Brian walks out onto his backyard scanning the area... he steps down the backsteps into the patched dead grass and dirt with litter scattered everywhere. The Woman in Black follows him out the backdoor with her arms crossed watching him.
"You think I didn't do this already..?"
"Well, if you found it, you wouldn't still be here would you?" He glances back at her.
She looks at him without a response.
"No... you wouldn't. In fact, I'd go as far as to say you can't go back to wherever you've come from without... whatever the hell this is." He searches briefly before shifting focus... walking back into the house right past her... she promptly follows.
He exits back out the front porch of his home while lighting another cigarette. The feelings... frame of mind.. and energy he now has in complete contrast to when he first exited his home that morning. This dormant, buried energy of proactive motivation he once had's returned so unexpectedly he doesn't even notice it... instead remaining focused on the task at hand. His front porch offered him a great view of the entire block's landscape... enabling him to see it's activities and inhabitants more like a chess board. He scans the street out front with focus, taking a drag of his smoke before stepping down onto the side walk. The burned rubber tire marks of the Avenger and the pursuing Emperor drag in a drift right past the front of his house before returning to the road slightly and continuing up the street.
He calmly smokes, following the path of the tire marks up the street, occasionally glancing at various areas and debris around them. Local pedestrians stumble by detached from reality or self involved in their own business... The lanky woman sticks out like a chrome thumb as she catches hard looks and hears subtle whispers from vagrants and street toughs. The unfamiliarity of the environment grips her... the level of squaller... the sketchiness puts her on guard... her head on a steady swivel. Without Brian as an escort, her presence here would be far... stickier to say the least.
She follows behind him at a good distance with her arms crossed attentively watching him work... observing his methods of tracking. The area was in ruin... trash and dismay all sort of blurred together. The overall typography of the place made it a nightmare for her untrained eye... unable to discern new remnants from old... the streets were just littered with the aftermath of various compounded events left to rot... stacked in their final resting places. On her own... it'd be like looking for a needle in a bonestack.
Brian reaches the end of the tire marks and looks around the impact/crash site. To his surprise the area that it went down in is noticeably far more clean than your standard NCPD wipe up. All traces of both vehicles are completely gone besides several twisted metal scraps and broken glass. Looks like they wanted to be sure not to miss anything... nothing left for the local buzzards of the neighborhood this time. Brian takes another drag looking around the impact site. His eyes trace up to the top floor of a nearby apartment complex. A final drag before flicked into the street, he lets out a deep breath.
"Shit.." He whispers tired.
"What is it..?"
"Come on." He beelines it into the apartment at a steady pace as she follows, walking past a clearly destroyed elevator to take the stairs up.
"What are we doing..?"
"We're gonna try n' have a chat with someone."
"Up here..?"
"Nicholas Howard.." Brian mutters closing his eyes, continuing up the flight of stairs.
"Who..?"
"For as long as I can remember, playing on this street, we kids would always look up and see ol' Nick starin' blankly out of that damn window right inside his living room. We'd laugh... makin' guesses to what he was lookin' at or what the hell he was even doin'... just standin' there all day like a fuckin' potted plant. Nothing about it was certain except for the fact that he was always there... always lookin' up and down the street day in and day out... choom of mine used to call em a fuckin' gargoyle."
"And you think he saw... what exactly?"
"We'll find out." The flight of stairs is no joke... both traversing the steep climb effortlessly. "Besides... not exactly what he knows that matters."
The woman looks over at him as they reach the front door. Brian returns the look.
"Its what he won't tell anyone that matters." He knocks on the door four times with light force.
"So he doesn't talk to badges huh." She proclaims figuring out the purpose of the visit.
"Doesn't talk to anyone..."
"So why the fuck would he talk to you..?" She asks putting her hands in her jacket pockets.
A brief pause sits between them.
"...He knew my father." Brian impatiently knocks harder another four times. "NICK! Its Brian! Open up!"
The woman in black waiting rolls her eyes... clearly impatient by nature but has worked on it. "He's not here." She proclaims, standing back up straight ready to leave.
"Oh, he's here... he's just fuckin around... NICK!" Brian bangs again.
The whirs of an Achilles tech rifle charging up on the other side of the door startles the woman as she quickly turns to face it. Brian calmly puts his arm out in front of her... gently ushering her over to the side, out from in front of the door. Next they hear an M2038 Tactician get racked as Brian closes his eyes... taking a deep breath looking down. The heavy footsteps of Nicholas slowly approach as they hear locks and chains jostled and dropped to the carpeted floor with a hard thud.
The door finally opens with a slight crack... Nicholas peeks through.
"Brian..." He grumbles. His voice deep and rough.
"Nick.." Brian responds looking at the man's red eyes and disheveled thinning hair.. iron clutched under his arm.
"What do you want Brian... Where's your-"
"He's gone Nick... shootout you heard the other day."
The news delivered in such passing leaves Nicholas staring down in mourning while Brian pushes past him letting himself in. The woman surprised promptly follows in behind him as Nicholas looks at her confused.
"Y'know, if you ever took the time to actually leave this place you'd have a better idea of what's goin' on outside the view of your windows here." Brian glances around the apartment.. walking up to the window showcasing a clear cascading view of the subsequent backyards leading up the street towards Brian's house.
The woman in black takes the time to make some observations... all things considered, the place doesn't look anything like she guessed. It was spotless... everything was in order and squared away... A direct contrast to the scattered trash and debris you find in the streets and complex itself. The place smelled of fresh linseed oil and polish from woodwork. It was a clear judgement call to her... the man's big, imposing frame... the organized living space... he was most likely ex-military. On further observation she notices his opened weapon locker... various guns lay scattered within it... a lone picture of two men in uniform side by side resting atop it.
"There's nothing left out there for me Brian... you know that. Don't belong here... never did."
"I know Nick... my dad-"
"-Enrique..." Nicholas grumbles
"My dad told me-"
"My only choom.." Nicholas says to himself staring off in the distance
"-Nick..."
"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him... the only reason I stayed in NC..."
"Nick.."
"Right by his side... no matter what... even if it meant being in this shithole Arroyo-"
"NICK!"
Brian yells re-focusing him... two giant monsters of men stood in front of each other.
"After the shootout and the crash... what did you see out here Nick. Who did you see?"
Nicholas fields the question... staring at Brian briefly before turning his attention to the woman in black leaned up next to the backyard window.
"So that's why you're back here huh." Nicholas mutters getting her full attention.
A pause of realization rests in the room.
"Wanna know what i saw?" He raises his rocky voice looking at Brian. "I saw HER!" He shouts looking over with a point.
Nicholas face to face with Brian continues with his head turned toward her. "They were on her ass like i'd never seen before. Cornered her... then she went to work... right there." Nicholas points vaguely at the window.
"I saw her flatline three chromed out corpo huscle... yeah, i know they were corpo... she even sent a fourth one fleeing..."
Nicholas turns his body away from Brian and towards the woman... squinting his eyes with a slight grin.
"What was that... sandevistan and a K-Bar? Hah... they almost had you. Thought it was over after they got your iron."
Nicholas pauses briefly... lowering his tone with intensity.
"Where the hell did you get that implant huh...? Military grade combatware- and who the hell would even be able to chip that for you hm? Cyberware acquisition at that echelon... tch... damn near unheard of... everything's catalogued."
"Nick.. who else did you-"
Nick ignores him as he starts slowly walking toward the woman.
"You wanna know what stood out to me about that..." He slow heavy steps toward her shifts her posture and the energy in the room.
"Nick.." Brian mumbles.
"I've seen and been apart of some scraps in my day... but that... that was brutal." Nicholas pauses with a giggle... now standing face to face. His giant frame covering Brian's sight line of her.
His rough voice in a lowered tone grabs hold of her... each word carrying a weight only she could feel. Like he had an unseen gateway into her most visceral emotions.
"You like killing corpos... don't you-"
"NICK!!" Brian yells.
"The fourth one didn't get away!!... Did he?" He exclaims, matching Brian's tone with a yell back over his shoulder.. still looking directly into the woman's eyes.
"She tackled him... strangled him while he begged for his life."
She uncrosses her arms... the uneasy tension filling the room builds in the back of her neck with her heart pounding in her ears. Doing her best to hold steady as she said she would.
"You didn't have to. You wanted to... didn't you." He whispers in her face.
She looks down and away from him... his rocky grumbled voice now holding her mind hostage... delivering a question never asked of her before.
"What did they do to you huh?... what did they take-"
She sharply looks back up and into his eyes with a silent answer... the layers of her very being slowly peeling back... an expression of nervous intensity washes over her face as she clinches her fists shakingly tight.
"Because THAT'S! WHAT THEY DO!! THEY ONLY!! TAKE!!!-" Nicholas shouts right in her face.
Brian grabs him from behind, tripping him and quickly slamming him to the floor of the apartment, shaking the loose furniture under impact. He pins him down with his knee on his back.. holding one of his arms and pressing down on his head with the other. The woman looking away flustered doesn't react... feeling the tension of the moment suddenly break.
"I don't think you're hearin' me Nick." Brian grits his teeth with an intense look on his face.
"Gaahhhh!! Brian!! You little shit!!!" Nicholas squirms.
"AFTER it went down and everyone was gone... WHAT. Did. You. SEE! NICK!!!"
"NCPD SQUAD CAR!! OUTSIDE YOUR HOUSE!!" Nicholas grits in pain.
"WHAT ELSE!!" Brian yells, yanking slightly, making Nick squeal. The woman in black watching in a haze.
"Aaagh!! 6th STREET!! THEY WERE AT YOUR PLACE! BACKYARD!!!" The woman snaps out of her trance, re-focusing her attention.
Brian, uneasy at the news shifts tone.
"How many."
"JUST ONE! AAGHH!! WHAT THE FUCK!! LET GO!!"
Brian looks directly at the woman while holding Nicholas down. She returns it with a confirming nod.
He lets Nicholas go as he lets out a shriek of relief rolling on the floor in pain. Brian stands up over him.
"Get outta the city Nick... said it yourself... nothin' left for you here." He stares down at Nicholas with heartless pity and the jaded numbness of different times
Brian glances at the woman before turning to walk out of the apartment.
She stares down at Nicholas left in pain on the floor... her racing mind thinking deeply. Nicholas stares back up at her without saying anything... she follows after Brian out of the apartment.