"Mom! Are you okay, Mom?!"
David yelled desperately, his eyes fixed on Gloria, who lay motionless a short distance away.
Gloria seemed to hear his frantic calls. Her body shifted slightly, but she quickly stopped moving, overcome by pain or exhaustion.
Not far from the scene of the accident, Peter's ears picked up the boy's cries.
David? That name sounds familiar.
Peter glanced at the wreckage with a puzzled expression. His instincts told him there was more to this than just a random crash. Activating his enhanced vision, a power he'd recently awakened, he scanned the scene. Among the chaos, he spotted Gloria, injured but alive.
"V, wait here," Peter said as he opened the car door. "I'm going to check it out."
V raised an eyebrow but stayed put, watching as Peter approached the wreck.
Meanwhile, the unmistakable hum of a Trauma Team vehicle filled the air. The hovering craft descended gracefully, its sides emblazoned with the company's logo.
"Finally! The Trauma Team is here! We're saved!" David exclaimed, a spark of hope lighting up his face.
The Trauma Team medics wasted no time, scanning David and Gloria with precision instruments. But the words that followed extinguished David's hope in an instant.
"This person is not a client," one of the medics said flatly.
"Nor is the woman," another confirmed.
"Our priority is our clients. Notify NCPD to handle the rest," the team leader instructed before boarding their vehicle.
"Understood," the medics replied, and the Trauma Team vehicle lifted off, disappearing into the sky.
David stared in disbelief as the craft vanished. "Wait! You're just going to leave us here? What the hell are we supposed to do now?!"
His voice broke, but the only response was silence.
"Stop yelling. It won't help."
David turned to see Peter standing next to him. With a calm but firm grip, Peter tore the crumpled car door off its hinges as if it weighed nothing. He reached in, carefully unbuckling David and pulling him out of the wreckage.
Once on solid ground, David sprinted toward Gloria's limp body. He reached out to shake her awake, but Peter's voice stopped him.
"If you don't want her to die, don't touch her."
David froze, his hands trembling mid-air.
Peter's enhanced vision had revealed the severity of Gloria's injuries—a fractured rib had punctured her lung. Any sudden movement could cause internal bleeding to worsen.
David looked up at Peter, desperation etched on his face. "Then what do I do? Please… please help my mom."
Ignoring his own pain, David dropped to his knees and bowed his head.
Peter sighed, shaking his head. "It's been over a hundred years since the Qing Dynasty fell. Stop kneeling already."
David blinked in confusion at Peter's cryptic comment, but before he could respond, Peter walked to the front of the wreckage. With a single powerful kick, he sent the company car blocking the road tumbling into the nearby lake.
V had pulled their Mizutani Hayabusa closer to the scene by then. Peter carefully lifted Gloria into the back seat of the car, his movements deliberate and precise. He turned to David, who was still kneeling on the ground, stunned.
"How long are you planning to kneel there? Get in the car."
David snapped out of his daze and scrambled to his feet.
"O-Okay," he stammered as he climbed into the car, still reeling from what he'd just witnessed.
As V started driving toward the nearest hospital, she glanced at Peter with a smirk. "This isn't like you. When did you become so… helpful?"
Peter leaned back in his seat, unbothered. "Just doing what needs to be done. We couldn't leave them there to die."
V arched an eyebrow. "Sure, but this isn't your usual MO. You've been walking past scenes like this all week without batting an eye." She cast a curious look at Gloria, lying unconscious in the back. "What's so special about this one?"
Peter didn't answer immediately, instead pulling a pneumatic injector from his bag. Tossing it to David, he said, "Here. Use this."
David caught the device and stared at it, unsure.
"It's a pneumatic injector," Peter explained. "You've been to Arasaka Academy, haven't you? You should know how to use it."
David nodded, fumbling with the injector before pressing it against Gloria's arm. The device hissed softly as the medicine was administered.
Gloria coughed violently before her eyes fluttered open. She looked around in confusion until her gaze settled on David.
"David? Where are we?"
"Mom!" David exclaimed, tears welling up. "We're in a car. A kind man is taking us to the hospital."
Peter glanced at him in the rearview mirror. "It's Peter. And the beauty next to me is V."
David gave Peter a grateful look. "Thank you… Peter."
Gloria, still groggy, mumbled, "Peter… why does that name sound familiar?"
---
The car soon arrived at a hospital—a stark contrast to the one David had been to before. The doctors here wore clean white coats, and the facility exuded a sense of professionalism, unlike the butcher-shop atmosphere of the cheaper clinics.
Peter carried Gloria inside while V stayed behind to park the car.
"Get her to the operating room," Peter instructed the staff, who moved swiftly to take Gloria.
David stood outside the operating room, watching through the window as the doctors began their work. He let out a deep sigh of relief, turning to Peter, who was leaning against the wall with a drink in hand.
"Brother Peter, I don't even know how to thank you," David said sincerely.
Peter shrugged. "Don't worry about it."
David clenched his fists, his emotions bubbling to the surface. "If you hadn't shown up, we would've been left there to die. The Trauma Team doesn't care about people like us, and the NCPD would've been too late. You… you're our savior."
Peter sipped his drink, eyeing David thoughtfully. "Night City isn't kind to anyone without money or power. You need to remember that if you want to survive here."
David nodded solemnly, his gratitude etched into every fiber of his being.
---
As they waited for news on Gloria's condition, Peter leaned against the wall, gazing out the window. His thoughts wandered back to the chaos of the accident and the desperation in David's voice.
Night City had a way of breaking people. But for some reason, Peter couldn't bring himself to let this family fall victim to its brutality.
V returned from parking the car and leaned next to him. "So… what now? You planning to adopt him or something?"
Peter smirked. "Don't be ridiculous. I just did what anyone would've done."
V chuckled. "Sure, Peter. Whatever you say."
The two stood in comfortable silence, the hum of the hospital machinery a reminder that, for now, they'd made a difference.
---
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