Mano A Mano

"I would like a personal pledge from yourself, Zombie, that you would assist in these matters."

Ori scratches his face in mild confusion, "I'm still not sure why you'd care about my participation..."

"You're not sure...? Are you not aware of the way the Tyger Claws currently view you?" she smirks to herself, "You've become quite the boogieman. Having you with us alone would cause the opposition to pause, and that's without your already substantial abilities."

Ori quirks a brow as Rebecca curses under her breath about him taking all the credit, "I wasn't the most dangerous merc there on that day so-"

"Oh I beg to differ. Though, we only realised this after recovering the recordings from the building's cameras. I will accept your thanks in advance for snatching the data out of the NCPD's hands."

"Oh... That..." Rebecca utters, face somehow going paler than before.

"Indeed, quite the abilities you've displayed. You're terribly lucky it is only I and a few subordinates of mine that are aware of them. Had the opposition acquired it-ah, let us not ponder such a dire future."

Ori frowns, unsure if he was being threatened or not.

"What's she talking about..?" Judy inquires, not having heard anything about this.

Susie nods, "Yeah, I'd rather not be left out in this..."

"Sorry, but it's none of your biz." Ori retorts, "I'm annoyed enough with her knowing about it." she gestures at Wakako who just smiles as she observes them.

"Sorry's not enough, spill it." Susie all but demands, but pauses when Judy shoots her a glare.

"His secrets are his own. If he doesn't want to tell us now then leave him be." she turns back to the screen, "If 'Zombie' agrees to help, will you meet with us?"

Wakako nods, "There will have to be other, smaller concessions, but his participation would certainly move things in your favour."

Judy glances at Ori and he just sighs and nods, "I'm in, just don't fuck it up for the rest of us." he sends a pointed glare at Susie who just huffs in response.

-----------------

Ori and his crew took a backseat while Susie, Judy, and Wakako ironed out the rest of the agreement. Among them being the reimbursement for the damage caused by the Tyger Claws, to be paid once the opposing faction had been dealt with.

Wakako tentatively agreed, pledging to supply at least fifty percent of the costs. Which was actually incredible considering the Moxes' relatively weak position. The territory next to the bridge would also be fully ceded, any Tyger Claw control removed and given back to the people of Kabuki.

Then, a date was named for the official meeting between Susie and Wakako. It was rather rushed as neither wished to allow their opponents time to disrupt or plan around it, which was smart considering Arasaka would likely intervene should they learn of it.

Judy did try and interrogate Ori and Rebecca into revealing the secret they were withholding, but neither spoke on it. Not because they didn't trust her, but because it was rather upsetting... Learning that a close friend's head had been blown off and somehow grown back would shock even the most stone-hearted of people.

Ori did immediately get to work planning the security team for the meeting. He was sure the Mox and Wakako's subordinates would be plenty effective, but he'd rather not take any chances. Thus, he contacted Maine.

While he was sure there'd be enough people on the ground, there'd also likely be a dire lack of competent Netrunners to keep an eye on things. After all, it took only a single one some time to hack into someone's Cybernetics to kill them. He'd rather not see Susie get forced to shoot Wakako in the face and end up starting yet another gang war, one the Mox would certainly lose.

So, he contacted Maine to garner the services of Kiwi and Lucy. Of course, the merc was fairly reluctant to let them go on their own, but since Ori's crew would also be present, he allowed it with some 'restrictions'... David and Dorio would also be present to protect them if someone got wise to it.

That was fine, the more the merrier as far as Ori was concerned. The costs could be ignored with how important this mission was. He had no doubts the Tyger Claws would do their best to intervene, despite them deciding to situate it directly in the Valentino's turf.

They'd gotten permission, Wakako apparently had a strange relationship with the top-dog Fixer in the area called Padre, who convinced the Valentinos to allow it, letting their security teams in for the duration. Unfortunately for the Tyger Claws, that also meant no big-ass biker raids could occur without massively pissing off one of the strongest gangs in Night City.

Not that Ori was expecting them to go that route, they'd probably try and sneak an assassin or something in. After all, it wouldn't be hard to mix one in with Wakako's crew, given they were all technically still Tyger Claws.

On the bright side of this horrifically bad situation, he did manage to buy the Cyberware he'd been looking into. Monowire, he'd had to get Rebecca to modify his grapple hook to make them both usable but he was pretty happy with it, even if he had nearly cut his own face off while playing around with it.

The ceramic plating now adorning both of his palms was rather irritating, and wouldn't grow back if something cut off his hands, but if that happened he'd have worse problems than being unable to use the Monowire...

Maybe he shouldn't have dropped his wallet on the extra mods like Medium Capacity Batteries and Thermal Wire, but he'd be damned if he let the fucking Tyger Claws get away in one piece... Maybe he should ask Lucy to show him some moves though...?