Guardian Box
Radioactive Cognitohazard
You forgot the most important rule of Chroming-up - if what Motoko says is the law, Vik's professional medical opinion might as well be the Voice of God.
Ghost in the City Cyberpunk Gamer SI
- Thread starter Seras
- Start date
-
- Tags
- cyberpunk gamer self-insert
Chapter 226
New
Seras
Well-known member
Back home I flopped on the couch to get some programming done. First step was to go over the obvious.
Programming 15 had come with a perk choice.
Considering the power of some of the programming perks I’d already taken I was going to need to go through the list.
What was my Programming toolbox really missing? It certainly wasn’t versatility. Between Debug, and Inspired Programmer, I was able to do pretty much anything I could think up, but I still hoped for something more.
Programming was so powerful, forging weapons for the net. What sort of weapon did I want?
I could find a perk to improve Daemons. I could find a perk to improve Quick Hacks.
What was I looking for? I blinked. It didn’t sound good at first, but then the more I thought about it…
Stress Testing: The more you use your code, the more its weakness stands out to you.
It was an interesting Perk. How useful would it actually be? I’m not really sure, but hell, even if it only gives me a few ideas for how to improve code that I’ve already maxed out as far as I know, then it’s kinda neat.
Plus there wasn’t a lot else that was standing out to me.
I selected it, and the rush of knowledge made me wince, a hiss escaped my mouth as I curled up a little.
I’d just done two programming levels back to back. I should know better than to overwhelm myself.
Idiot.
Leaning back I covered my eyes and let myself just decompress for a minute. Should I sleep? Ugh.
No, Five minutes, then ten, twenty. I finally felt a good bit better, as the Perk knowledge dump stopped frying my brain.
Huh.
That’s what it meant. All of my programs had run into issues over time. Bandwidth, or upload problems.
I pulled up Ping first. The program was unloaded, and I started digging through my code, even with my previous programming skills, and my Debug perk. A bunch more levels of Programming had opened up new options, and Stress Test showed me even more.
There was a balance between function and efficiency.
What if I overloaded part of the program, making it do too much, when other parts were less balanced, suddenly I had times where while uploading it slowed down, or caused system traffic that it was never designed to do.
If the upload rate was faster than the installation speed, then… That was just wasted power.
And I knew all of that, because Stress test. It flashed in my head, every time I used ping. And while it wasn’t perfect knowledge, or memory. I had logs to back that up.
I could pull those apart, see every time there was a halt, and figure out why.
Stress Test…
It was a good choice. Maybe not the absolute most optimal one, but it was good.
I was okay with good.
Ping had some issues with its spread speed, it would sometimes Ping the next node in the system before the connection was complete.
So instead of pinging once, connecting and uploading the Daemon, which would upload to me. It would bounce to someone multiple times, sometimes even dozens of times if there were multiple people in the network that it could bounce too.
Causing disruption.
No one had noticed yet, but… It was honestly a minor issue. The disruption would be so small, there were only a few people that could notice it in the act, maybe afterwards if they were checking logs they’d be able to track the Daemons spread…
But I bet I could make it even more stealthy.
A few lines of code rewritten, a bit stronger limiter.
Ping would take maybe a half second more per jump, a million years for a computer, but for me? I doubt I’d even notice.
Yet it was even more stealthy now.
With that done, I installed the Program back into my Cyberdeck, and worked through the upload schedule partitioning RAM from my other cyberware to run the program when needed.
I’d set up a method while in combat, but this was all about streamlining it.
To give an analogy, if my programs were throwing knives. Originally they’d just been a bunch of knives in my off hand, I’d thrown one at a time.
Then I’d realized I should slide a few into my pocket, or through a belt.
But what I was doing now was memorizing the position of every knife, and giving them their own holsters…
I pointedly didn’t think about the extra knives I carried around that were just stolen and only the first one that Jun had given me actually had a sheath.
Whistle away the fact Motoko! You have programming to do!
Next was my Optic Reboot.
Ah I still loved this Program. It was just so evil. Looking through the code I wanted to wince, when had I programmed this again? Five levels ago? I’d tinkered with it a bit as I leveled, but not really a full check up.
No, an update. Again Stress Test showed me, or at least brought it to my mind, the points where Optics Reboot had floundered.
Adjusting upload rate I went through the code humming a bit quite pleased with how little I really had to change.
This time I focused less on stealth, since if I was hitting someone with Optics Reboot they were going to know about it.
I felt a smile spread across my face as I gently tapped my foot to a silent beat.
Updates were awesome!
I went through all my hacks in the same way. Cleaning up and adjusting. Until I was completely done. Then I had a choice.
I opened up a file I hadn’t messed with much. A few times I’d looked at it, but had never quite managed to get it to work.
It was an Ultimate Quick Hack. At least that’s what they’d been called in the game. This one?
Cyberpsychosis.
Considering I’d already accidentally done something similar to a person. I think it was time to break this one out, and get it functional. The hack was a kludged together, incredibly RAM and size heavy program.
First step was to once more go through it. This time, its structure didn’t give me any real trouble.
This part affected Bio-cyberware, adrenaline, and worse would be pumped into the target. This one affected IFF through optics. This one caused a pseudo white noise, that cut out most noises from reaching their ear, and instead would help them think they were under attack.
It was multiple programs all integrated into one, but it wasn’t clean or even all that functional. I dreaded the idea of trying to upload this hack, it would probably take more than twenty seconds just to upload, and even longer to install.
There was more of course. A control software that would try to force the user to shoot whenever the IFF lined up.
Accidently barrel sweep an ally? Well they’re going to end up getting shot at, which would only make it more likely they fire back.
So many different ideas to try and cause issues. There was even a Daemon that would try to make everyone look the same to the user. Cutting out chances for the victim to recognize friend from foe.
That part was neat, even if my Onryo was better.
But I could integrate that into my own version of Cyberpsychosis.
That made me smile as I considered.
I could give everyone a little shoulder devil urging them on, if I went that way.
I shrugged the idea off for now, and basically started rewriting the code right from the start. It needed a cleaner cycle or else this hack was never going to be fast enough for my tastes.
—--
I was still tinkering with my programs when I got a text.
*Alice: Got some news. Reached out to a contact at a club. You in for a gig this weekend?*
I looked over the text, and part of me instantly wanted to refuse, but I pushed that down. A gig… Was probably a good idea.
*Motoko: Contact Hiromi, but sounds fine.*
*Alice: Preem, already done. Practice sesh this week? I want to rock.*
*Motoko: Yeah sounds preem. I have something tomorrow, but otherwise, sounds good.*
I sighed and rolled up onto my feet.
Cyberpsychosis wasn’t going to be needed for my Netrunner contest with Sasha. What I needed was more skills.
I moved my head around a bit, and still felt a bit too full to want to grab another skill, so instead I got up.
I’d done a good once over on all my programs, and cleared and settled them into my system. I felt like wiggling in delight at how wonderful having so much more RAM for my netrunning felt.
It made me feel like…
I got up and grabbed my guitar. As much as I’d been playing with Alice and the band, I hadn’t really felt like I had any time for some rocking out myself.
Adjusting my guitar I considered what I should play. I’d had a few ideas for things. Some songs I’d been wanting to make had fallen to the back burners because of the amount of time it would take to make them.
So… Something simple? I didn’t need to make something new, just something…
I looked up and flicked on the radio, and a moment later smiled, as I played along with the sound of Black Dog.
There we go. I didn’t need to play something new every time. I could just… Play. Enjoy the music.
I played until Jun got home late, and I glanced at him as I continued to play along with the radio. Thankful for my chrome hands that didn’t get tired.
Jun took his time, throwing his jacket on the jacket table, slipping out of his shoes, and coming to walk over to me. He took a moment to listen as I played along, and he smiled at me, just enjoying it for a few moments, before reaching out and dropping a heavy hand on my head.
“Go to sleep Motoko. It’s late.”
I stopped playing and stuck my tongue out at him, but I did put my guitar away and turn off the radio with a glance.
“You sleep too Jun.”
“I will.”
—--
“Yaaaay!” I was nearly tackled by an over enthusiastic cat as Sasha leaped at me, even as I fended her off a little.
“Personal space Sasha!”
“I will right after I give my cute Kohai-Chan a Hug!” She cheered and I continued to bat away her grabbing hands.
“Well isn’t this…Enthusiastic.” The voice had a light synthetic lilt, but still mature. I looked around Sasha who seemed a little irritated that I was still fending off her grasping hands, with my Martial arts talents, to see the pair I’d sort of been looking forward to meeting.
Kiwi, and Lucy.
The two of them were sitting on a couch in Maine’s little safehouse. There had been a moment of confusion as to why they were still using the safe house if it was meant to be a safehouse, but a little line from the Solo’s Manual had flashed into my head.
A safehouse wasn’t safe if you’d used it before. After the first time it was either a burned hole in the ground, or a house. Pick one.
Maine probably had a new safehouse somewhere in the city, just in case something went hot and they needed to hide, but this was still a nice enough place to have meetings, or live out of for a while.
Blackhand would have preferred a cardboard box in an alleyway. But that guy was insane, so I disregarded that ‘advice.’
I took the chance, taking a step back as Sasha took her own to fortify her assault for another hug, and just leapt.
Easily flipping over her head until I landed behind her almost gently and just walked over to the couches that were set up.
“I’m Motoko. Nice to meet you… Kiwi right? And hey it’s Moongazer. Enjoy the beer?” I offered with a teasing smile as I looked over the two women.
Jesus Kiwi was fucking tall! I had either not remembered, or something but she sat on the couch and then half again off it.
Lucy on the other hand looked more awkward. A cigarette hung from both womens mouths, although Kiwi’s was just stuck through her jaw mask.
“Wait… You!?” Lucy called out pointing. “The crazy woman that jumped off the side of the building!”
“It wasn’t that high. Easy.” I offered, sliding my hand flatly to show how smooth it was. “Nice to meet you for real.”
“Right… I’m Lucy.” She offered, and I nodded.
“Shame you didn’t come down. We were partying, you’d have been welcome. Anyways. I hear the Cat is bothering you, and you’re trying to see who is better?” I asked, having been pointedly ignoring how Sasha was standing directly behind me making faces at me.
“Yep.” Kiwi offered with a cool humor. “You really the Mangy fleabags apprentice?”
“I think of it more as a-”
“Nooo!” Sasha whined in my ear beating on my back, so I rolled my eyes.
“Yeah. She’s super annoying-”
“Noooo!”
“But, she knows her shit. I go by Ghost in the Shell on the net. I don’t really do much though, so I doubt you’ve heard of me.”
“Hmm. I have actually.” Kiwi spoke up as Lucy gave me an apologetic smile, before shifting to Kiwi.
“Wait, really?”
“The kids got The Foxes' attention. Rumor is she’s a programmer wunderkind. You need a circ clipped, or data mess cleaned up. The kid can do it clean.”
“I’ve done some gigs for Yoko, yeah. She’s… Well, I think I’m cursed since I have Sasha and Yoko both breathing down my neck.” I offered with a bit of a stilted smile.
There was a breathy note from Kiwi after a second, and Lucy was just looking a bit confused.
“You probably got that right kid.” Kiwi agreed, holding back her laughter.
“Nyyyaaaaaaa.” Sasha whined at me, and I just flashed her a smile.
“But Sasha is Sasha, just her quirks. How about you two? I hear you’re trying to work with Maines crew? Something about the client wanting you as the netrunner?”
“Fixer. I do some work with him, and he thinks I’m reliable. Knows I can get the gig done.”
“So can Sasha.” I pointed out. “Bit weird for him to try and disrupt a crew like that.”
“He just wants what he wants. He’s like that.”
“Sounds like an asshole. Why does Maine want this guys work again? Why not go to Wakako, or Padre?”
“Faraday is a difficult fixer, but he offers bonuses for jobs completed to his satisfaction.” Sasha offered, and I could see Kiwi’s eyebrows clench up a bit in irritation.
“We’re supposed to keep deets under wraps.” She offered, and Sasha just laughed.
“Kitten-Chan would have found out eventually. Better to just tell her.”
“Whatever.” I commented interrupting. “Anyways. So… We’re going to be competing for some data?”
Kiwi looked over at Sasha. “The kid know anything?”
“She’s special! Kitten-Chan is all wide eyed and bright about the world, but her claws are super sharp nyan!”
“Lovely. Can we be more clear now?” I interrupted again.
“Standard rules. We both jump in, goal is the data, so no rezzing each other. We don’t work together, unless something goes crazy. It’s just a game, the data is the gig.”
“Ah I see. So while we’re personally competing, the goal is more important.” I asked, looking at Sasha who nodded smugly.
“Yep! And when we get the data first, this evil spider will have to call me the greatest!”
“The greatest pain, maybe.” Kiwi added, and I had to nod along at that.
“Hey!”
“Are you even able to do this?” Lucy asked, interrupting. She was looking at me. “No offense, but, if you don’t know about Runner Competitions, or anything, and I’ve never heard of you. This is tight ICE. High security. This isn’t just programming.”
I noticed Kiwi glance from Lucy to me, and then to Sasha, and Sasha was halfway to starting to rant when I interrupted.
“My speciality is combat hacks more than actually diving, but I can keep up.”
“Mou! Leave Kitten-Chan alone! She’s skilled! My little Kohai-student.” Sasha argued huffily.
“Neither of those things.” I added instantly to Sasha’s pouting.
“If the Stray says she’s good, then I’ll trust her judgement. It’s just all of our lives at stake.” Kiwi, said flatly, and I couldn’t help but snort a bit at the sarcasm.
“Kitten can do it!”
“Is there any point in this?” I asked cutting Sasha off from embarrassing me anymore. “Either I can, or I can’t, and nothing I say is going to change that.”
“True.” Kiwi agreed, and Lucy looked hesitant like she wanted to argue more but let it go.
“Then shall we all get started?” I asked, and the four of us all looked each other over.
“Yes. Let’s get ready to dive. We have everything set up here.”
“Here?” I asked suddenly when I realized what was going on.
“Yes! C’mon Kitten!” Sasha cried out happily and dragged me out of the living room down into the basement.
The moment we set foot down stairs I realized the situation. But stopped for a moment to raise a hand.
“Hey Becca.”
“Strings.” She greeted back with a smirk. “Welcome to the Ice Cave.” She cackled as she waved her hand over the four ‘bathtubs’ full of ice all with open ports for netrunning.
“Beeeecccccca!” Sasha cried out and charged forward, wrapping Becca in a massive hug. “Thank you!”
“Yeah yeah, You’re good Cat.” She grumped a bit but was smiling.
“Who's the kid?”
“I’m not a kid bitch.” Becca responded to Kiwi’s question with a hiss and an upraised finger.
“Sure, shorty.”
“I-”
“Rebecca is actually older than I am.” I cut in, and Lucy and Kiwi both had a moment to process that. “She’s Pilar’s sister, and a member of Maine's crew… And mine.” I held out a fist and Becca didn’t hesitate to tap her own fist against mine.
“Okay great.”
“I’m your eyes while you’re in the net. Dorio would have been here, but she’s got stuff going on, and none of you wanted Pilar covering your bodies.”
“Yeah.” Sasha agreed with a nod, the most direct and not crazy thing I think I’d ever heard her say.
“Fine. C’mon Luce.” Kiwi offered,and before my eyes the older woman instantly pulled open her coat!
Oh my!
Spiderwebs everywhere!?
Lucy!?
Shit. The sexyness of this room was crazy!
I turned away, only to see Sasha already half undressed too!
W-why were all netrunners so hot!?
“No.” Rebecca suddenly said and I turned away from everyone to her, for a moment's peace, but her eyes were locked on me. “I refuse to believe what I’m seeing.”
“W-what?”
“You?”
“What?”
“You. Strings. The girl that… You’re shy!?”
“W-What? No! I’m confident and badass! Not shy!” I denied while struggling not to look at all the flesh.
“You’re a fucking tomato! You fucking… Oh my god. I thought it was just Crush, but… Oh my god.”
“I-I’m not shy!”
“You fucking are!” Rebecca said pointing, and I noticed all the other women in the room were looking at me, Lucy and Kiwi were just about to slip into the ice baths, which was just unfair!
Too much!
“I’m not shy!” I demanded glaring at Rebecca, and before she could say shit. I started undressing. Pulling free of my boots while I grumbled, I tossed my jacket onto a chair, and then pulled down my pants.
Stupid pants! They were getting tighter and tighter. I really needed to go clothes shopping some more.
With that I grabbed the zipper in my leotard and pulled it down, the hidden zipper letting me breathe and it was actually a pretty nice relief. Stupid slightly tight leotard. I’d been really needing to get them all adjusted after my Body 10 achievement, but I’d been so busy!
Grumbled, I peeled the leotard off and then glared at Rebecca who wasn’t making fun of me anymore thankfully!
I’m not shy! I’m a badass super kickass killer assassin woman!
Then I hesitated for a second at the icebath... Ugh! I hated the idea of these! I sighed and slipped inside, instantly feeling shivery as I grabbed the cords and accessed in.
“That’s just bullshi-” I heard Rebecca say cut off as I dropped into the net.
-----
A/N Just a heads up. There might be another skip next week. I'm not going to be at home for the next few days. I'll try to get a chapter written up on my laptop, but we'll see.
Programming 15 had come with a perk choice.
Considering the power of some of the programming perks I’d already taken I was going to need to go through the list.
What was my Programming toolbox really missing? It certainly wasn’t versatility. Between Debug, and Inspired Programmer, I was able to do pretty much anything I could think up, but I still hoped for something more.
Programming was so powerful, forging weapons for the net. What sort of weapon did I want?
I could find a perk to improve Daemons. I could find a perk to improve Quick Hacks.
What was I looking for? I blinked. It didn’t sound good at first, but then the more I thought about it…
Stress Testing: The more you use your code, the more its weakness stands out to you.
It was an interesting Perk. How useful would it actually be? I’m not really sure, but hell, even if it only gives me a few ideas for how to improve code that I’ve already maxed out as far as I know, then it’s kinda neat.
Plus there wasn’t a lot else that was standing out to me.
I selected it, and the rush of knowledge made me wince, a hiss escaped my mouth as I curled up a little.
I’d just done two programming levels back to back. I should know better than to overwhelm myself.
Idiot.
Leaning back I covered my eyes and let myself just decompress for a minute. Should I sleep? Ugh.
No, Five minutes, then ten, twenty. I finally felt a good bit better, as the Perk knowledge dump stopped frying my brain.
Huh.
That’s what it meant. All of my programs had run into issues over time. Bandwidth, or upload problems.
I pulled up Ping first. The program was unloaded, and I started digging through my code, even with my previous programming skills, and my Debug perk. A bunch more levels of Programming had opened up new options, and Stress Test showed me even more.
There was a balance between function and efficiency.
What if I overloaded part of the program, making it do too much, when other parts were less balanced, suddenly I had times where while uploading it slowed down, or caused system traffic that it was never designed to do.
If the upload rate was faster than the installation speed, then… That was just wasted power.
And I knew all of that, because Stress test. It flashed in my head, every time I used ping. And while it wasn’t perfect knowledge, or memory. I had logs to back that up.
I could pull those apart, see every time there was a halt, and figure out why.
Stress Test…
It was a good choice. Maybe not the absolute most optimal one, but it was good.
I was okay with good.
Ping had some issues with its spread speed, it would sometimes Ping the next node in the system before the connection was complete.
So instead of pinging once, connecting and uploading the Daemon, which would upload to me. It would bounce to someone multiple times, sometimes even dozens of times if there were multiple people in the network that it could bounce too.
Causing disruption.
No one had noticed yet, but… It was honestly a minor issue. The disruption would be so small, there were only a few people that could notice it in the act, maybe afterwards if they were checking logs they’d be able to track the Daemons spread…
But I bet I could make it even more stealthy.
A few lines of code rewritten, a bit stronger limiter.
Ping would take maybe a half second more per jump, a million years for a computer, but for me? I doubt I’d even notice.
Yet it was even more stealthy now.
With that done, I installed the Program back into my Cyberdeck, and worked through the upload schedule partitioning RAM from my other cyberware to run the program when needed.
I’d set up a method while in combat, but this was all about streamlining it.
To give an analogy, if my programs were throwing knives. Originally they’d just been a bunch of knives in my off hand, I’d thrown one at a time.
Then I’d realized I should slide a few into my pocket, or through a belt.
But what I was doing now was memorizing the position of every knife, and giving them their own holsters…
I pointedly didn’t think about the extra knives I carried around that were just stolen and only the first one that Jun had given me actually had a sheath.
Whistle away the fact Motoko! You have programming to do!
Next was my Optic Reboot.
Ah I still loved this Program. It was just so evil. Looking through the code I wanted to wince, when had I programmed this again? Five levels ago? I’d tinkered with it a bit as I leveled, but not really a full check up.
No, an update. Again Stress Test showed me, or at least brought it to my mind, the points where Optics Reboot had floundered.
Adjusting upload rate I went through the code humming a bit quite pleased with how little I really had to change.
This time I focused less on stealth, since if I was hitting someone with Optics Reboot they were going to know about it.
I felt a smile spread across my face as I gently tapped my foot to a silent beat.
Updates were awesome!
I went through all my hacks in the same way. Cleaning up and adjusting. Until I was completely done. Then I had a choice.
I opened up a file I hadn’t messed with much. A few times I’d looked at it, but had never quite managed to get it to work.
It was an Ultimate Quick Hack. At least that’s what they’d been called in the game. This one?
Cyberpsychosis.
Considering I’d already accidentally done something similar to a person. I think it was time to break this one out, and get it functional. The hack was a kludged together, incredibly RAM and size heavy program.
First step was to once more go through it. This time, its structure didn’t give me any real trouble.
This part affected Bio-cyberware, adrenaline, and worse would be pumped into the target. This one affected IFF through optics. This one caused a pseudo white noise, that cut out most noises from reaching their ear, and instead would help them think they were under attack.
It was multiple programs all integrated into one, but it wasn’t clean or even all that functional. I dreaded the idea of trying to upload this hack, it would probably take more than twenty seconds just to upload, and even longer to install.
There was more of course. A control software that would try to force the user to shoot whenever the IFF lined up.
Accidently barrel sweep an ally? Well they’re going to end up getting shot at, which would only make it more likely they fire back.
So many different ideas to try and cause issues. There was even a Daemon that would try to make everyone look the same to the user. Cutting out chances for the victim to recognize friend from foe.
That part was neat, even if my Onryo was better.
But I could integrate that into my own version of Cyberpsychosis.
That made me smile as I considered.
I could give everyone a little shoulder devil urging them on, if I went that way.
I shrugged the idea off for now, and basically started rewriting the code right from the start. It needed a cleaner cycle or else this hack was never going to be fast enough for my tastes.
—--
I was still tinkering with my programs when I got a text.
*Alice: Got some news. Reached out to a contact at a club. You in for a gig this weekend?*
I looked over the text, and part of me instantly wanted to refuse, but I pushed that down. A gig… Was probably a good idea.
*Motoko: Contact Hiromi, but sounds fine.*
*Alice: Preem, already done. Practice sesh this week? I want to rock.*
*Motoko: Yeah sounds preem. I have something tomorrow, but otherwise, sounds good.*
I sighed and rolled up onto my feet.
Cyberpsychosis wasn’t going to be needed for my Netrunner contest with Sasha. What I needed was more skills.
I moved my head around a bit, and still felt a bit too full to want to grab another skill, so instead I got up.
I’d done a good once over on all my programs, and cleared and settled them into my system. I felt like wiggling in delight at how wonderful having so much more RAM for my netrunning felt.
It made me feel like…
I got up and grabbed my guitar. As much as I’d been playing with Alice and the band, I hadn’t really felt like I had any time for some rocking out myself.
Adjusting my guitar I considered what I should play. I’d had a few ideas for things. Some songs I’d been wanting to make had fallen to the back burners because of the amount of time it would take to make them.
So… Something simple? I didn’t need to make something new, just something…
I looked up and flicked on the radio, and a moment later smiled, as I played along with the sound of Black Dog.
There we go. I didn’t need to play something new every time. I could just… Play. Enjoy the music.
I played until Jun got home late, and I glanced at him as I continued to play along with the radio. Thankful for my chrome hands that didn’t get tired.
Jun took his time, throwing his jacket on the jacket table, slipping out of his shoes, and coming to walk over to me. He took a moment to listen as I played along, and he smiled at me, just enjoying it for a few moments, before reaching out and dropping a heavy hand on my head.
“Go to sleep Motoko. It’s late.”
I stopped playing and stuck my tongue out at him, but I did put my guitar away and turn off the radio with a glance.
“You sleep too Jun.”
“I will.”
—--
“Yaaaay!” I was nearly tackled by an over enthusiastic cat as Sasha leaped at me, even as I fended her off a little.
“Personal space Sasha!”
“I will right after I give my cute Kohai-Chan a Hug!” She cheered and I continued to bat away her grabbing hands.
“Well isn’t this…Enthusiastic.” The voice had a light synthetic lilt, but still mature. I looked around Sasha who seemed a little irritated that I was still fending off her grasping hands, with my Martial arts talents, to see the pair I’d sort of been looking forward to meeting.
Kiwi, and Lucy.
The two of them were sitting on a couch in Maine’s little safehouse. There had been a moment of confusion as to why they were still using the safe house if it was meant to be a safehouse, but a little line from the Solo’s Manual had flashed into my head.
A safehouse wasn’t safe if you’d used it before. After the first time it was either a burned hole in the ground, or a house. Pick one.
Maine probably had a new safehouse somewhere in the city, just in case something went hot and they needed to hide, but this was still a nice enough place to have meetings, or live out of for a while.
Blackhand would have preferred a cardboard box in an alleyway. But that guy was insane, so I disregarded that ‘advice.’
I took the chance, taking a step back as Sasha took her own to fortify her assault for another hug, and just leapt.
Easily flipping over her head until I landed behind her almost gently and just walked over to the couches that were set up.
“I’m Motoko. Nice to meet you… Kiwi right? And hey it’s Moongazer. Enjoy the beer?” I offered with a teasing smile as I looked over the two women.
Jesus Kiwi was fucking tall! I had either not remembered, or something but she sat on the couch and then half again off it.
Lucy on the other hand looked more awkward. A cigarette hung from both womens mouths, although Kiwi’s was just stuck through her jaw mask.
“Wait… You!?” Lucy called out pointing. “The crazy woman that jumped off the side of the building!”
“It wasn’t that high. Easy.” I offered, sliding my hand flatly to show how smooth it was. “Nice to meet you for real.”
“Right… I’m Lucy.” She offered, and I nodded.
“Shame you didn’t come down. We were partying, you’d have been welcome. Anyways. I hear the Cat is bothering you, and you’re trying to see who is better?” I asked, having been pointedly ignoring how Sasha was standing directly behind me making faces at me.
“Yep.” Kiwi offered with a cool humor. “You really the Mangy fleabags apprentice?”
“I think of it more as a-”
“Nooo!” Sasha whined in my ear beating on my back, so I rolled my eyes.
“Yeah. She’s super annoying-”
“Noooo!”
“But, she knows her shit. I go by Ghost in the Shell on the net. I don’t really do much though, so I doubt you’ve heard of me.”
“Hmm. I have actually.” Kiwi spoke up as Lucy gave me an apologetic smile, before shifting to Kiwi.
“Wait, really?”
“The kids got The Foxes' attention. Rumor is she’s a programmer wunderkind. You need a circ clipped, or data mess cleaned up. The kid can do it clean.”
“I’ve done some gigs for Yoko, yeah. She’s… Well, I think I’m cursed since I have Sasha and Yoko both breathing down my neck.” I offered with a bit of a stilted smile.
There was a breathy note from Kiwi after a second, and Lucy was just looking a bit confused.
“You probably got that right kid.” Kiwi agreed, holding back her laughter.
“Nyyyaaaaaaa.” Sasha whined at me, and I just flashed her a smile.
“But Sasha is Sasha, just her quirks. How about you two? I hear you’re trying to work with Maines crew? Something about the client wanting you as the netrunner?”
“Fixer. I do some work with him, and he thinks I’m reliable. Knows I can get the gig done.”
“So can Sasha.” I pointed out. “Bit weird for him to try and disrupt a crew like that.”
“He just wants what he wants. He’s like that.”
“Sounds like an asshole. Why does Maine want this guys work again? Why not go to Wakako, or Padre?”
“Faraday is a difficult fixer, but he offers bonuses for jobs completed to his satisfaction.” Sasha offered, and I could see Kiwi’s eyebrows clench up a bit in irritation.
“We’re supposed to keep deets under wraps.” She offered, and Sasha just laughed.
“Kitten-Chan would have found out eventually. Better to just tell her.”
“Whatever.” I commented interrupting. “Anyways. So… We’re going to be competing for some data?”
Kiwi looked over at Sasha. “The kid know anything?”
“She’s special! Kitten-Chan is all wide eyed and bright about the world, but her claws are super sharp nyan!”
“Lovely. Can we be more clear now?” I interrupted again.
“Standard rules. We both jump in, goal is the data, so no rezzing each other. We don’t work together, unless something goes crazy. It’s just a game, the data is the gig.”
“Ah I see. So while we’re personally competing, the goal is more important.” I asked, looking at Sasha who nodded smugly.
“Yep! And when we get the data first, this evil spider will have to call me the greatest!”
“The greatest pain, maybe.” Kiwi added, and I had to nod along at that.
“Hey!”
“Are you even able to do this?” Lucy asked, interrupting. She was looking at me. “No offense, but, if you don’t know about Runner Competitions, or anything, and I’ve never heard of you. This is tight ICE. High security. This isn’t just programming.”
I noticed Kiwi glance from Lucy to me, and then to Sasha, and Sasha was halfway to starting to rant when I interrupted.
“My speciality is combat hacks more than actually diving, but I can keep up.”
“Mou! Leave Kitten-Chan alone! She’s skilled! My little Kohai-student.” Sasha argued huffily.
“Neither of those things.” I added instantly to Sasha’s pouting.
“If the Stray says she’s good, then I’ll trust her judgement. It’s just all of our lives at stake.” Kiwi, said flatly, and I couldn’t help but snort a bit at the sarcasm.
“Kitten can do it!”
“Is there any point in this?” I asked cutting Sasha off from embarrassing me anymore. “Either I can, or I can’t, and nothing I say is going to change that.”
“True.” Kiwi agreed, and Lucy looked hesitant like she wanted to argue more but let it go.
“Then shall we all get started?” I asked, and the four of us all looked each other over.
“Yes. Let’s get ready to dive. We have everything set up here.”
“Here?” I asked suddenly when I realized what was going on.
“Yes! C’mon Kitten!” Sasha cried out happily and dragged me out of the living room down into the basement.
The moment we set foot down stairs I realized the situation. But stopped for a moment to raise a hand.
“Hey Becca.”
“Strings.” She greeted back with a smirk. “Welcome to the Ice Cave.” She cackled as she waved her hand over the four ‘bathtubs’ full of ice all with open ports for netrunning.
“Beeeecccccca!” Sasha cried out and charged forward, wrapping Becca in a massive hug. “Thank you!”
“Yeah yeah, You’re good Cat.” She grumped a bit but was smiling.
“Who's the kid?”
“I’m not a kid bitch.” Becca responded to Kiwi’s question with a hiss and an upraised finger.
“Sure, shorty.”
“I-”
“Rebecca is actually older than I am.” I cut in, and Lucy and Kiwi both had a moment to process that. “She’s Pilar’s sister, and a member of Maine's crew… And mine.” I held out a fist and Becca didn’t hesitate to tap her own fist against mine.
“Okay great.”
“I’m your eyes while you’re in the net. Dorio would have been here, but she’s got stuff going on, and none of you wanted Pilar covering your bodies.”
“Yeah.” Sasha agreed with a nod, the most direct and not crazy thing I think I’d ever heard her say.
“Fine. C’mon Luce.” Kiwi offered,and before my eyes the older woman instantly pulled open her coat!
Oh my!
Spiderwebs everywhere!?
Lucy!?
Shit. The sexyness of this room was crazy!
I turned away, only to see Sasha already half undressed too!
W-why were all netrunners so hot!?
“No.” Rebecca suddenly said and I turned away from everyone to her, for a moment's peace, but her eyes were locked on me. “I refuse to believe what I’m seeing.”
“W-what?”
“You?”
“What?”
“You. Strings. The girl that… You’re shy!?”
“W-What? No! I’m confident and badass! Not shy!” I denied while struggling not to look at all the flesh.
“You’re a fucking tomato! You fucking… Oh my god. I thought it was just Crush, but… Oh my god.”
“I-I’m not shy!”
“You fucking are!” Rebecca said pointing, and I noticed all the other women in the room were looking at me, Lucy and Kiwi were just about to slip into the ice baths, which was just unfair!
Too much!
“I’m not shy!” I demanded glaring at Rebecca, and before she could say shit. I started undressing. Pulling free of my boots while I grumbled, I tossed my jacket onto a chair, and then pulled down my pants.
Stupid pants! They were getting tighter and tighter. I really needed to go clothes shopping some more.
With that I grabbed the zipper in my leotard and pulled it down, the hidden zipper letting me breathe and it was actually a pretty nice relief. Stupid slightly tight leotard. I’d been really needing to get them all adjusted after my Body 10 achievement, but I’d been so busy!
Grumbled, I peeled the leotard off and then glared at Rebecca who wasn’t making fun of me anymore thankfully!
I’m not shy! I’m a badass super kickass killer assassin woman!
Then I hesitated for a second at the icebath... Ugh! I hated the idea of these! I sighed and slipped inside, instantly feeling shivery as I grabbed the cords and accessed in.
“That’s just bullshi-” I heard Rebecca say cut off as I dropped into the net.
-----
A/N Just a heads up. There might be another skip next week. I'm not going to be at home for the next few days. I'll try to get a chapter written up on my laptop, but we'll see.
poor Rebecca. she jelly.
Bigking321
Well-known member
Hard to compete with someone that has a game system to cheat their way to physical perfection.
Definitely a unfair standard.
Poor Becca.
Definitely a unfair standard.
Poor Becca.
Guardian Box
Radioactive Cognitohazard
It's not physical perfection when she's still mostly made of meat :V
Carrot of Truth
War is Peace
If she pulls this off for Sasha she should force Sasha to call her Onee-san for peak weeb pecking order.
Chapter 227
New
Seras
Well-known member
It took a minute before the others joined me, and the whole time I was looking around in disgust.
When Sasha’s avatar popped in I instantly turned to her. “How do you live like this?” I had to ask as the entire lobby was covered in pink and glittery cat stuff. The kitty pictures were cute, but the rest of it was just too much.
“Hehehe!” She replied back and that was the only answer I got!?
Thankfully Kiwi looked disturbed even though she still wore her mask mouth plate on the net, and Lucy shared my slightly disturbed look.
“Luce, let’s go. Game is already on.” Kiwi called out not hesitating at all before the two of them jumped off the lobby onto the net.
“Shit!” Sasha cursed and I quickly raced after her, as we were all thankfully heading for the same place.
It was a data fortress owned by some no name corp. I wasn't bothering to even learn the name of. It hardly mattered. Four elite (I was one too!) netrunners was enough to smash just about any data fortress not controlled by the big corps.
Sasha and I reached our own entry point and slipped inside, there was no discussion. Just like when we hit the No/Brainer server we already had our roles.
She rushed ahead straight for the access node, while I prepared for the defenses. The moment she started breaching in, the Daemons noticed the intrusion, but I was already on them a flurry of Flame Bullets roared out and crushed the Daemons into pixels.
*250 XP Gained.*
*250 XP Gained.*
*250 XP Gained.*
*250 XP Gained.*
“Through!” Sasha called out as she broke through a path and we both rushed forward.
This fortress was well put together, the neon pulsing lights of the interior created a pseudo 3D rendering of the hallways and rooms. It was clearer than some servers I’d been on which meant new. Which meant high security.
Again though I wasn’t that concerned.
One Elite Netrunner was dangerous. Two was usually overkill. Three? Four? This was an expensive gig. At least it should be but Faraday had managed to get four netrunners on a single gig for the price of one.
We burst into the next room, as I started tearing through defenses, almost mindlessly as Sasha broke through a firewall that rushed up.
It made me realize that Faraday could have planned this whole thing. Had Kiwi tried to set it up like this?
He couldn’t have known about me really, but three netrunners were more than enough to break through even a well secured data fort like this. It made me wonder if that wasn’t the plan?
Another set of Daemons destroyed as I protected Sasha, and burned defenses until the Firewall dropped.
We rushed forward, hitting the next defense, something similar to the Cyber Moat that was on the No/Brainer server. Sasha started breaking through when almost instantly it connected.
I blinked. Sasha blinked.
Kiwi and Lucy blinked.
“Huh good timing.” I muttered as the four of us all came together.
“You’re actually here?” Lucy asked in surprise.
“Yeah?”
“No time to waste Kitten-Chan!”
“Don’t call me. Whoa!” I called out. As suddenly that same data moat slammed back down. Lucy had started rushing forward at the same time as Sasha, and they both disappeared.
“Huh. I wasn’t expecting that.” I muttered as we got split off.
“Netrunner is on the server activating defenses.” Kiwi commented. Already looking like she was going to rush off, so I shrugged and followed her.
We made it through a new hallway before she stopped and turned to look at me.
“What?”
“What are you doing?”
“Backing you up?”
She sort of just stared at me for a bit before I rolled my eyes. “I don’t give a shit about this competition, I’m just here because I like Sasha a bit, despite her catty attitude.”
“Really?”
“Don’t start. I can make puns too.” I said before smiling. “Besides, what, are you going to run this solo, or are you really going to complain about some backup?”
She looked me over for a while, and shrugged. “Don’t slow me down.”
“Sure.” I said flatly, rolling my eyes. Then I pulled myself into position. “Any role preference?” I asked, and Kiwi made a snorting noise.
“Are you a kid or a netrunner? Do what you can.”
I wanted to say something but Kiwi could actually be right… Had Sasha been babying me in a way? That’s irritating. Fine.
I stayed with her as we hit the next access node, and we both went to work, where before it was a shared experience with Sasha Kiwi simply cleared her own path, guarded her own back. There was no real working together. We each burned Daemons down, we each started breaching.
Kiwi used an interesting quick hack. Instead of destroying the Daemons it caused them to lock up a CC hack. Nice. I might have to ask about that, or make my own.
I finished off a few of her dazed daemons as well, just for the extra XP.
Kiwi was fast. There was no doubt about that. She was better at breaching than I was, but I had tricks she didn’t.
We were already past stealth so it was time to go loud.
I switched from defending against the Daemons for a second and slammed into the security system like a freight train.
Strong Breach was one of my lesser used perks, but that was only because I preferred stealth. The security glitched as I overwhelmed it and even Kiwi looked away from her breach to me, for a moment as there was an obvious shift along the security walls data, an alert going out no doubt as I hit the defense so hard, and it spasmed once before falling opening the path.
I turned and finished a few more Daemons that had restored themselves in the moments it had taken.
“Let’s go.” I told her and Kiwi for the first time didn’t look at me like some kid, but a peer of some sort.
“That was a bit much.”
“What, you unhappy I broke through?” I asked her as we raced down the newly opened data path.
“No.” Was all she said and that was enough. We hit the next room, and this time it didn’t feel like I was fighting alone, just with Kiwi in the room. She covered my back, as I covered hers. Unlike with Sasha, Kiwi would point out parts of a firewall for me to attack while she continued to slip through on her attack. I disrupted, while she slipped through.
It was teamwork of a sort, and soon I was even getting call outs from her, when she needed.
I think working with Kiwi was actually… Better than Sasha. Sasha I only now realized treated me sort of like a kid, or in other thoughts, how I treated Malcolm while on the gig. He could handle certain things, but anything more dangerous, and I’d take over, or not entirely trust him to perform.
Kiwi didn’t care, she expected me to keep up. And I did.
We broke through into another space, and I grinned as we ran into Lucy. She was throwing out a hand, and entire groups of Daemons were simply wiped out.
Now that was an interesting Daemon. Forget Kiwi’s CC hack. I wanted that.
She looked up to see us and blinked as Kiwi and I both arrived.
“Where’s Sasha?” I asked, looking around and Lucy just shrugged.
“It’s not like I stuck around her.” She replied instantly and I looked up as she glanced at Kiwi. “I don’t trust her, so I went solo.”
“Stupid.”
“Smart.” We both said at the same time. Kiwi and I looked at each other for a moment. “If you don’t trust someone at your back, leave them behind.”
“We’re all here for the same gig. Not trusting Sasha isn’t being cautious, it’s being paranoid.”
“Paranoia is a good trait.” Kiwi said back and I just made a face at her.
“The kid came with you?”
“She surprised me.” Kiwi replied with a shrug. “Let’s keep going.”
I just sighed there was no way to know if Sasha was ahead or behind. So I would stick with the group for now.
This felt odd again. Lucy and Kiwi didn’t so much work together, like I had with Sasha, but they both were just so overwhelming that any teamwork was mostly circumstantial than anything.
I did my best to assist, settling into a different role. I’d wipe out Daemons to ensure they could focus, I’d smash into some defenses to redirect focus, and let them slip through. That sort of thing. It was teamwork, but it did leave me feeling a little bit like a third wheel, and worse, Lucy wasn’t really impressed.
I could tell she was trying to pull ahead, sort of break free of me following.
Cold.
But I was more than capable of keeping up and so Lucy, if that was what she was doing, was still solidly in front of me.
Finally we reached the actual core we were trying to break into. This time we weren’t alone in a different way. A netrunner was here, his body was twice the size of normal, and he was surrounded by Daemons.
“Not a step further. You lot have caused enough trouble already, turn around.”
I kinda expected Kiwi, or Lucy to say anything, but instead they just went straight on the attack. Both of them slamming hacks forward in at the same time, causing the Runner to activate defenses. Firewalls, Massed Daemons, even his own hacks launched back, and the added server power gave him a hefty punch. I was continually throwing up my defense hacks to give Lucy and Kiwi extra cover, as I dodged or blocked attacks coming my way as well.
“We don’t need your help.” Lucy argued back, as I put up a solid wall between her and some Daemon barrages.
“Well you’ve got it anyways Moongazer.” I told her, and went all out on my own.
I might not be a childhood supersoldier netrunner like Lucy, or just a pure time and effort, and spite runner like Kiwi, but I was fucking Motoko Kusanagi, and on the net, I was not to be fucked with.
My sandy burned, my cyberdeck whirred up, and I started launching attacks like a woman possessed, not quite to the extent of burning myself out of course this wasn’t like that time in the netrunner arena.
This was just me wanting to show off a bit.
I cut out an entire wave of the Daemons from Lucy opening her up to entirely go on the offensive for the security runner.
This pushed him off focusing on Kiwi, letting her clear up her Daemons and suddenly it was two on one, and then as I kept the Daemons off them, it stayed like that.
This guy might be powered up by an entire data fortress, but Lucy and Kiwi weren’t street gonks.
They plowed through his defenses, until he crumpled.
“Shit! Fucking hell! Easy! Damn you win.” He cried out as his defenses crumbled as his ICE barriers wavered. “Jesus who the fuck did we piss off, you Arasaka or something?”
I calmed as he really did stop the assault realizing he was done, but..
I raised a hand and threw up my strongest ICE. Then double and tripled it, as Lucy lashed out with that weird hack of hers, that caused the data to simply self destruct.
Was that something she learned on the other side of the blackwall?
No, that wasn’t important. “Moongazer! What the fuck, chill! He already surrendered!” I called out as my defense hadn’t been to protect us. But to save the runners life.
Lucy had just tried to flatline him.
“Luce. Ease up.” Kiwi demanded, and that thankfully did it, causing Lucy to stop attacking although her face was still glaring.
The poor netrunner looked like he’d just filled his colostomy bag if he had one hooked in.
Looked like his life just flashed before his eyes.
I rushed over which startled him, but I held up my hands.
“Hey easy choom. Sorry about her, she’s a bit on a hair trigger. You unplug, and we will stop it here, yeah? I doubt this is a job you’re willing to get flatlined for.”
“Yeah fuck this.” He muttered and was already disconnecting but he sent me a look. “Thanks.” Then he disappeared.
Heh. I did a good deed for the day.
“You should have let me kill him. Now he’s going to start locking down the data physically.” Lucy muttered a bit harshly, and I shrugged.
“He’s just a gonk doing his job, and we’re all on the net together. Flatlining him for some data when no one's life is on the line is scop.”
“Let’s move-”
“Sasha is here!” Called out a new voice and I did feel some relief.
“Great.” Kiwi muttered, and I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at that.
“W-wha! KITTEN-CHAN! NOoooo! Don’t give in to that spiders wiles! Let Neko-mama guide you-”
“Okay I’m going ahead.” I instantly said and turned to avoid whatever the fuck Sasha was on about.
“Yeah.” Kiwi agreed and we all rushed out, Sasha chasing us from behind.
Thankfully there wasn’t anything else. The next room was the archives, and while Sasha was trying to compete with grabbing it first. I just rolled my eyes and joined in on finding the data without turning it into a competition.
We found our data, and after a short download, we all disappeared.
—--
“F-ff-f-f-fuck!” I cried out the moment I came back to my body. I was probably yowling a bit as I climbed out and rolled onto the freezing floor as I tried to disconnect.
“Hey, you’re back.” Rebecca called out as she was tossing back a few-Disgusting things I was blocking out from my vision. Schwab Schwab wasn’t food!
“Y-y-yeah.” I chattered as I disconnected and stood up. My everything felt achey, and I was freezing, and this sucked. I was never using a stupid ice bath again. Whoever came up with this was stupid! Stupid and dumb!
I was just in the middle of looking for something when Rebecca chucked a towel at me.
“Damn strings, put those away before you kill us all. Fuckin’ ab gremlin.”
“What?” Look who's talking about being a Gremlin!
“Yeah.” Lucy offered as she slipped out of her own bath and was already trying to light a cigarette. “I don’t need to see that.”
“I’m jealous, honestly.” Kiwi muttered as she rose up joining Lucy in her smoking.
Oh. Every was naked! I felt myself flush a little and started drying off a bit. This was bullying!
“I don’t accept!” Sasha suddenly called out as she rose up, and wow. She was very- Looking away.
“Hmm?”
“Sasha and Motoko team should be the winner! Spider hag cheated!”
“Cheated?”
“You stole my Kitten!”
“She offered to help… She was useful.” Kiwi added and I sent her a smile in thanks for her words.
“Nooo! Don’t let the old evil spider suck you into her weeeeeb!” I was going to just ignore Sasha when she crashed into me. And I yelped.
“Sasha! Put s-some clothes on!” I demanded pushing my towel into her face so she wasn’t pressing up against me!
“I can’t believe she’s shy.” Rebecca whispered half giggling, and I turned on her.
“I’ll show you shy!” I hissed and it only took half a second to flip the towel a few times and snap.
“You little shit!” Rebecca shrieked as the towel got her and she roared as she rose up and charged.
“Rebecca! I’m naked!” I shrieked just as loud as she talked me.
“That’s your problem! You and your stupid perfect abs!”
“Kya!”
—--
“What’s go-”
“I ain’t asking, and I ain’t going down there.” Maine rumbled, refusing to look away from the TV. Pilar was, but he was also an idiot, but Rebecca had threatened him with a shotgun for trying to peek earlier.
—--
“Hi-yah!” I called as I flipped Rebecca around after she tackled me and now I was holding her by her stupid tiny little legs.
“Wha-Hey! You bitch, Motoko, put me down!”
“Oh you want to be put down do you?” I whispered sinisterly as I held Rebecca up night and high which let her see where I was aiming.
Her arms flailed out and grabbed the side of the ice bath that I was threatening her with. “Don’t you dare you bitch!”
“Mwahahaha!” was my only response for a minute until I heard some giggles and looked over.
Oh right, I’d lost my towel, and was holding up Rebecca…
I could feel the blood rushing up to my face. So I carefully got Rebecca back on normal ground and then ran after to go grab my towel and cover myself!
“Don’t worry Kitten! Your abs are nothing to be ashamed of.” Sasha offered with a big wink and a thumbs up.
I was definitely not crouching in the corner under the far too small towel and wanting to cry.
Why was everyone still naked! Exhibitionists! All of them! Were all Netrunners like this!? Was I the only sane one?
Then again I was basing my looks off the Major, and she had a bit of a thing about- Nope!
I wasn’t thinking about that right now!
“Put some clothes on!” I demanded as I crawled behind what I could and looked for my clothes.
“Pfft!”
This was awful. All these women were laughing at me!
—--
“So who won?” Maine rumbled as we all came sauntering up the stairs. It had taken a while but eventually all these far too comfortable in just their skin netrunners had gotten dressed.
“The real winner was the friends we made along the way!” I called out.
“We did.” Kiwi answered, back at the same time as Sasha.
“Us of course!”
Then the two older Netrunners started glaring.
Maine took one look at everyone and just popped the cap on a new beer and apparently decided he didn’t care.
Surprisingly smart for that guy.
“We got the data though.” I confirmed as I sat down. “Kiwi and Lucy are a solid duo.”
“Course they are. Faraday doesn’t hire small time.” Maine grumbled.
I hummed as I took in the reaction but in the end, not my gig, not my chickens.
“Well I’m heading out. This was… Interesting.”
“Wait Kitten! Tell the old spider that we won! It was totally us! She even cheated and stole you away from meeee!”
Yep. Time to go home.
Rebecca was cackling as I walked out ignoring Sasha trying to pull me back inside. But I would not be tricked. I stopped just before I climbed into my Quadra and turned to Sasha.
“Thanks, for inviting me. This was definitely an interesting experience.”
“Oh.” She stopped and looked a little embarrassed. “It’s… You don’t have to thank me Kitten. I'm the one that dragged you into my biz. You did great though. Totally proved those two wrong.”
I smiled warmly at her, not crazy Sasha was much easier to deal with. “It was useful for me too. If you ever need some back up again you can call me… I guess I’ll unblock your number in my agent.”
“Eh!? You blocked my number!” She whined and I laughed, I hadn’t really, just didn’t pick up.
“No.” I said teasing and she smiled back.
“Same goes for you too, Kitten. Sasha-Senpai owes her Kohai one yeah?” She baby-talked and I just sent her a flat look, this time she smirked at me in turn. “But if you ever need some help, you can call on me.”
“I appreciate that… Senpai.” I said, sighing as I did. Already knowing she’d overreact.
So I just slipped into my Quadra as she started gushing. Yep. Not bothering with that.
I drove off as I considered everything. That had been a breeze of a gig really, but if I had to solo that data fort? I’d have to either go full stealth, or maybe not be able to do it. Fact was, there were just too many defenses, for the netrunner Motoko Kusanagi was right now to be able to do it.
Shit now Sasha’s got me talking in the third person. I needed to escape that cat's evil clutches.
----
A/n: Things are going pretty well, but I might take one more skip for the next update. Sorry, I know that's not what anyone wants to hear, but I'm just needing a bit of space from it. I am writing tons of other stuff for anyone not in the know, on my snippet threads, on SB, or Ao3.
When Sasha’s avatar popped in I instantly turned to her. “How do you live like this?” I had to ask as the entire lobby was covered in pink and glittery cat stuff. The kitty pictures were cute, but the rest of it was just too much.
“Hehehe!” She replied back and that was the only answer I got!?
Thankfully Kiwi looked disturbed even though she still wore her mask mouth plate on the net, and Lucy shared my slightly disturbed look.
“Luce, let’s go. Game is already on.” Kiwi called out not hesitating at all before the two of them jumped off the lobby onto the net.
“Shit!” Sasha cursed and I quickly raced after her, as we were all thankfully heading for the same place.
It was a data fortress owned by some no name corp. I wasn't bothering to even learn the name of. It hardly mattered. Four elite (I was one too!) netrunners was enough to smash just about any data fortress not controlled by the big corps.
Sasha and I reached our own entry point and slipped inside, there was no discussion. Just like when we hit the No/Brainer server we already had our roles.
She rushed ahead straight for the access node, while I prepared for the defenses. The moment she started breaching in, the Daemons noticed the intrusion, but I was already on them a flurry of Flame Bullets roared out and crushed the Daemons into pixels.
*250 XP Gained.*
*250 XP Gained.*
*250 XP Gained.*
*250 XP Gained.*
“Through!” Sasha called out as she broke through a path and we both rushed forward.
This fortress was well put together, the neon pulsing lights of the interior created a pseudo 3D rendering of the hallways and rooms. It was clearer than some servers I’d been on which meant new. Which meant high security.
Again though I wasn’t that concerned.
One Elite Netrunner was dangerous. Two was usually overkill. Three? Four? This was an expensive gig. At least it should be but Faraday had managed to get four netrunners on a single gig for the price of one.
We burst into the next room, as I started tearing through defenses, almost mindlessly as Sasha broke through a firewall that rushed up.
It made me realize that Faraday could have planned this whole thing. Had Kiwi tried to set it up like this?
He couldn’t have known about me really, but three netrunners were more than enough to break through even a well secured data fort like this. It made me wonder if that wasn’t the plan?
Another set of Daemons destroyed as I protected Sasha, and burned defenses until the Firewall dropped.
We rushed forward, hitting the next defense, something similar to the Cyber Moat that was on the No/Brainer server. Sasha started breaking through when almost instantly it connected.
I blinked. Sasha blinked.
Kiwi and Lucy blinked.
“Huh good timing.” I muttered as the four of us all came together.
“You’re actually here?” Lucy asked in surprise.
“Yeah?”
“No time to waste Kitten-Chan!”
“Don’t call me. Whoa!” I called out. As suddenly that same data moat slammed back down. Lucy had started rushing forward at the same time as Sasha, and they both disappeared.
“Huh. I wasn’t expecting that.” I muttered as we got split off.
“Netrunner is on the server activating defenses.” Kiwi commented. Already looking like she was going to rush off, so I shrugged and followed her.
We made it through a new hallway before she stopped and turned to look at me.
“What?”
“What are you doing?”
“Backing you up?”
She sort of just stared at me for a bit before I rolled my eyes. “I don’t give a shit about this competition, I’m just here because I like Sasha a bit, despite her catty attitude.”
“Really?”
“Don’t start. I can make puns too.” I said before smiling. “Besides, what, are you going to run this solo, or are you really going to complain about some backup?”
She looked me over for a while, and shrugged. “Don’t slow me down.”
“Sure.” I said flatly, rolling my eyes. Then I pulled myself into position. “Any role preference?” I asked, and Kiwi made a snorting noise.
“Are you a kid or a netrunner? Do what you can.”
I wanted to say something but Kiwi could actually be right… Had Sasha been babying me in a way? That’s irritating. Fine.
I stayed with her as we hit the next access node, and we both went to work, where before it was a shared experience with Sasha Kiwi simply cleared her own path, guarded her own back. There was no real working together. We each burned Daemons down, we each started breaching.
Kiwi used an interesting quick hack. Instead of destroying the Daemons it caused them to lock up a CC hack. Nice. I might have to ask about that, or make my own.
I finished off a few of her dazed daemons as well, just for the extra XP.
Kiwi was fast. There was no doubt about that. She was better at breaching than I was, but I had tricks she didn’t.
We were already past stealth so it was time to go loud.
I switched from defending against the Daemons for a second and slammed into the security system like a freight train.
Strong Breach was one of my lesser used perks, but that was only because I preferred stealth. The security glitched as I overwhelmed it and even Kiwi looked away from her breach to me, for a moment as there was an obvious shift along the security walls data, an alert going out no doubt as I hit the defense so hard, and it spasmed once before falling opening the path.
I turned and finished a few more Daemons that had restored themselves in the moments it had taken.
“Let’s go.” I told her and Kiwi for the first time didn’t look at me like some kid, but a peer of some sort.
“That was a bit much.”
“What, you unhappy I broke through?” I asked her as we raced down the newly opened data path.
“No.” Was all she said and that was enough. We hit the next room, and this time it didn’t feel like I was fighting alone, just with Kiwi in the room. She covered my back, as I covered hers. Unlike with Sasha, Kiwi would point out parts of a firewall for me to attack while she continued to slip through on her attack. I disrupted, while she slipped through.
It was teamwork of a sort, and soon I was even getting call outs from her, when she needed.
I think working with Kiwi was actually… Better than Sasha. Sasha I only now realized treated me sort of like a kid, or in other thoughts, how I treated Malcolm while on the gig. He could handle certain things, but anything more dangerous, and I’d take over, or not entirely trust him to perform.
Kiwi didn’t care, she expected me to keep up. And I did.
We broke through into another space, and I grinned as we ran into Lucy. She was throwing out a hand, and entire groups of Daemons were simply wiped out.
Now that was an interesting Daemon. Forget Kiwi’s CC hack. I wanted that.
She looked up to see us and blinked as Kiwi and I both arrived.
“Where’s Sasha?” I asked, looking around and Lucy just shrugged.
“It’s not like I stuck around her.” She replied instantly and I looked up as she glanced at Kiwi. “I don’t trust her, so I went solo.”
“Stupid.”
“Smart.” We both said at the same time. Kiwi and I looked at each other for a moment. “If you don’t trust someone at your back, leave them behind.”
“We’re all here for the same gig. Not trusting Sasha isn’t being cautious, it’s being paranoid.”
“Paranoia is a good trait.” Kiwi said back and I just made a face at her.
“The kid came with you?”
“She surprised me.” Kiwi replied with a shrug. “Let’s keep going.”
I just sighed there was no way to know if Sasha was ahead or behind. So I would stick with the group for now.
This felt odd again. Lucy and Kiwi didn’t so much work together, like I had with Sasha, but they both were just so overwhelming that any teamwork was mostly circumstantial than anything.
I did my best to assist, settling into a different role. I’d wipe out Daemons to ensure they could focus, I’d smash into some defenses to redirect focus, and let them slip through. That sort of thing. It was teamwork, but it did leave me feeling a little bit like a third wheel, and worse, Lucy wasn’t really impressed.
I could tell she was trying to pull ahead, sort of break free of me following.
Cold.
But I was more than capable of keeping up and so Lucy, if that was what she was doing, was still solidly in front of me.
Finally we reached the actual core we were trying to break into. This time we weren’t alone in a different way. A netrunner was here, his body was twice the size of normal, and he was surrounded by Daemons.
“Not a step further. You lot have caused enough trouble already, turn around.”
I kinda expected Kiwi, or Lucy to say anything, but instead they just went straight on the attack. Both of them slamming hacks forward in at the same time, causing the Runner to activate defenses. Firewalls, Massed Daemons, even his own hacks launched back, and the added server power gave him a hefty punch. I was continually throwing up my defense hacks to give Lucy and Kiwi extra cover, as I dodged or blocked attacks coming my way as well.
“We don’t need your help.” Lucy argued back, as I put up a solid wall between her and some Daemon barrages.
“Well you’ve got it anyways Moongazer.” I told her, and went all out on my own.
I might not be a childhood supersoldier netrunner like Lucy, or just a pure time and effort, and spite runner like Kiwi, but I was fucking Motoko Kusanagi, and on the net, I was not to be fucked with.
My sandy burned, my cyberdeck whirred up, and I started launching attacks like a woman possessed, not quite to the extent of burning myself out of course this wasn’t like that time in the netrunner arena.
This was just me wanting to show off a bit.
I cut out an entire wave of the Daemons from Lucy opening her up to entirely go on the offensive for the security runner.
This pushed him off focusing on Kiwi, letting her clear up her Daemons and suddenly it was two on one, and then as I kept the Daemons off them, it stayed like that.
This guy might be powered up by an entire data fortress, but Lucy and Kiwi weren’t street gonks.
They plowed through his defenses, until he crumpled.
“Shit! Fucking hell! Easy! Damn you win.” He cried out as his defenses crumbled as his ICE barriers wavered. “Jesus who the fuck did we piss off, you Arasaka or something?”
I calmed as he really did stop the assault realizing he was done, but..
I raised a hand and threw up my strongest ICE. Then double and tripled it, as Lucy lashed out with that weird hack of hers, that caused the data to simply self destruct.
Was that something she learned on the other side of the blackwall?
No, that wasn’t important. “Moongazer! What the fuck, chill! He already surrendered!” I called out as my defense hadn’t been to protect us. But to save the runners life.
Lucy had just tried to flatline him.
“Luce. Ease up.” Kiwi demanded, and that thankfully did it, causing Lucy to stop attacking although her face was still glaring.
The poor netrunner looked like he’d just filled his colostomy bag if he had one hooked in.
Looked like his life just flashed before his eyes.
I rushed over which startled him, but I held up my hands.
“Hey easy choom. Sorry about her, she’s a bit on a hair trigger. You unplug, and we will stop it here, yeah? I doubt this is a job you’re willing to get flatlined for.”
“Yeah fuck this.” He muttered and was already disconnecting but he sent me a look. “Thanks.” Then he disappeared.
Heh. I did a good deed for the day.
“You should have let me kill him. Now he’s going to start locking down the data physically.” Lucy muttered a bit harshly, and I shrugged.
“He’s just a gonk doing his job, and we’re all on the net together. Flatlining him for some data when no one's life is on the line is scop.”
“Let’s move-”
“Sasha is here!” Called out a new voice and I did feel some relief.
“Great.” Kiwi muttered, and I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at that.
“W-wha! KITTEN-CHAN! NOoooo! Don’t give in to that spiders wiles! Let Neko-mama guide you-”
“Okay I’m going ahead.” I instantly said and turned to avoid whatever the fuck Sasha was on about.
“Yeah.” Kiwi agreed and we all rushed out, Sasha chasing us from behind.
Thankfully there wasn’t anything else. The next room was the archives, and while Sasha was trying to compete with grabbing it first. I just rolled my eyes and joined in on finding the data without turning it into a competition.
We found our data, and after a short download, we all disappeared.
—--
“F-ff-f-f-fuck!” I cried out the moment I came back to my body. I was probably yowling a bit as I climbed out and rolled onto the freezing floor as I tried to disconnect.
“Hey, you’re back.” Rebecca called out as she was tossing back a few-Disgusting things I was blocking out from my vision. Schwab Schwab wasn’t food!
“Y-y-yeah.” I chattered as I disconnected and stood up. My everything felt achey, and I was freezing, and this sucked. I was never using a stupid ice bath again. Whoever came up with this was stupid! Stupid and dumb!
I was just in the middle of looking for something when Rebecca chucked a towel at me.
“Damn strings, put those away before you kill us all. Fuckin’ ab gremlin.”
“What?” Look who's talking about being a Gremlin!
“Yeah.” Lucy offered as she slipped out of her own bath and was already trying to light a cigarette. “I don’t need to see that.”
“I’m jealous, honestly.” Kiwi muttered as she rose up joining Lucy in her smoking.
Oh. Every was naked! I felt myself flush a little and started drying off a bit. This was bullying!
“I don’t accept!” Sasha suddenly called out as she rose up, and wow. She was very- Looking away.
“Hmm?”
“Sasha and Motoko team should be the winner! Spider hag cheated!”
“Cheated?”
“You stole my Kitten!”
“She offered to help… She was useful.” Kiwi added and I sent her a smile in thanks for her words.
“Nooo! Don’t let the old evil spider suck you into her weeeeeb!” I was going to just ignore Sasha when she crashed into me. And I yelped.
“Sasha! Put s-some clothes on!” I demanded pushing my towel into her face so she wasn’t pressing up against me!
“I can’t believe she’s shy.” Rebecca whispered half giggling, and I turned on her.
“I’ll show you shy!” I hissed and it only took half a second to flip the towel a few times and snap.
“You little shit!” Rebecca shrieked as the towel got her and she roared as she rose up and charged.
“Rebecca! I’m naked!” I shrieked just as loud as she talked me.
“That’s your problem! You and your stupid perfect abs!”
“Kya!”
—--
“What’s go-”
“I ain’t asking, and I ain’t going down there.” Maine rumbled, refusing to look away from the TV. Pilar was, but he was also an idiot, but Rebecca had threatened him with a shotgun for trying to peek earlier.
—--
“Hi-yah!” I called as I flipped Rebecca around after she tackled me and now I was holding her by her stupid tiny little legs.
“Wha-Hey! You bitch, Motoko, put me down!”
“Oh you want to be put down do you?” I whispered sinisterly as I held Rebecca up night and high which let her see where I was aiming.
Her arms flailed out and grabbed the side of the ice bath that I was threatening her with. “Don’t you dare you bitch!”
“Mwahahaha!” was my only response for a minute until I heard some giggles and looked over.
Oh right, I’d lost my towel, and was holding up Rebecca…
I could feel the blood rushing up to my face. So I carefully got Rebecca back on normal ground and then ran after to go grab my towel and cover myself!
“Don’t worry Kitten! Your abs are nothing to be ashamed of.” Sasha offered with a big wink and a thumbs up.
I was definitely not crouching in the corner under the far too small towel and wanting to cry.
Why was everyone still naked! Exhibitionists! All of them! Were all Netrunners like this!? Was I the only sane one?
Then again I was basing my looks off the Major, and she had a bit of a thing about- Nope!
I wasn’t thinking about that right now!
“Put some clothes on!” I demanded as I crawled behind what I could and looked for my clothes.
“Pfft!”
This was awful. All these women were laughing at me!
—--
“So who won?” Maine rumbled as we all came sauntering up the stairs. It had taken a while but eventually all these far too comfortable in just their skin netrunners had gotten dressed.
“The real winner was the friends we made along the way!” I called out.
“We did.” Kiwi answered, back at the same time as Sasha.
“Us of course!”
Then the two older Netrunners started glaring.
Maine took one look at everyone and just popped the cap on a new beer and apparently decided he didn’t care.
Surprisingly smart for that guy.
“We got the data though.” I confirmed as I sat down. “Kiwi and Lucy are a solid duo.”
“Course they are. Faraday doesn’t hire small time.” Maine grumbled.
I hummed as I took in the reaction but in the end, not my gig, not my chickens.
“Well I’m heading out. This was… Interesting.”
“Wait Kitten! Tell the old spider that we won! It was totally us! She even cheated and stole you away from meeee!”
Yep. Time to go home.
Rebecca was cackling as I walked out ignoring Sasha trying to pull me back inside. But I would not be tricked. I stopped just before I climbed into my Quadra and turned to Sasha.
“Thanks, for inviting me. This was definitely an interesting experience.”
“Oh.” She stopped and looked a little embarrassed. “It’s… You don’t have to thank me Kitten. I'm the one that dragged you into my biz. You did great though. Totally proved those two wrong.”
I smiled warmly at her, not crazy Sasha was much easier to deal with. “It was useful for me too. If you ever need some back up again you can call me… I guess I’ll unblock your number in my agent.”
“Eh!? You blocked my number!” She whined and I laughed, I hadn’t really, just didn’t pick up.
“No.” I said teasing and she smiled back.
“Same goes for you too, Kitten. Sasha-Senpai owes her Kohai one yeah?” She baby-talked and I just sent her a flat look, this time she smirked at me in turn. “But if you ever need some help, you can call on me.”
“I appreciate that… Senpai.” I said, sighing as I did. Already knowing she’d overreact.
So I just slipped into my Quadra as she started gushing. Yep. Not bothering with that.
I drove off as I considered everything. That had been a breeze of a gig really, but if I had to solo that data fort? I’d have to either go full stealth, or maybe not be able to do it. Fact was, there were just too many defenses, for the netrunner Motoko Kusanagi was right now to be able to do it.
Shit now Sasha’s got me talking in the third person. I needed to escape that cat's evil clutches.
----
A/n: Things are going pretty well, but I might take one more skip for the next update. Sorry, I know that's not what anyone wants to hear, but I'm just needing a bit of space from it. I am writing tons of other stuff for anyone not in the know, on my snippet threads, on SB, or Ao3.
Carrot of Truth
War is Peace
Breaks are needed sometimes to avoid burnout is what it is.
Take the time you need, writing needs to be fun and while we love reading it, you need to love writing it too.
Now hurry up! WE WANT MORE!
Now hurry up! WE WANT MORE!
embrace the chuunibyo tendencies you are in cyberpunk. everyone has to be at least a little chuuni to be the gonks they are.
Guardian Box
Radioactive Cognitohazard
Motoko masters the blade, fully engulfing herself into the Chuuni soul.
Hers is the path of the blade, of cold iron wielded with malicious intent.
Time passes, until her fated confrontation with The Smasher begins.
A perfect cut.
Her blade arcs at an angle poised to exploit her foe's weakness.
Except...
The Smasher catches her blade in is iron grip.
"Nice knife." He says, mockingly, as her blade is crushed under his grip.
Hers is the path of the blade, of cold iron wielded with malicious intent.
Time passes, until her fated confrontation with The Smasher begins.
A perfect cut.
Her blade arcs at an angle poised to exploit her foe's weakness.
Except...
The Smasher catches her blade in is iron grip.
"Nice knife." He says, mockingly, as her blade is crushed under his grip.