stopped at a megabuilding in Little China. We parked on the sidewalk and rolled out with guns drawn, following the scavs up to the eighth floor and apartment 0718. The guy living in 0716 came out, took one look at us getting ready to breach the neighboring apartment and put his face in his hands.

"I need to get the fuck out of this place." he whined and then took off incase the any bullets that are about to start flying come his way.

I hacked the door open and saw the scavs inside strapping Juanie's abuela to a metal table. My guns rang out six times in rapid succession, splattering everyone in the room that didn't look like a little old Mexican lady.

"Check the other rooms." I ordered my chooms and Jaunie's shotgun roared out in the bathroom once before all was clear.

"Abuela!" Jaunie called in relief as he came out of the bathroom with a little splatter peppering his front. Fortunately we wore mostly red and black these days.

"Hit the deck!" Pablo - who'd been keeping his head peeked out the front door to watch our six - shouted as he dove to the floor right before a hail of bullets ripped through the wall.

I dove on the old lady as gently as I could and hissed as a bullet grazed my lower back.

"You spics should have stayed home!" a distinctly asian voice shouted after the bullets stopped.

I burst the head of the first guy to come through the door - a punk in a neon tank top with yakuza tats - and the bullets ripped again. The chooms kept flinching every time the metal table we'd flipped over and hid behind took a hit.

"We'd have killed you for the audacity of drawing your guns in our territory, but now we will make it hurt." the voice called out again.

On reaction I shot the incendiary grenade that they tossed through the door, sending it back to sender before it detonated. I never thought the sound of asian dudes burning to death would make me happy, but fuck these Tyger Claw gonks. With that distraction in place I vaulted the table and ran out the door, shooting anybody with guns I could see. The chooms came with me and together we gunned our way down the hall while shuffling Juanie's Abuela to the elevator.

While we went down I'd updated Manny who told me we had homies inbound.

"You think we got them all?" Ralph asked as his hands shook on the grip of his pistol.

"Yeah, Ralph. We just killed all 5500 Tyger Claws back there." I deadpanned as I pushed everyone to the sides of the elevators and put the old lady behind me as I reloaded.

She didn't exactly have two levels of Toughness and a 10 in Endurance.

I made the right call as I had to whip my head back when I checked tje landing. The damn smart bullets almost got a lock on me, bending their flight path but still hitting the elevator. With their positions memorized I stepped out and dropped both shooters simultaneously.

We cautiously made our way back to our cars and Ralph's voice broke when he saw the tires all shot out.

Big Juan: Send tires.

I sent Manny a capture of the shot wheels and the specs.

Manny: On it. Get to cover till the boys get there.

The next six minutes were tense as hell as we waited for more Tyger Claws to show up, but instead a handful of Chevillon Thraxes sporting red and gold paint jobs and images from folk Catholicism pulled up and an army of homies rushed out guns out and ready to rock and roll.

Gus came over to us and gave the old lady a hug.

"Everything will be okay now, abuela." he soothed her as the Tyger Claws finally showed up in vans and on bikes.

Both sides stared each other down with guns drawn just waiting for the shot callers on either side to give the signal. Gus and the top dog with the Claws shared a few tense minutes of conversation, but at the end of it the Tygers got back in their vans and bikes and drove away.

"They don't want anymore today, but you four better not show your faces in Watson anytime soon. Even if you pay tribute to get the matter expunged, don't think any of these slant eyed cabrona would catch any flak for flatlining you after anyways." .

We all nodded our heads in understanding and then Gus's serious face split into a big grin, "To the cantina, ninos! I always love a good story about the Tygers getting skinned!"

A delivery truck came with our tires and we drove out of Watson to a heroes welcome back home.

When I got home I spent the points of the two straight levels my Street Cred jumped.

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Name: 'Big' Juan D. Welles

Level: 11

NEW SKILLS

Medicine: 94

NEW PERKS

Quickdraw

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The gods of war have ignited my fighting spirit, giving me the energy to keep typing through sleep deprivation and weeping babies. One handed even. Blessed be the fans in these days of fast releases.

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