Luz

The walls of the No-Tell-Motel are too tight and it’s suffocating her. Her best friend didn’t deserve to die in a shit hole like this. The slums of Kabuki had claimed so many foolish edgerunner’s lives. . . but this was Jesse. They’d grown up together. The both of them had clawed their way out of Watson and made names for themselves. He wasn’t built the way Ellie was though. Where she was all coarse and grit he was. . . had been kind. Watson hadn’t ruined him the way that it had ruined her. She had tried to tell him that the hit business wasn’t for him, but he had aimed too high. 

And that resulted in his fall. 

She shouldn’t blame herself, but jesus fuckin’ christ she did. 

Nakagawa picked up her call in ten seconds. She counted. 

“One of your Claws zeroed Jesse.” No greeting was necessary. She was already pacing the stained carpet, her boots sticking to substances that she didn’t want to know the origins of. 

“Woah, woah. Why are you immediately assuming it’s one of my guys?” He sounded defensive, which had a vein popping out in Ellie’s neck before she could think to calm herself. 

“Because I’m standing over what’s left of em’.” She spit out, looking down at the distinct symbol on the back of his vest.

There’s a muttered curse and then the rustling of fabric. She’d probably woken the asshole up. ‘Good.’ She thought to herself. 

“El,” He says her name as though he’s trying to calm down a rabid animal. It isn’t working- her jowls are already watering. “This must be some sort of a mistake. I wouldn’t have put out a hit on your guy.” 

He knew better than that. In fact, the only people who didn’t know any better were the damn corpo rats that thought they could snuff her out. If they wanted to get back at her then they would have sent Smasher. . . not a fuckin’ Tyger. Something simmers inside of her then. The roaring fire in her chest began to dim and then settle. Before she can blink her mind shifts from overwhelming grief to purpose. Her eyes focus in the dim light, her muscles loosen, and all she can see is a goal. 

“I’m going to give you the night to figure out why this happened.” She said, her voice low. 

There’s a brief pause before Nakagawa speaks up again. 

“Are you threatening me?” And his tone does nothing to frighten her. If anything it has her lips curling up in an oddly placed smile that clearly displays her fracturing mind. Piece by piece her sanity begins to unravel. 

“This is real shit timing for you, Gawa. I’ve been back in Night City for all of four hours-” 

“Why? Why did you even come back?” He snapped back, raising his voice in a way that displeased her. She thinks of all the ways that she can make him suffer for it later. 

“Visiting a friend. A friend that is now dead,” She said flatly, refusing to look down at Jesse’s cooling body. “So I’m going to say this one more time: find out why this happened. And then, once you do, I want you to give me names.” A name was all she needed to get the job done. 

“And if I don’t?” His voice shook but he still sounded defiant. He wanted to protect his men, and Ellie doesn’t blame him. She’d do the same if she was in his shoes. 

“How long do you think it will take me to have the streets of Kabuki district running with Tyger blood?” She looks out the window, streaked with grime, out at the horizon. The neon lights from the buildings down below light up the wet pavement. Night City is alive and breathing all around her. “My guess is that I can make it happen before the sun rises above Yaiba tower. Think about how much I can do in the week that I’m here.” 

A loud banging sounding on the other end has her eyes closing. He was scared, as he should be. If he was a tiger then Ellie was a dragon. She’d swallow him and the entire den whole before her visit was through. 

“We’re five thousand strong-” 

“Good. I’ve been needing the target practice.” And with that she hangs up the line.

══════════════════

She’d let her hair get a bit longer than she would have liked. In Chicago she had it made. Penthouse, nice cars, and no boss breathing down her neck. She was the judge and executioner. She zeroed whoever she felt like zeroing and collected the eddies. It was lonely at the top though. She’d helped Joel settle down further into the midwest, and she appreciated his weekly calls. . . but she didn’t get to see him very often. Not when she ran the risk of being followed. The higher up she climbed, the more people wanted to hurt her. 

The best way to do that, if they couldn’t get to her themselves, was to go after the ones that she cared about. She had a feeling that Jesse had fallen victim to that. 

Ellie still had her apartment in the Glen, but being back felt strange. It was like she had reversed the clock back a year and a half- she was looking at a phantom of herself. And that Ellie was staring right back in the mirror. 

She gripped the sides of the sink as she saw her reflection. She had already scrubbed Jesse’s blood off of her hands, but they still felt dirty. Like no matter how many times she bathed and rubbed her skin raw she would never feel truly clean again. She’d taken the night to rummage through her old liquor cabinet and drink until she felt numb enough to sleep. That had only lasted a few hours though before she was woken up by a nightmare. Ellie was used to those. It came with the territory of knowing what the inside of a split cranium looked like. 

She hadn’t been able to go to sleep after that though. Most of her morning had been spent with her head hovering above the toilet bowl, emptying the contents of her stomach. When she closed her eyes she could see him. . . his eyes, staring up at nothing. Another wave of nausea punched through her gut, but she knew that there wasn’t anything left for her to throw up but the stomach bile that felt like it was currently burning a hole through her. 

Focusing on the goal was the only thing that she could do to keep herself from crumbling. She had six days left and she couldn’t afford to waste them balling her eyes out, puking up whatever she managed to get down, or hiding herself away in the hallowed halls of her old life. Especially not when Gawa still hadn’t called or messaged. 

He had silently declared war and she wasn’t in the business of losing. No, she’d gotten where she was because she was a natural born killer. She’d once killed a man with a singular chopstick- she could afford guns now, and lots of em’. 

Ellie hated to admit that she couldn’t do what was necessary without a little help though. Wiping out the Tygers wasn’t good enough, not when she knew that there was someone in the shadows pulling their strings. Killing Jesse had been bigger than just a job gone wrong or some sort of petty territory dispute. What she needed was answers, and her usual methods of torture and intimidation wouldn’t cut it this time. It stung to admit that her skills alone wouldn’t be enough.

The unused couch creaked under her weight as she sat down, spreading her legs as she leaned back against the cushions. She ran a hand over her face, her fingers digging into the faded freckles on her cheeks, as she thought long and hard about what to do and where to go. Employing any help from anyone directly in the city was out of the question. Netrunners were loyal to gangs to a certain degree. Their fixers, those fuckin’ cocksuckers, loved kissing up to people above them to get ahead. Ellie couldn’t afford to saddle up next to a Netrunner that may or may not be buddy-buddy with Gawa. Even a five percent chance of that was too dangerous. 

Getting in contact with the Voodoo Brothers was the obvious choice, but they were loyal only to themselves. They were tight knit. . . too tight. The second that they figured out how high Ellie was aiming and how dangerous it might be for them they would turn on her. The millions of eddies that Ellie was willing to give wouldn’t be enough to sway them to stick their necks out that far out. She could offer her own services to them on top of the eds, but she didn’t have enough time for that. 

So she would have to think outside of the box. Get creative. The mercenary thought of every single person she’d ever worked with in the past. Names and faces flitted through her mind. . . and then she sat up a little bit further on the couch. There was one job that she’d undertaken a handful of years back, and a faceless runner had been involved. They’d gone by the name ‘Orpheus’, which wasn’t a lot to go off of. The last thing Ellie had heard about them was that they had retired for good. There was a strong possibility that Orpheus didn’t even live in Night City anymore and was operating under a completely different alias. 

But they were the best of the best. In fact, Ellie doubted that she’d ever worked with anyone so skilled in her entire life- and that was counting fellow mercenaries as well. The good thing about Orpheus was that they operated the same as Ellie: no alliances or allegiances. The problem now was finding them. 

Before she could over think and worry about the consequences of acting rashly, Ellie had her boots laced up and her keys in her hand. Hunting people down was one of her many talents, and while she would much rather be hunting heads, she had to hunt down a lost legend first. 

She was striding through the lobby and towards her bike in a matter of seconds, her hair tickling her cheeks as she blended in with the other civilians on the sidewalk. People used to turn their heads and give her a wide berth whenever she lived in Night City, but after a year and a half the civilians found new faces to fear. Ellie was little more than a boogeyman now: someone you told young mercenaries about to scare them into staying in line. It didn’t bother her much though, not when it helped her blend in so much better. 

The drive to Lizzie’s had the brunette’s blood pumping a little faster. She was in Tyger territory which was, in hindsight, a very bad idea. The sleek black helmet she had on kept her features well hidden though, and the gun strapped to her thigh reminded her that she was still in control. 

“The club isn’t open yet,” Rita said before Ellie even had time to turn her bike off. “You can come back in a couple of hours.” 

The brunette takes a few seconds to look at the front of the familiar landmark. It’s nostalgic. . . and Ellie isn’t sure if she really wants to take a trip down memory lane. The pink haired woman watches as the helmet-clad merc takes a few steps closer, her bat clutched in her hand. 

“I’m here for Judy. I’ll be in and out.” The freckled female said, sliding her keys into her back pocket. 

“Judy didn’t mention any visitors. Why don’t you call her and have her give me the okay to let you-” 

“I lost her digits a year ago,” Ellie bit out before she let out a small sigh, closing her eyes tight. “Rita, just let me in.” 

The woman blinks her blue shadow smeared eyes as the voice finally registers. Her lips part and then she’s smiling, breaking her bouncer persona for a split second before she schools her face back into one of neutrality. 

“No shit. . . El. You’ve moved back home?” It’s an innocent enough question, but it still has Ellie’s chest tightening in a way that’s uncomfortable. Home? Night City wasn’t her home any more. Especially not now, when she’s just lost everything that made her feel any semblance of comfort here. 

“Just visiting,” She said thickly, her shoulders going a bit rigid. “Now it’s very important that I talk to Judy. If anyone bitches you out for letting me in then I’ll take the heat.” 

Susie Q kept her girls in a very tight, straight line. The only problem was that Ellie couldn’t afford any daylight hours. Before Rita could say anything the woman was already pushing her way through the front, the decorative door beads clanging against the thick plastic of her helmet. She stalks through the empty, soundless club. Her thick soled boots crunching against a small chunk of broken glass as she stalks past the bar and towards the back. She remembers her way to Judy’s “dungeon” like the back of her hand. The brightly colored walls hurt her eyes a bit as she breezed through the back of the building, no more than a shadow as she moved silently down the stairs. 

She finds Judy in front of a screen, which is no surprise to her. The tattooed woman hadn’t changed at all in a year and half- same hair style, same downturned lips. Same bitchy attitude. 

“Hey! What the fuck are you doing down here!” She yelled, her chair rolling a few feet behind her as she stood . The computer casted shadows over her features as she moved closer to Ellie, who simply stretched her arms above her head and yawned. The merc was absolutely exhausted. Not sleeping and spending the entire morning puking wasn’t exactly good on the body. 

“Tone and volume. Please? My head is killing me.” Ellie grumbles before she takes the helmet off, tucking it under her arm. 

Judy bristled, stilled and then stared. The two women just looked at each other for a few moments, precious seconds ticking by. It wasn’t exactly rare to be a lesbian in a place like Night City, but even with how large it was, there was still a silent kind of comradery that existed between them. An understanding of sorts. The two had always been on good terms, perhaps even a bit flirtatious at certain times in the past. Though nothing had ever come from it. Mixing business and pleasure was a recipe for disaster, and while Judy was pretty. . . she wasn’t exactly Ellie’s type. 

“What the hell. . .?” That was all the dark haired woman could get out in response to the woman’s sudden presence. She looked like she was seeing a ghost. Maybe she was. In fact, perhaps that was all that was left of Ellie after last night. If it wasn’t for the aching pain in her chest and the rage pumping through her veins, she’d be pretty convinced of the fact that she wasn’t real anymore. 

“I’ve got a very important favor to ask you. Ten thousand eddies, deposited directly into your account, if you can help me find someone that you used to be pretty familiar with a few years ago.” 

That seemed to break Judy out of her shocked stupor. Ellie watches as the woman folds her tattooed arms over her chest, and raises an eyebrow. 

“Who?” 

There’s a very real possibility that all leads won’t get her anywhere. Ellie tries to prepare herself for a dead end, and for a split second she almost talks herself out of asking at all. The techie was as tight lipped as they come, especially if it meant putting one of her acquaintances in danger. 

“I worked with this one netrunner a few years back. You mentioned in passing that you actually knew them-” 

“No.” Alvarez was already saying before Ellie had a chance to finish. 

“I need their help with something.” 

“El, no.” 

“You know how much I hate needing someone else’s skills, but this is something that only they can do.” 

Judy’s arms uncross so that she can wave them in front of her, punctuating her rushed words. “What part of ‘no’ do you not understand? Did the Chicago winds damage your ears?” 

The mercenary pushes on, taking a step closer to Judy. “Tell me where I can find Orpheus and I’ll make it worth your time. Twenty thousand.” 

That has the techie’s eyes pinching at the corners. She was starting to consider it, but she shook her head again. “I get that you’re all rich and famous now, but your blood money is no good here. Orpheus is a friend. A retired friend.” 

For a moment the small sliver of hope that Ellie was carrying started to die out, but she bolstered her nerves and took another step, crowding Judy in a way that had her stumbling back a step. 

“I’m willing to do just about anything to employ Orpheus. They can name any amount or any favor,” Judy perked up a bit as she heard the word ‘favor’, and Ellie picked up on it immediately. “Free of charge. Anything within my power is on the table.” 

They stared at each other for a second time, Judy’s eyes flickering over Ellie’s face as though she’s searching for some sort of lie or exaggeration of the truth. She saw none. . . but she did see the obvious desperation. In fact, the techie had never seen the woman look so vulnerable. Something had happened, she could tell, but the news of Jesse’s death hadn’t gotten out yet. 

“If they get hurt-” 

“They won’t. I’ll protect them the same way I protect everyone I work with.” The screen on Judy’s desk flashed, but Ellie kept her eyes on the woman in front of her. 

“With your life?” And there’s something there in the techie’s eyes that the merc can’t quite place. A mixture of fear, protectiveness and fondness. Orpheus, whoever they were, must really mean a lot to Judy. 

So Ellie didn’t hesitate before she nodded. “With my life.”

⬶ previous level | next level ⤅

【A SHORT GUIDE FOR THOSE THAT ARE UNFAMILIAR WITH CYBERPUNK】

choom = friend

nova = cool, nice, awesome

eddies = currency, money

gonk = dumb-ass, idiot

zero(ed) = dead, to be killed

seeing as the year is 2077, humans have become one with technology. think of the human brain as a computer: you can download information, get messages and calls straight to your head (without the need for a phone) and even hack tech around you. that includes other humans as well seeing as they are all one with technology. this is due to something called an "internal agent"- a brain implant that was created in the late 2040's. you can buy "cyberchips" to download new hacking functions, though they cost a pretty penny and take a while to master. this includes overriding another human's internal agent, hacking a person's gun, inducing overheating and even forcing an armed enemy to hurt themselves. you can "jack in" to computers or even other humans too, making it simple to download and hack as necessary.

now that the human brain is so undeniably powerful, people have felt the need to also upgrade their bodies as well. in fact, there are a lot of mercenaries that are mostly made up of "cyberware". the only downside to physically changing your body so much is that you can get closer and closer to going "cyberpsycho". The human mind, no matter how advanced, is still just that. . . a human mind. You do too much to your body and it can completely overwhelm your nervous system, causing you to become a mindless murderer with no sense of direction.

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