Three - Hunter, Hunting, Hunted
Four days after the mission, everyone wakes up in their respective homes to another Night City morning. Some screamsheets are buzzing about their actions in the scav haunt but no one was left to identify them. They would find out later that that would be for the best.
As they meet in Bear's, a family style restaurant, Kira gets a text from Padre asking him for some help. Cipher hasn't checked in since the mission and he's getting worried so he asked the crew to go and check in on her. At the same time, Acid gets a text from a certain someone that catches her attention.
GK, on the other hand, is hungry for a little bit more than just breakfast. He's keen on finding out more about the people they've found themselves with so he decides to pay old Gustavo a visit at Aokigahara.
With Acid off with Kusanagi, GK headed over to Aokigara, and the rest of the crew looking in on Cipher, events begin to unfold for each of them.
GK pries some information from Gustavo about the man they're working with. Gustavo turns out to be pretty talkative and despite his jabs he clearly cares about Kira. During the conversation, GK learns enough about Kira to sate their curiosity for the time being. Meanwhile, Acid finds herself having a little bit of fun with Kusanagi at her apartment. Acid willingly takes a dose of Black Lace and goes on a bit of a trip. Moreso than Kusanagi was expecting.
In Heywood, the rest of the crew investigate Cipher's apartment to find grave tidings. The room is dark and it looks like it's been searched thoroughly from what they could see. They do find Cipher, well, they found her corpse. It was burned to a crisp seated in her netrunner chair.
In the midst of their discovery, N0VA discovers a would be interloper who gets spooked by the ringing of their phones. N0VA gives chase and although the man was quick, N0VA just happened to be that much quicker. After catching the man, N0VA finds out a few things that went down. First, he saw what looked like a man in a suit and another in full Militech gear turning Cipher's apartment upside down. He also then heard screaming after the two men left.
With this information, the crew go to Padre at the El Coyote Cojo. The place is empty when they arrive save for Aztec and Padre's husle. They lay it to him straight and his fears are confirmed. He reveals that the client that asked for the data is dead and it looks like Militech is doing a little bit of cleanup. Anyone who even had a whiff of the job is being hunted down, plied for information, and then promptly taken out. With Cipher gone, Militech was getting close to Padre and he decides to lay low outside of Night City for a while. He leaves Aztec behind to keep tabs on the crew.
The rest of the day was blissfully uneventful save for an encounter with a Nomad group that N0VA quickly connects with. They also manage to make a trip to the Night Market to stock up. N0VA had sent her car off to be worked on by Icepick who does some light paint changes, a full change in plates and registration, and of course a sweep of the car's soft. With the car "cleaned up" the crew head to the Steel Vaqueros' camp to lay low for a day or two.
On the way there, they encounter more Raffen who sought vengeance for their fallen comrades. It does not go well for the Raffen.
At the Steel Vaquero camp, the crew takes a moment to catch their breath. This was until Kira gave Aztec a call who was on his way out of El Coyote Cojo when he was ambushed by unknown assailants. The crew is left hanging for a moment as the call is cut off.
Some time later, Aztec contacts Kira through a burner to tell him that he's okay and that the Valentinos managed to get him out of there. But that doesn't allay the worries of the crew much. Suddenly, they found that they weren't that sleepy after all.
