Back at the base, Rolando put together the footage to construct both an exciting broadcast about the gang war and an advert for Trauma Team. We contacted Trauma Team to see if they were interested in sponsoring us in further episodes of Bross Kemp On Gangs. They were interested, but on rather restrictive terms, including producing 12 episodes in the space of 26 weeks. With no guarantee that Marlon would be able to maintain this personality long enough to make that happen, we didn't agree to anything just yet.
Still, we had a job to do, and getting Bross Kemp to report on the local slav gang seemed like a good way to go about it. We recruited an old friend of Quinton's - a conman called Nemo - and got in touch with the slavs.
We met in a coffee shop. Bross Kemp talked to the slav contact about how he'd heard they were the hardest gang in Night City, and wanted them to appear in his documentary. He successfully persuaded them, and we were invited on a ride-along.
Requiem: "Would you like me to come with you?"
Bross: "Naaaaah."
Requiem: "Would you like me to pretend to be feeling really insecure so that I need to stand next to you for comfort?"
Bross: "...Yes."
All the same, by the time our contact Ivan, Bross and Rolando had all got into one car and the rest of the slavs had got into another, there wasn't much room left. So Requiem drove the team's van with Nemo and Quinton.
They arrived at a hand-made furniture shop. Rolando and Bross followed the slavs inside, with Requiem hot on their heels, while Quinton and Nemo waited in the van, listening in on comms. Inside were a family with two children, who apparently hadn't paid their protection money. Screaming ensued. Bross insisted that documentary makers did not interfere. Requiem, whose ability to human was quite diminished by this point, followed his lead. Rolando kept the camera rolling.
Nemo and Quinton had other ideas though. Beating up old men and kids wasn't their idea of proper gang behaviour. They came charging in together, and in only a few seconds had taken out every one of the slavs, one of them with a headshot that left both Bross and Requiem splattered in blood and brains.
Bross slipped over on the blood (or so he claimed), collapsing behind the sofa in the middle of all this. Requiem, struggling to deal with something that reminded her so much of Ricky's death, ducked down with him and attempted to comfort him, no easy task for someone with such a fragile grasp of empathy that it was all she could do to act vaguely human.
The sudden ambush obviously posed something of a difficulty regarding the documentary, but Bross reckoned they could pull it back if they attacked him as well. Nemo shot him and threw a chair at him, but inflicted only minor wounds. He also referred to Requiem as 'Chastity', which she felt was sufficient reason (along with adding to the verisimilitude of the attack) to shoot Nemo. Only gently though. Just a love tap really. She wasn't entirely happy about him shooting Bross's legs either, given that they used to be part of Ricky, but she managed to let that one go.
Finally Nemo shot Bross in his one remaining original arm, tearing it to shreds, which was considered a sufficiently serious wound for Trauma Team to deal with. (Bross had already snapped his card.) Requiem picked him up and carried him outside (being sure to get some good shakycam footage from her hat camera) ready for Trauma Team to pick him up. She would have stayed with him (apparently her obsessive personality had found a new target) but didn't want to argue with a Trauma Team armed AV, and rejoined the others.
With the help of Nemo, who turned out to be exceptionally good at producing forgeries, Rolando produced a film that carefully avoided showing faces, in order to maintain the story that the ambush had been committed by members of Stomp Street. They had killed all of the slavs, but Requiem had managed to drive them back enough to escape with Bross and Rolando.
Despite extensive use of stock footage, voiceovers, clips from the previous film and wilhelm screams, the resulting film was still convincing. Rolando added sad music where appropriate (raiding Requiem's music collection, which since Ricky's death had consisted almost entirely of The Smiths). They showed the footage to their contact with the slavs, and were able to convince them to go and start trouble with Stomp Street. Once again we were invited to ride along, despite the fact that Bross had returned from the hospital, still with only one arm.
What will Bross Kemp report on next? How will Requiem react when he inevitably gives up on this personality and goes back to being Marlon? Find out in the next disturbing episode of Ramos Reportage!
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