Chapter Text
It had been about a week since Rebecca joined up with the Huntresses, and she’d been enjoying most of it. She wouldn’t deny the boring parts, like campaign support for Robyn or history lessons with Fiona.
However, her visits to the Ripper were fun, as he crafted some new chrome for her arsenal. An iron was ok, but her new fists felt like home. She’d thought about painting them her normal colors, but decided against it last second.
“Hey, Becs, nice gear.” May commented as Rebecca walked out of Doctor Polendina’s.
“Thanks, choomba. Now we’re really going to have some fun around here!” Rebecca declared. The street lights reflected the gold paint of her fist, and she smiled.
Suddenly, the roads turned red and alarm klaxons blared.
“Grimm sighting. All citizens, please evacuate to the nearest shelter, or remain in place.”
May and Rebecca ran off before the message could repeat. They followed the panicked trail of civilians, and eventually Rebecca got eyes on her first Grimm: a pair of moderately sized Sabyr. The red, black, and white beasts roared, and leapt at one stray civilian.
Rebecca screamed her own warcry and launched at the offending Sabyr, socking it straight in the face. She deftly grabbed her new SDC-branded shotgun (logos scratched out, of course) from her back sling and fired it into the Grimm’s neck. It let out a cry as black particles filled the air.
Across from her, May was parrying strikes with her staff, narrowly avoiding the Sabyr’s jaws. When it made another lunge, May simply disappeared into thin air. Confused, the Sabyr roared about. As it made a blind lunge, a crossbow bolt found its mark into the underside of its neck. May appeared again, a grin on her face.
“You’ve got to teach me what tech you use.” Rebecca said, walking over to her compatriot.
“Trade secret. You’ll learn when you start paying attention when Fiona is trying to teach you something.” May chided.
“Ugh…”
Rebecca was walking down the street when a face popped up on a holoscreen: General James Ironwood. The Edgerunner rolled her eyes. He was another of those sleazy corpo types that promised stability and peace while chroming up forever. Bored, she picked up a rock with her fists and flicked it at the projector, breaking it instantly.
“Much better… David’s Ripper sounded better than you , gonk. ” She spat and walked off.
CLANG! CLANG!
Rebecca whipped around to see two Atlas security robots now at her level.
“Disturbance detected. Moving to apprehend suspect.”
“These bots again?” she groaned.
BAM! BAM!
The robots fell to the floor in respective metal heaps. With a satisfied sigh, Rebecca walked away, but failed to notice the flash of yellow behind her and was knocked to the ground.
“What the-” she let out before getting launched into the nearest wall and pinned upward.
Struggling, Rebecca took stock of her attacker: a short, brown-skinned girl with metal equipment attached to her arms and back. She had a tuft of yellow hair at the middle of her head, and a sneer on her face.
“Suspect apprehended. Do I bring her in?” The attacker asked, an eye on Rebecca the whole time.
Damn place has idiots with sandies, too!? She thought.
The Edgerunner thought of a few plans, as the woman’s hand squeezed around her throat. Rebecca grunted as she failed to pry the arms off her throat, even with her weaponized fists.
The mystery woman listened intently at some order, so Rebecca dropped her arms and quickly rifled her pockets, finding a flash grenade for this. With her eyes closed, she pulled the pin and chucked it as high as she could.
The resulting flash caused the woman to scream and drop Rebecca, who tossed up a smoke grenade this time. The Edgerunner sprinted as fast as she could, not wanting to take on any speedster. Her assailant huffed and scurried about.
“Ac- Operat- Bre- in pursuit!” the woman yelled, her voice fading away at a distance.
Rebecca dove for the nearest alley and sprinted, taking cover behind some trash cans. She attempted a mental call through her tech, but only static came up. With a frustrated groan, Rebecca pressed a finger to her earpiece.
“Hey! I need an out! Some crazy gonk is chasing me! I think it’s one of Iron-fuck’s badges.” The Edgerunner hissed.
Rebecca tensed as something whizzed outside of her alley.
“Stay put, Rebecca, we’re on the way.” Robyn’s voice crackled over the radio.
“You better be, this bitch is fast. ”
“ Shit …” Joanna blurted over the comms.
“You need to hide better, now. ” May emphasized.
Rebecca felt disbelief. What the hell did Ironwood juice his badges with!? She backed farther into the alley, quietly dragging a wheeled trash bin in front. Every bit of noise caused her to flinch or pause. Eventually, she made it to the very back of the alley, and Rebecca intensely stared down alley from the side of the bin. Her small breaths released cloudy vapors into the air.
Despite her opponent’s apparent speed, Rebecca had to wait an agonizing ten minutes. A crunch in the snow alerted her, but when she quickly peeked, Rebecca spotted nothing.
“Fuck, fuck… where are you guys?” she muttered, now thumbing her last grenade.
“Not anywhere, anymore, kid.” a voice spoke behind her.
Rebecca yelled and instinctively threw the grenade, but it was too late. Her attacker grabbed her wrist and twisted, causing the Edgerunner to squeal. The explosive bounced harmlessly on the floor, its trigger unpushed. The woman pulled Rebecca midair and quickly cuffed her in the span of a few seconds.
“Fuckin’ shitter badge!” she cursed, kicking at her assailant to no avail.
Ironwood’s officer sneered and looked like she was going to punch Rebecca in the face, who responded with a defiant glare. Their staring resulted in steam forming in a two-foot radius around them.
“Stop! She’s supposed to be with us!” Robyn’s voice called from down the alley. The woman, still holding Rebecca, rolled her eyes.
“Ms. Hill! Are you saying you have affiliations with this miscreant girl?” she asked. Rebecca attempted and failed to kick the woman in the stomach.
“Operative, she is in our custody and watch. She’s new in town and doesn’t need you breathing down her neck.” Robyn retorted.
The Operative thought for a moment.
“She’s been a pretty big thorn in our side recently. Large string of alleged vandalism. Are you sure this is someone you want to keep around?”
Robyn, now being tailed by the rest of the Huntresses, nodded.
“I can promise you we’ve got it under control. Now please, release her and we can go on our separate ways. She’ll get a nice talking-to later.”
With a noncommittal hum, the Operative put a finger to her ear.
“Sir? Orders? Are you sure? I can almost guarantee it’s her. Sir- understood.” she talked over the line. With a sigh, she dropped Rebecca unceremoniously to the floor.
“You can have her, Ms. Hill. But if she acts up again-”
“She won’t .” Robyn said, venom creeping into her voice.
“We’ll see about that.”
The Operative sped into the night.
The Happy Huntresses quickly tended to Rebecca, unbinding and propping her up. Joanna slapped her on the back proudly while May hollered.
“Getting the eyes of the Ace Ops, Rebecca! I like that!” Joanna cheered.
“Hey, we’re supposed to be teaching her to keep low.” Robyn chided, though she couldn’t disguise the small grin on her face.
Rebecca smiled, feeling a surge of pride she hadn’t felt since Maine’s crew. She looked around, seeing the proud and confident grins on the Huntresses’ faces. The Edgerunner began to tear up, but sniffled it away before it got out of hand. She awkwardly kicked at the snow as she decided her next words.
“So, gonks. I don’t say this much, but- thanks for having my back. I used to be on a crew and- it’s just nice.”
Robyn and Fiona beamed.
“But,” Rebecca continued, “That’s not we normally celebrate a win- especially against some modded geeks! Where’s the best bar in this town!?”
May and Joanna looked at each other incredulously.
“Are you like, old enough to drink?” May asked.
Rebecca pelted a snowball into May’s face.
It was a cold, pitch-black morning in Mantle. Rebecca found herself on a rooftop, munching on a ration bar she took from one of Ironwood’s patrols. The taste grew on her, since it beat out the kettle in Night City.
As lights throughout the city began to turn on, Rebecca turned on her earpiece, still not used to the low-tech system of Remnant.
“This is Becca, anyone online?” she hummed, chewing off a corner.
Two minutes passed.
“Hey, it’s May. Why are you always up early?” May yawned.
“Night City never sleeps, choomba, and I always had this watch. Also, took you long enough to respond. You know, if the doc could fix me up, he could give you the same tech I got. Would make it quicker to communicate.”
“Maybe, but I don’t really need anyone poking around my brain at the moment.” May replied.
“It’s your loss.” Rebecca said, shrugging.
“In any case, you got something for us?” May asked.
“Nothing new but-”
Something green and fast whizzed by Rebecca.
“Shit! There it goes again!” The Edgerunner yelped.
“Rebecca, status?”
“Some flying green thing just shot past me!”
A couple of Huntresses groaned over the communications line.
“Stay put and stay low, Rebecca. That’s the Protector of Mantle, Penny. She’s the Doctor’s daughter.”
Rebecca’s jaw dropped.
“ That’s his kid!?” she cried in disbelief and instant regret. She put a hand to her mouth.
It was too late, as Penny promptly landed on the roof behind her.
“Hello!”
“AH!” Rebecca panicked, aiming her gun right at Penny, who activated her array of swords in response.
“Oh! You are Rebecca! Why are you aiming a weapon at me?”
The two of them simultaneously lowered their armaments.
“Shit, you can’t just sneak up on someone like that. You’re going to get zeroed that way.”
Penny giggled.
“You do talk a funny. My father mentions it whenever he speaks about you.”
“I’m just not from here. What are you doing flying around this early, anyway?”
Penny beamed with an innocence that rivaled David’s. At least before the upgrades.
“I’m doing my patrols! It’s been… intense in other part of the city, and I’ve been attending to friend Rub- my friends! This sector has also been notably clear of Grimm, likely because of your efforts!”
“Yeah, it’s uh, no problem.”
“Rebecca! Keep her talking!” Robyn ordered.
“That’s neat, Penny. How has your dad been? Haven’t seen him for a few days.”
“He’s been absolutely wonderful! As I’ve been protecting Mantle, he has helped upgrade my systems over time. I am truly more than combat ready! And, it has been wonderful to see him meet all my friends!”
“Right. I… think he talked about those friends one time or another? Who are they?” Rebecca asked, hoping the lie would pass. Penny either didn’t notice or care.
“Oh, friend Ruby and her friends are absolutely wonderful! In fact, we are about to ventu- oops!” Penny said, covering her mouth with a scandalous look.
“About to what now?” Rebecca questioned.
“It’s nothing! Thank you for protecting Mantle, friend Rebecca, I will see you another time!”
Without another word, the robot flew into the sky.
“Hell was that?”
“ That is supposedly Mantle’s future. But it’s interesting to note she’s teamed up with some interesting people. Her friend, Ruby, alongside her team, are new arrivals in town. We don’t know much about them, but they’re all close with Ironwood. Probably not a good thing, but now we have a lead to their whereabouts.” Robyn explained.
“Uh-huh, glad I could help, I guess.” Rebecca replied dryly.
“Well, Becca, Ruby’s team was spotted with the Ace Operatives. Remember that you met one already, and if we tailed them…”
“Rematch with that Sandy’d-up gonk!”
“Perhaps, but maybe we hold off on that before finding out more information.”
Rebecca groaned.
“Fine, but if she steps out of line again…” Rebecca started.
She primed her fists and shook them in the air. The lights reflected off the gold plating in a cascade onto the snow and metal. Surrounded by a golden glow and filled with a new confidence, the Edgerunner felt truly ready to tackle Remnant.
“... she won’t know what hit her!”