As the servers connected by Cortana returned to their usual color in their code.
At the same time in one of the streets of Night City.
Where the video of the white figure playing the beautiful melody on the piano was still playing on an advertising screen, it was abruptly interrupted again, changing the image and sound to that of a drawing of a woman in a jacket shaking her ass as she said.
[Nicola Taste the Love!]
Creating a contrast between the beautiful melody that was playing and the vulgarity of Nicola's advertising that replaced it. With the people who were watching the video of the figure playing the piano either entertained or annoyed, starting moving again when the speakers, screens, and holograms of the street returned, like the rest of the streets of Night City, to their mundane programming filled with ads and corporate propaganda.
Ending the sudden "performance", releasing the viewers who had captured their attention, entertaining them and giving them a brief respite from their problems and concerns,while, on the other hand, for others it had irritated and annoyed them every passing second of the strange ``performance'' that had paralyzed the city, interrupting their plans.
Making it irrelevant whether they liked it or not, everyone started moving again, returning to their lives that had been somehow affected by the video of the white figure playing a beautiful melody.
As the city returned to normal, in the building that had been the epicenter of the ``performance´´.
Maine, Dorio, and Pilar entered the building through the Pachinko parlor, which was used as a cover, now totally empty due to the battle that had occurred on the upper floors, attempting to enter the Tygers' base from the elevator that led to the private bar, but it was disabled by the current state of the Tygers' server.
They had to find an alternative way to go up, and the three of them arrived at a large warehouse at the back of the building, loaded with shelves and containers, with a set of metal stairs that went up three floors.
From there, they could see a green container with most of Militech's name on it almost erased, leaving a small part of their corporate logo on the container. Appearing to them from the harnesses and equipment inside, that was where the Exoskeleton that fell as they were entering the building was stored.
Making Pilar nervous seeing the marks on the floor generated by the exoskeleton, worried about Rebecca.
Following the marks, the three of them arrived at the metal stairs of the warehouse with its steps bent by the heavy footsteps of the exoskeleton. They were able to hear faint whimpers and crying coming from the third floor as they climbed the stairs, Pilar was the first to react, increasing his speed and climbing the battered steps of the stairs, shouting, "Becca!"
Maine and Dorio followed him, frowning at Pilar's emotional behavior, which was putting them in danger. Finally, they reached the last flight of stairs on the third floor and saw Pilar with his arms raised at the entrance, which had collapsed due to the exoskeleton, while a weak voice of a teenager said from inside the room, "Who are you? Don't take another step or I swear I'll shoot!"
Without responding, Pilar looked over the room with remnants of the battle, surprised to find survivors in the path of the exoskeleton, as he searched for the pale, small body of his sister.
With the time Pilar was taking to answer, making the drugged Mini nervous, who had picked up Rebecca's weapon to protect the others, especially Skyler and Rebecca who were badly injured.
With Maine and Dorio's voices could be heard from the stairs, saying; "We're looking for his sister"
"Yes, from the idiot who doesn't talk."added Dorio, causing Pilar to react again. he said, "Yes, Rebecca, do you know where she is? She's my sister, short and pale with a bad temper, but deep down-"
Interrupting himself when Pilar heard a weak voice calling him, "Idi-ot, shut up al-re-ady!"
"Becca!" Pilar shouted, recognizing the weak voice that called him an idiot.
"Don't-don't move" Shouted the armed Mini, still unsure and nervous from everything that had happened, aiming at Pilar who without caring that she was aiming at him moved towards his sister's weak voice.
"Easy girl, we haven't come to harm you, on the contrary, we've been paid to get you out of here," said Dorio, as she and Maine climbed the last flight of stairs, also entering the room of the captured Minis, approaching Skyler who had several minis around her still with traces of drugs on their bodies from the heavy lids on their faces, who were trying to stop the bleeding from Skyler's crushed hands with their clothes.
Dorio took a syringe out of her jacket and injected Skyler in both arms, causing a weak "Thanks" from the pale Skyler, who knew Dorio had just injected her with a stim to stop the bleeding from her crushed hands, causing the nervous Mini who was aiming at them to lower her weapon.
While Pilar reached the corner of the room where they had left Rebecca lying, who was gasping for breath as blood trickled out of her mouth, generating a hissing sound with every breath she took.
"Becca...you really look like shit...hahaha," said Pilar, laughing as he crouched down next to his little sister, happy to find her alive, even if she was badly wounded, 'she can recover from that, but not from death' thought Pilar.
"Very fu-nny. Bro, you have to..." Rebecca struggled to speak.
"Shut up! Don't speak, wait..." Being interrupted by her brother.
"No! You have to help...Coff-Coff." Rebecca didn't give up and tried to speak again but couldn't when she started coughing up blood.
"Tch, shut up shorty! You'll tell me whatever it is when I cure you first. I can't give you painkillers that depress your breathing even more... so, this is going to hurt, sis."
Pilar didn't say another word. he used the scanner mode of his mono-vision to scan Rebecca's internal injuries, and when he finished, he stretched and joined two fingers of his Cyber-hands, and small serpentine filaments came out of the tips of his fingers, without hesitation he stuck between Rebecca's ribs.
This caused Rebecca's little body to wince, as she bit her lip to endure the pain. Pilar focused on controlling the filaments of his Cyber-hands from his mono-vision, extending them inside Rebecca's chest, surrounding the broken rib fragments that had punctured Rebecca's lungs and removing them.
Managing to stop the hissing sound Rebecca had with every breath she took, when Pilar closed all the wounds in her lungs by spraying combat hemostatic foam from the filaments that, upon contact with the blood, created a barrier that stopped the bleeding and helped seal the wounds to facilitate healing, from a small vial that Pilar placed inside a compartment of his Cybernetica Tech-Hands.
The Tech-Hands were a multi-functional tool with a wide variety of functions ranging from first aid to combat, including the filaments he used for emergency operations.
When Pilar finished treating Rebecca's lungs she removed the filaments from inside her body, also injecting her with a Stim to stop the bleeding from the rest of her wounds, ending the first aid.
"Now try to talk" Pilar said trying to get Rebecca to explain what had happened and what had happened with the exoskeleton.
".... "But instead of saying anything Rebecca tried to get up.
"I said talk not get up, you still have broken ribs.... you're still fucked up, Becca."
"That doesn't matter, we have to-" Rebecca said, interrupting her again when Pilar, seeing her sister was going to end up opening her wounds again, injected her with a painkiller, which made Rebecca notice it. She said;
"You bastard..." Slowing her speech as she was noticing the effects of the painkiller "You said .... that nothing .... of Painkillers."
"That was before, now you are better, relax Rebecca you are going to reopen your wounds" Pilar said.
"Exoskeleton...help....Judy and.... please" Said Rebecca in an anguished manner, as she felt the effects of the painkiller, feeling her eyelids incredibly heavy.
"Yes, yes quiet" Pilar said soothing his wounded sister without taking his eyes off her. Asking aloud, when Rebecca closed her eyes "What the hell happened here?"
---
"Tch are we really going to do this, we already have most of Minis kidnapped and the rest have already escaped" Pilar said annoyed as they walked down the hallway following the traces of the Exoskeleton.
"Don't you want to help the people who saved your sister?" asked Maine in front of the group.
"I appreciate it, I really do! But do you think the girl who led the exoskeleton out of the room is alive? We should just leave and that's it, Rebecca might be pissed when she wakes up, but she'd be alive to do it, she needs to go to a hospital.... shit, it's going to cost us an arm and a leg.....fuck!"
Pilar replied, thinking it would be best to rush out of the building with the captured minis, the target of their work and his sister, instead of continuing to search for those who had saved the lives of the minis and that of his sister.
"We have to do our job and know what happened, besides, even though the girl is not on the list of names the Mox gave us, by the faces the other minis were making, if we don't look for her, they will tell the Mox that we left one of them, and the Mox will refuse to pay us completely, besides..... you also heard what she said about the guy who assaulted the base, aren't you curious?"
Dorio said giving the reason why they were still in the building while expressing her curiosity about the story told to them by Skyler. About the boy who snuck in alone, to save his girlfriend and that Pilar's sister convinced by offering him a job as a Merc to help her save the rest of the minis. Drawing the attention of both Dorio and Maine as to whether the boy, was the one who had managed to take down the exoskeleton outside.
"Yes.... do you really believe what the Mini with the crushed hands said? That a kid Becca's age has taken over the whole base?" said Pilar skeptical of believing the story of the injured Mini who told them what happened.
"And that's why we're going to find out, after all, someone has taken out the exoskeleton right?" replied Maine entering through another door pulled down at the end of the corridor, arriving a large room full of corpses mostly of Tygers, with several Trauma Team corpses among them as well.
"Dorio whistled upon seeing the room, with battle remains scattered all over and a hole in the facade possibly where the Exoskeleton fell when they entered the building.
"Damn, was this the Trauma Team?" Pilar asked.
"No, the Tygers have sword wounds alongside .45 caliber injuries. Trauma Team uses intelligent bullets of 5.56x45mm. There are casings on the ground, undoubtedly... they fought against something that fought back, I imagine it was the Exoskeleton," said Maine, investigating the wounds on the nearby corpses while crouching.
"So, the girl led the exoskeleton to the Trauma Team, huh? They've got balls," Dorio completed Maine's version of events.
"Yes, the girl did it right, and what the hell are the Trauma Team doing here?" said Pilar in frustration.
"Ha! That's odd coming from you, I thought you still wanted to run. As for the Trauma Team, I imagine they were here for one of the VIP guests from the private bar, although I don't fully understand it either. The Tygers should have evacuated their important clients," Dorio responded.
"And I do, I'm still worried about Rebecca, but... that doesn't change the fact that the girl leading the exoskeleton to the Trauma Team, saved all the girls in the room along with my sister, unlike those poor bastards," said Pilar, looking at the three Trauma Team corpses.
"Let's go," said Maine, standing up again after finishing his investigation one of the corpses, heading towards what seemed to be Shigeo's office, the head of the Tygers' branch, judging by the heavy open doors decorated with tiger engravings.
The three of them raised their weapons as a precaution in case there was still someone inside. As they approached the heavy open doors, they could barely make out the interior of the office, which was barely illuminated by some indirect lights, creating many dark areas where they could hardly see anything. The same was happening from the inside of the office.
With the person inside aiming a .45 caliber Nue pistol from one of the dark areas of the room at the three figures approaching the entrance, two large and one tall and slender, pointing at the head of one of them, unable to recognize their figures or identify them as NCPD, determined to protect the person she had on top of her at all costs, even if she had to kill for the first time.
With those thoughts in her head... She fired.