Ghost in the City Cyberpunk Gamer SI

[Seras]

Pre-Chapter note!
As you might have guessed this chapter has Motoko play a song, and it's not the original or something. So I figured I would add it here. I don't usually do 'song' fics, but if you want to hear what I was thinking Motoko was playing and singing. Then here is the song! I hope you enjoy and feel free to mock her weeb levels as much as you want. I take no responsibility it definitely isn't one of my favorite songs IRL or anything! (Also there are english versions but not the piano/vocals only, but you can look that up instead if you want!)

*Hides under anime blanket*




----

“Motoko don’t cause any- Motoko?” Jun asked as he had caught up to me but was surprised I was just standing there. He followed my gaze and I caught the way his face jerked back to me. “You want to try it?” He asked, trying to sound casual.

I hesitated, I wasn’t exactly big on singing in front of people… But on one hand, I was bored.

Like really bored.

On the other… It was a real piano. Don’t see many of those in Night City. A real antique.

“Yeah.” I nodded firmly, marching over to stand in front of the ancient thing. It was old, probably been here since before the TC took over the place. I hit a key and was surprised it was in key.

I tested a few more, with a little trill of notes and to my delight my fingers not only hit the right keys, it sounded fine.

Of course now I had the eyes of every man and woman in the bar on me. I just shrugged, bars were supposed to have music. If anyone complained I would just sic Jun on them.

So after testing out my fingers I nodded. I could definitely be better, but I could play.

Now I just needed to figure out what song to do.

“Nervous?”

“No. Just not sure what to play.” I offered as I considered it. Vocal and Piano only piece… I didn’t listen to many songs like that. And even less that I really enjoyed…

But there was that anime OP.

Fuck it, it probably didn’t exist in this world, so no one would know how much of a weeb I was. Plus I did love the composer, even if he did a lot of anime stuff.

I hummed a bit until I got my voice to the right tone. The vocal needed to be smooth, and I had to figure out what language to use…

I’ll just stick to english. It made a bit more sense that way, considering the original was a mix of multiple languages turned into almost gibberish at times. I loved it, but with an unfamiliar audience? Better to stick to one language.

I started the first notes letting the sound of the piano flow through the bar, but then I kept my eyes on the piano because the only thing I needed to do was focus on the song.

“I will rise in resistance.” I crooned out, beginning the intro for Hiroyuki Sawano’s aLIEz. I loved Sawano, and the fact his songs were heavily electronic, was actually workable this time since he did a lot of them on piano as well.

I remember watching a video of just him and the singer playing the song together, that memory is what guided my fingers. The sound of the haunting lyrics guiding my voice.

It wasn’t perfect. It did lose something without the additional sounds. I would have to fix that some day, recreate it in truth.

But it was fun! I loved this song!

I got lost in playing the notes and crooning along, my voice probably carrying the song more than my playing. Siren Song, and Perfect Musical Memory shoring up my pitfalls in playing, but none of that really mattered.

Because I was jamming out.

“Wake me from this nightmare.” I finished the song by the gentle crooning that it finished on as I played out the last notes letting the song come to its quiet end.

*100 Rockerboy XP Gained.*

It would have been even better if I had my music box. I really needed to fini-

The clapping behind me nearly startled me as I was looking at the alert. Jun was leaning against the wall beside me looking pleased, and there were a few at the bar clapping quietly, but it was the much closer noise that had startled me.

“Fujimura.”

“Kusanagi.” He greeted back, the man was bracketed by two people only one of them I recognized. Akari was clapping as enthusiastically as I expected, the other man nodded as my eyes ran over him.

“You’re late.” I inform him bluntly. “Owe!” I hissed as Jun tapped me on the back of my head.

“Don’t be rude.” Jun demanded and I just rolled my eyes.

“It’s fine Junichirou. Join me in the booth, we have something to speak about.” He stated with a deep grunt and started walking towards it expecting obedience.

“That was great!” Akari said suddenly right there as she grabbed me and shook a bit. “You never told me you could sing! Can you do-”

“If you say anything by the Us Cracks, I will kill you.” I inform her bluntly.

I still remember how Akari never seemed to mind Jun’s music taste when we were in the car together.

“Aww.”

“Akari c’mon.” Jun called, pulling me away from her grasp and gently pushing me towards the booths.

I guess it was business time.

I headed into the back booth, mostly ignoring the looks I was getting. Whether people actually liked the song or not, I wouldn’t find out, but that was fine.

This wasn’t my sort of place anyways.

I settled into the booth Jun and I had abandoned and was set next to Jun with Akari on my other side, with Fujimura across from me with his other guard there too.

“The trouble yesterday. Kotoniki has been disciplined harshly. Even if you were not one of us, to act in such a way dishonors us all.”

“I don’t really care. My fist already evened the debt.” I told him and to my surprise Fujimura actually chuckled.

“Kotoniki was with a ripper when we got to him. You broke his jaw.” The man offered nodding as if pleased.

“Well my fist is chrome.”

“Regardless. The man was disciplined, but there is a debt between us.” He offered using a finger to flow between me and him.

“You know I don’t really…”

“Yes. You have little interest in gang work. I’m aware.” He seemed to say flatly, but it came out like a grumble. “Junichirou has spoken on your behalf. To keep you out of our business until you are ready. Yet your own business has brought you into conflict with us. I’ve considered the best way to ensure there won’t be any further… issues like yesterday.”

“Okay? That doesn’t exactly sound comforting.”

From his side the guard I didn’t know reached into his jacket and pulled out something, putting it on the table.

“The card has my assistant's number on it. If you ever find yourself in a situation with the Tyger Claws like before, you may call for a mediation. I do not want to find out that some fools forced your hand, and created a loss for us. Or did something so foolish as to injure you, and potentially forcing Junichirou to overextend himself.”

I looked over the business card, It wasn’t paper, but a sort of plastic, but didn’t really look special. it was pretty standard and I shrugged putting the number into my agent with a shrug. Not like I needed the card really.

“There is one other thing. I have said before Kusanagi, that just because you do not wish to work with the gang it doesn’t mean that someday you won’t need to. That having friends in this city will one day be something you need.”

This time what was placed on the table was a mask. The assistant had hidden it within his jacket.

It was a mouth piece. Just like Jun’s. A Menpo if I remember the word right, although this one was very similar to the one Jun would wear while he was working. Eerily similar if I was honest. Telling.

“I don’t think I need it.”

“Take it anyways. If you never have a need of it, then it will be forgotten, but someday? Someday you may need the Tyger Claws on your side, that day? That mask will prove you are not just an outsider, or a hangeron.” Fujimura offered firmly, making it seem like the plastic mask was something more than just a piece of junk.

Jun wasn’t going to let me leave it though, I could feel him nudging me on the side.

“Fine.” I grumbled grabbing the stupid Oni mask. I ended up just holding it as I didn’t have a better place to tuck it away.

“Then that is that. Yesterday was a mistake, we have made arrangements now to ensure it does not happen again. Are you satisfied with our apology?” Fujimura asked, and I sorta took a second to process.

I suppose to the TC this would be a big dishonor thing. I had saved one of their bosses and almost got flatlined or worse by one of their henchmen.

“Yeah. It’s fine. Shit happens.” I offered and I could practically hear Jun’s eyes roll beside me, but Fujimura nodded seemingly satisfied.

“Then I must leave. I have other business to complete. Junichirou, take the afternoon off. Akari I will need you.” Fujimura demanded, causing Akari to pout as she put down the drink she was about halfway through.

“Also. Kusanagi… Your piano needs work, feel free to practice.” He told me suddenly then walked off.

Did… Did Fujimura just fucking burn me!?

Asshole!

—--

I did not in fact play more on the piano. Now that the meeting was over I glared at Jun until we headed home, and luckily for Jun I didn’t make him ride bitch, he hadn’t had much to drink so he was still good to drive.

“What are you going to do with your day off?” I asked him and he shrugged as he pulled into the parking space at the apartment.

“Take a nap?”

I snorted at my brother's decision, but I wasn’t going to tease him for it. Naps were amazing sometimes.

“I’ll be coding some more, so I’ll be quiet.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He said, patting me on the head while looking down towards the Menpo I had currently half out of one of my pouch pockets. Jun had one of those stupid proud looks on his face.

“Ugh, just because it’s the same as yours doesn’t mean I’m gonna wear it.”

“It means they think you are valuable. You are much safer now. If anything happens, I won’t have to push to rescue you again.” He smiled pleased and I just scoffed.

I wasn’t planning on getting kidnapped again!

Okay after yesterday I’m not planning on getting kidnapped again. I won’t be walking into a place of what should be nominal allies, with a VIP beside me again.

Next time It’ll be me alone, fully armed, and ready to start shooting if someone does something I don’t like.

In the end I followed Jun back inside the apartment, stopping only to grab a drink from a vending machine, and then a quick stop in my room to drop the Menpo off.

I didn’t exactly plan to use it. Kinda tacky the color wasn’t mine either. The snarling Oni face was set in a sort of neon green, yeah it was pretty ugly, maybe black?

No dummy, you aren’t wearing the fucking Menpo. I tapped my head to get that insidious thought out and put it away where it would collect dust.

Forever.

Then I flopped on the couch and pulled up my laptop. To my surprise Jun came out of his room a minute later wearing casual clothes, and a blanket, he settled onto the couch, put his feet up on the table and turned on the TV.

“Looks cozy.”

“Yep.”

“I’ll be quiet.”

“It’s fine.” He says with a shrug as he sort of just relaxes back.

This was nice.

Time to work on this program.

—--

Slowly it came together.

A program designed to do one simple thing. Stop someone from seeing. The loss of sight could cripple the strongest fighter. My own addition to it, made it just that much more difficult to stop.

A bit of aggressive design to make it insidious.

But the biggest thing holding it back was trying to make it multi-target.

The difference between a hack that can only hit one person, and one that can attack multiple people simultaneously was massive.

Whether it was the program attacking two separate people at once, or a program that hit one person and used their connection to jump to the next.

I had to figure them both out.

I wasn’t just making a cludged together program that would be good enough.

I was making…

A magnum opus. Well that was a bit much, but still.

I was trying to create the peak of the Reboot Optics I could design.

It was funny there was a version of the program stored on V3L’s server. The quality of it was much higher than the one I had bought from Yoko, but both programs were actually done by two different people. Mine was a copy of a copy of a copy, deteriorating each time, or purposefully weakened.

V3L’s was a copy of a much better program. The coding was different, the goal was the same, yet both had shown me what people considered Reboot Optics to be.

I was trying to surpass both. To create an entirely new version of the Quickhack, a new peer in the market.

It was hard.

It was time consuming.

It was exhilarating!

I was creating magic. Literally designing a digital spell that would blind my enemies.

I mean this wasn’t a wizards tower, but sitting on a couch in an apartment was probably more comfortable anyways.

I snorted at my own joke as I worked. The code coming together, slowly forming into something more than just code.

Something complete.

Finally long after Jun had fallen asleep. I finished typing.

I finished debugging.

I finished crafting a spell.

A spell designed to be both longer lasting than the original idea with the brightness trick, and much wider.

It was unfortunately going to be weaker against other netrunners. Any good ICE and defenses could stall the upload out, but in exchange I could rapid fire it out as it had a much lower RAM cost, plus I could always breach some arrogant Netrunner, and push it through that way.

It was also capable of jumping to other people. When it overrode the optics, it branched out and infested the communication systems. Anyone with an interior agent would have it hijacked, have it connect to others already in communication with them, or those in the system close by. If someone was hit by multiple attack vectors the difficulty in stopping it could spike. If it worked correctly, it could overwhelm even moderately good ICE.

A self duplicating viral code.

It was something really difficult to program. Sure there were plenty of hacks that had that aspect, but those were created by teams of corpo coders all working to get it to work, and most of the best duplicating hacks weren’t program, but hardware bonuses.

I still remembered the Tetratronic Rippler from the video game. That let the super ultimate quick hacks spread to an extra person. Yeah that was probably a bit unrealistic, but then again the rippler wasn’t on the market at the moment, so who knows? Maybe some corp will figure it out in the coming year.

Regardless, I created this program in just a few long sessions.

And it was entirely my own.

Sure I doubt it was unique, but it would still be different enough from anyone else's work that it should come as a nasty surprise.

I pushed the program into compiling, receiving the finished file and uploaded it into my Cyberdeck.

Two completed hacks.

I leaned back in the dim light of the apartment. The sun was setting, Jun was still napping, beside me on the couch, and I had completed one of my big goals.

Instead of working on another quick hack, or something I instead grabbed my little music box.

It had been a project I wanted to complete for a while.

It wasn’t productive. It wasn’t going to make me a better merc. A better Netrunner, or a better Edgerunner if I wanted to call myself that.

But it was a project I really wanted to finish.

So I settled in, and started working. The moment a new file was opened and I started coding my fingers picked up and blurred.

I was inspired.

I had a goal.

And I had the knowledge to complete it.

—--

“Morning Jun.” I muttered as I continued to build piece after piece of a very complex piece of equipment. I was really glad that Programming gave info dumps, because making a Quick Hack wasn’t the same thing as designing the function of a physical item. It was easier in a lot of ways, but more finicky.

“Morning.” He grumbled as he rose up rubbing his eyes. He stood and stretched, grumbling the whole way as he headed into the kitchen.

If Jun was up I should probably get moving too.

I closed the laptop, that project wasn’t going anywhere, and there was something I had been wanting to do.

“I’m heading out, gonna be netrunning for a while, so I might be hard to reach.” I called out to Jun who was drinking an entire energy drink can as he chugged it down.

“You need to show me this netrunning place you got set up.” He said as he wiped his mouth tossing the can into the trash.

“You want to come with me now? It’s not much to see though. The interesting part is the net itself.”

“No. I have stuff I need to do today… You’ll be careful?”

“Course! I’m gonna be hunting some info down today, so I should be pretty safe.”

Jun frowned but eventually nodded. I grinned as I headed out. Time to explore the net once again!

 

[Seras]

I opened my eyes in the net. My lobby was still blank…

I really needed to spend some time building this up. A lobby could be a really useful tool if prepared correctly.

But I shook that away and dived into the city.

I did plan on talking to Yoko today, but first there was something I wanted to explore myself.

I wanted to find more Scavs.

What? My Bank account was looking a little thin, and it was better to find another den to raid sooner rather than later. Ichi still had to pay rent after all.

So I needed information, and I wasn’t going to accept going to see Yoko and just having it handed to me.

A netrunner was all about finding information.

So I was going to gather it myself this time. I wasn’t a detective, but I had seen plenty of cop shows!

If you wanted to hunt someone. You had to find out where their victims had been.

So first step was the NCPD Criminal database.

It was easy enough to find the location of, I jumped to the NCPD City-Net page, and instantly I was in front of a prison of a building. Gates, and fences, digital barbed wire, and Daemons shaped like dogs walking around the walls.

I scoffed though. For all of its look of security, that’s all it was. I walked right up to the gate and requested access.

The gate opened and I was allowed to access the ‘public’ pages. You would think that would mean if I wanted the private stuff I would have stronger security, but that wasn’t true.

I walked past the gate. Past the guard Daemons. Past the security, into the lobby of a building, and then once I was in. I just turned away from the lobby room, that looked like I was visiting the DMV. Instead I found the visual door that had “Secure. NCPD Only” On it.

Like I said. They already let me in past all the security. In this case I was pretty sure it was intentional. The NCPD didn’t care if someone went looking for their criminal database after all. I mean I already had access to it through my Kiroshi. The access that Vik had set up for me was super common, and so it was child's play to just walk through the secure door into a file room.

The door lock on the door was flimsy and I breached it within a few moments.

Like I said someone wanted people to be able to access at least this set of files. Inside was a storage room, nearly infinitely long filled with old storage cabinets. I walked over to the first one and popped it open. Inside was files on a recent Grand Theft Auto. I closed the drawer.

I needed something else.

So with a bit of a mental command, I inputted a search function for all files relating to kidnapping.

The room rumbled. Like I was in the matrix, and thousands of the cabinets vanished as the whole space rearranged itself.

Then when the shifting room still left me with millions of cabinets, I narrowed it more. Within the last four months. It rumbled and shifted again. There were still a ton of files, but at least now I could start.

First just to see I added “Scav” into the search to see what would happen. The room didn’t alter in any way that I could see.

I pulled open the first file closest to me.

Violet Espinosa. Age 27. Reported missing 4.17. Deceased. SCAV.

Peter Franklin Age 36. Reported missing 5.2. Deceased. SCAV.

The reports were all like that. Sure there was more information on each one, the police reports had a lot of information including the missing persons criminal history and such.

But that bit was the most interesting point.

Why was SCAV on all these files?

Why was Deceased? Did the NCPD know something? I couldn’t find any information on why they were listed that way.

In the end, I didn’t get an answer, but the more recent kidnappings at least had locations for last seen.

So I started collecting the data. Opening a file and just dumping the last location into a map of Night City. Slowly more and more dots grew across the file. There were hundreds of kidnapping reports, and I was just dumping them all into the file to see what would happen.

In the end, there were definitely hot spots on the map, but it didn’t really give me enough information to know for sure.

But, I knew where to look now.

So I found the most recent kidnapping report that was closest to the hotspots, and pulled those files saving them to my own server and took my new hotspot map. Then I walked out of the NCPD server.

—--

Markus Leon. Went missing yesterday. Age 30. His wife made the report. Markus had been last seen walking to work from his apartment building by his wife.

His work was three blocks down the street. He never made it to work.

But I had a general time he had left. And this was a modern city.

It had cameras everywhere.

So first I walked to the apartment complex that Markus lived in. The Server was old. It didn’t have the security to really stop me as I accessed the system, breached past its defenses and accessed the few security cameras still working.

Most were broken, but the elevator one worked.

I checked the time, and watched.

6:37 AM.

I found him. Markus steps onto the elevator from the third floor. Heads down, and walks out.

I jump out of the camera. The lobby camera was broken, but there was an outside camera looking down at the entrance. It was a few floors up, which is the only reason It wasn’t broken.

6:38 AM.

Markus walked out of the complex, turned left down the street and continued his path.

Okay. I checked the net for buildings along the road he had gone down.

The next building over was a hotel. The security was tighter, but still easily bypassed especially since I was in the net.

Its cameras were active. Protected by bullet proof domes so they wouldn’t get destroyed.

6:38 AM.

Markus walks past the entrance. I watch for a minute after he goes past.

No one seemed to be following him or anything.

So I pulled out of the security of the building and moved on.

I continued down the street. Any building that didn’t have cameras. I would jump across the street and see if there were cameras facing outward enough to catch across the street.

Down we went. Until I crossed a street and Markus didn’t appear.

I went back, and saw him reach the crosswalk through a diner's camera, and then nothing.

I jumped around, checking all the corners of the street trying to find something.

6:41 AM.

I spotted it.

Markus didn’t cross the street, the path he should take to go to work.

No, he turned left and continued walking down the street.

Interesting.

I continued to follow his path as he headed away from his workplace.

What was Markus up to?

Not that I was interested if the guy had just bailed. I was looking for scavs.

Down the street we went, only a few times I had to skip a few buildings and wait for him to walk into frame.

Then suddenly I jumped to the next camera and he never appeared.

I checked all the cameras in the area, I could confirm he disappeared.

After a few minutes of checking, I realized there was only one place he could have gone.

An apartment building.

So he was in the apartments? I mean Scavs often set up there, but this wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. Where were the group of scavs beating him unconscious or drugging him and dragging him into a rape van or something?

The apartment complex was run down, didn’t have any security cameras inside.

Probably on purpose.

But it did have a server still, everything had a net channel after all, had to, to have TV.

So I started sneaking in. Something weird was going on.

The server as I slipped in was dark and run down, plenty of slow down spots.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the TV reception in the place sucked.

But the security might as well have been a broken lock. I popped in, and checked the apartment listings.

Markus Leon wasn’t on the registry of course.

But I did find something interesting.

An entire section of the complex that had everyone stop paying rent as one. Consistent rent payments by some of the people and then suddenly nothing. This started months ago.

But more interesting? The server data was modified.

It wasn’t anything amazing, but it wouldn’t be sending any alerts to the owner to let them know there was a late payment.

Services would shut off still, but the owner wouldn’t know he needed to bring in more people.

Interesting.

Second floor, rooms 220-230 were all non paying.

There was a temptation to back out and check it out in person but…

I was a netrunner. This was the sort of thing I was meant to do.

So I started poking around.

Someone capable of hacking into the register to shut off alerts would want internet access.

If they had access, they had opened a path.

So I started pinging the area around the building.

The virtual datascape around me flared up and traffic glowed a brighter color than the rest.

There.

I smirked. There was a side channel that had been rather roughly built into the side of the server.

To my eyes it looked like someone had laid a long wire from the access point between the internet and the building server, up into the building. I pinged it, making sure to keep the touch as light as I could.

It blazed through the wire, showing me a spider web of systems. Cameras. And computers all together.

I smirked as I slipped through. Yes there was security. Yes they had some good ICE.

Yes they had expected it to keep someone out.

Not good enough.

I breached through the ICE, and as I did, a monster slipped out of my avatar.

A Daemon.

I smiled at it, as its legs skittered into the server. It looked like a cross between a spider and a facehugger.

I loved it instantly.

I watched it slip into the server and its actions spread out to anything connected to the system.

I slipped in after. Traveling through the wire into a low fidelity server.

There wasn’t much inside. The server was just a computer system setup to run everything, but I could poke around.

I easily snuck right past the Guard Daemon. It was shaped like a robotic dog searching endlessly for intruders.

But it had my giant spider wrapped around its face, a single large eye the only thing that could see, and as it ‘looked’ at me, it just seemed to ignore my presence.

I had already been sure it couldn’t see me. The Daemon was perfect for bypassing low level security Daemons. Instantly I accessed the cameras connected to the system.

I had seen a lot of scav dens.

I had grown rather used to the sights of them.

This wasn’t a scav den.

It was a drug den.

I scowled. What the fuck? There were drugs being cooked up, and drugs being used. One side of the apartments was set up to manufacture something.

The other side was a drug den. Couches and beds littered the area. Plenty of people passed out among the mess and detritus.

Okay something was up.

I was on the tail end of a kidnapping…

Oh no. It was just a missing person. I scowled, searching the cameras for any sign of Markus. If he was here, then he really wasn’t missing.

And there he was.

Fuck. I shook my digital head pulling free of the camera systems.

This wasn’t my target. A complete bust.

I headed out of the hidden server. I considered sending a tip to the NCPD, but…

It could be useful knowledge. I would keep it for now. Just marking down the info. It wasn’t like I couldn’t access their little server again in the future. My second Daemon would take care of that. Wall Breaking left a Daemon behind giving me access after all.

That one looked like a giant eye that went and hid itself in the corner of the server room it would remain quiet and hidden until I needed to access the server again.

—--

So I went down the list.

Taking a small break to hit the bathroom in between.

Most of the missing reports went somewhat similar. People running away just to escape. Some ended up caught by rival gangs and flatlined. Some were even picked up by the NCPD despite the report of them potentially dead.

I realized that any time someone reported missing NCPD just filled out a missing persons report, listed them as deceased with a SCAV label for some reason.

Fuckers.

In the end it didn’t matter. I was going to search through the missing reports until I found my target. I had all day.

And in the end, following the same steps, just tracking people down through old camera recordings. I found them.

It was a report on Hannah Curtis. The forty year old Corpo woman. Who worked for a Biotechnica subsidiary. She went missing two days ago, she did have more protection than a normal worker, and likely would have been searched for, but her biomonitor confirmed a flatline.

So they gave up.

I didn’t.

She was harder to track. I ended up having to follow her car through the city, hacking cameras as I went, even losing track of her once, and only finding her by chance down a side street.

I couldn’t see exactly what went down, but I could guess.

Her car goes in the alley, and minutes pass. Then a truck drives into the alley. Her car drives out of the alley with a new driver and no Hannah.

A scan of the man's face told me what had happened.

Turns out Hannah had a drug addiction. She stopped in the alleyway to meet her dealer, and he stole her car. Probably knocked her out or killed her.

You would think that was the end, but the dealer, a Mr. Samuel Alexander Harrington. Had connections.

The truck leaving had a man driving that was wearing an imager displacer. Couldn’t get his face, but the image of the face with crossed out eyes was more than enough to confirm it was a scav.

So I followed along, with notes to follow up with Mr. Samuel sometime. That had been a nice car, and it would be a shame to let him keep it.

But I followed the truck.

In the end tracking them through the city was starting to become routine. Security existed, sure, but it wasn’t like I was in a rush. Any time I hit a place with security too heavy, I could skip it, try to find an easier camera to hack into, or if I absolutely needed that Camera to know where they went, I could just slowly breach in, take my time.

I wasn’t trying to rescue someone after all. I was hunting.

Considering how often I was breaching into systems I was earning a nice nestegg of Breaching XP as a bonus.

Then I just followed them home.

Sure the camera’s in the area they finally stopped were mostly broken down, or nonexistent. But when I narrowed the scavs down to a specific block area. It wasn’t hard to then start checking each building one at a time.

The people that were running non-scav business were given a mental apology for the intrusion and ignored.

Although I would have to keep an eye on that porn studio, there hadn’t been anyone ‘acting’ at the time I breached, but it looked sketchy, and if they were kidnapping people too? Well I would just clean them up as well.

But I found them.

What had once been a small office building, and that according to the records should be shut down, but had active internet and electricity flowing to it.

As I slipped into their net their cameras told me the full story.

Scav den.

I noted the address, and even started poking around their systems.

“I can’t believe how easy this is from the net.” I couldn’t help but admit to myself as I looked around the scavs, network lobby.

Sure their security was pretty good. Great even. They likely had a netrunner set it all up to start with.

But it wasn’t being monitored, and an automated system was easily bypassed in the end.

My Cyber Ninja perk meant when I breached into the system, their security Daemons had a hard time finding me. Plus it was also infecting the people attached to the network.

I was gonna have a lot of fun when I hit this place. Their network would already be mine long before I set foot in real life.

I stilled at that thought.

Netrunning wasn’t easy.

It wasn’t a game. I could die here. I was getting overconfident, and that is the sort of thing that kills. I wouldn’t just be able to pop a maxdoc if someone fried my brain.

I shook off the confidence, and mentally switched back to assuming I was being tracked. I doubled down on making sure everything was in place, that my ‘additions’ to the network. The backdoors and daemons wouldn’t be noted.

Then I backed out after gathering all the camera data I could.

—--

I had sent a text to my chooms after I got back to my body.

*Section 9 meeting tonight. Target located. Meet at Lizzies 6PM.*

Feeling cool for sending out a totally tactical message I went home.

The sun was coming up, which was funny because when I arrived at the apartment the sun had been coming up.

I had been in the net for nearly a whole day.

I didn’t feel too bad, but as I reached the street I jogged down to the parking lot instead of just calling the car here.

Even if my stats didn’t deteriorate, I still needed a bit of exercise, to stretch my legs.

I was already a basement dweller at this point…

I shook that annoying thought away and went home.

I wanted a shower.

 

[Seras]

“Motoko!” Hiromi called out as she entered Lizzies.

Sure she looked a bit awkward about it, staring a bit too long at some of the Mox bouncers, but I waved her over and her nervousness faded as she got closer.

I guess it might be a little awkward for a girl like Hiromi who usually was covered in TC stuff to walk into the Mox home.

But honestly I wanted to get away from using the Ho-Oh club as our meetup place.

That stupid mask I now had hidden away in my room was taunting me with the fact that Fujimura was eager to recruit me fully.

I didn’t want to deal with that.

“You’re late.” Ichi pointed out as he sipped on his drink. Malcolm and Ichi had actually been here early…

A little ‘too’ early if my estimation was right, but boys will be boys.

“Pfft! I was busy! Reaching out to some contacts about potential buyers.” Hiromi said eyebrows twitching in an insinuation about their future payday.

“All is forgiven.” Ichi offered with a faux bow and Hiromi cackled as she slipped into the seat next to me. We were at the bar for now, but I would drag my chooms into one of the private booths before we got to talking too much.

Hiromi ordered a drink, Ichi and Malcolm both happy to drink a bit on my tab. Because I am a generous leader.

“So you found something?” Malcolm prompted, looking eager. This wasn’t his first attempt to pry information out, but I had told him to wait for Hiromi.

“Not here. Get your drinks, and let’s go grab a bit of privacy. Thanks Mateo.” I said to the bartender, dropping a tip as I dragged my eager chooms out of the main room.

In the end we took over one of the booth rooms, as I settled my chooms around and then I called all of them just like last time.

Instantly I sent all of them the information I had gathered about the new scav den.

The office building looked run down from the outside, and closed off, that image moved inside giving a bit gruesome scenes of the interiors.

*Disgusting.* Hiromi muttered into the group call. *But it looks like they have a lot of product.* She said looking at the boxes of chrome the Scavs were collecting.

*How did you even find this place?* Ichi asked and I threw him a peace sign.

*I backtraced missing peoples reports and slipped into security systems all along the streets. Everyone has security cameras after all, and a lot of them are pointing at the street. So with a bit of finangling and a lot of illegal hacking I was able to track people.*

*Holy shit! That must have been pretty hard. I’m surprised more people don’t do that.*

I shrugged. *It’s dangerous. One bad server that has some nasty ICE, and I could be in a lot of trouble.*

*Motoko! If you are going to do something so dangerous then call on us to help! We can at least get you to your ripper if something goes wrong.* Hiromi demanded glaring and I nodded hands raised at her anger.

*Yeah, probably smart.*

*Good!*

*Should be a good payday. Any issue with the numbers Motoko?* Ichi asked, *Need us to come in guns blazing this time?* He said while motioning with his hand as if shooting a gun.

*No. I’ve already taken over their system, when I hit them, all of the scavs are going to lose their ability to see simultaneously!” I chirped, grinning at the idea of what I was going to do to these monsters.

*Nice.*

*Malcolm: You grabbed all of their camera data here right?* Malcolm asked, still forced to send his question as a text as he didn’t have an interior agent.

Gonna have to remind him he could get that upgrade now.

*Yeah, their security was good, but not that good. They had it all saved to a laptop. I actually think it might have been something one of them did as a mistake. The security for the network was set up by a netrunner, but this is the kind of amateur mistake I expect from someone who has no idea what they are doing.*

*Malcolm: Then, can’t we use your little back trace trick to find more scav dens?*

I blinked at Malcolms text. That was… possible.

While I had tracked the van back to this place. They still had to transport their gear to another site to sell, could I figure out where?

Could I track their shipments to find even more? I could follow cameras like I had before…

Well maybe not alone.

But I wasn’t alone.

*Okay chooms. Malcolm had a great idea. I might be able to track the scavs, but I’ll need your help. Rather than hit just one scav den. I want to find where all of the chrome gets sent.* I said and suddenly all three of my chooms sat up straight.

We had made bank on the small scav dens.

But if there was a central repository? If there was even just a storage space for where all the chrome went?

We could make…

A lot of eddies.

Like a lot of eddies.

*Okay. Malcolm, you have a good eye for that sort of stuff. Start going through the camera, see if you can spot something we can use.* I point out and the boy actually flushes and looks pleased at my words.

*Hiromi. If we hit a place that has even more equipment we might need more transport. Think you can use your connections to find us people willing to transport stuff for us?*

*I have a few ideas already.* She confirmed with a nod.

*Ichi if we are moving that much stuff, we are going to need a place to store it… Maybe even a gang to help protect it.* I had to admit with a scowl. *I have some TC contacts if this actually works that I can pull on, but maybe find us some low key storage we can move stuff to?*

*I know of a few places I can use. Leave it to me!*

*Alright, in that case… I guess I need to get back on the net… Actually. All of us should get moving. I can pull more info and send it to you guys to check over as I’m running.*

“Oh! Um…” Malcolm said aloud before stopping, hesitating. “Should I call Omaeda?”

I blinked, Omaeda was… Oh! He was the netrunner that Ichi and Malcolm had been friends with.

“I haven’t seen him in a while, now that you mention it.”

“Omaeda bailed on us during the war. He basically went home and hid. We haven’t talked since.” Ichi offered with a grumpy face.

“It wasn’t like that Ichi. You know that. Omaeda wasn’t as into the TC as you. He didn’t want to get shot in a gang war.”

“He bailed on us when we needed him. We don’t need him.” Ichi said ending the conversation for a moment as Hiromi and I both kind of just looked at each other awkwardly.

“Let’s go without him for now?” I prompted and Malcolm hesitated and just shrugged a bit.

“Alright. We should head to your place?”

“Yeah, it sounds like tonight is going to be busy for all of us.” I say and Hiromi groans a bit.

Heh, corpo brat. Ichi and Malcolm both looked excited.

—--

An hour later I was back in the net. My chooms were set up on laptops connecting to the server so I could pass them data in real time, and I rushed back to the scav den’s server.

With the work I had done before I was able to just slip right back inside, and this time I was accessing their data looking for something in particular.

*Malcolm see anything on the cameras yet?* I called out, the phone connection with my group was active despite being in the net.

*They had a bunch of the chrome crates disappear about a month ago, but I’m narrowing down when it happened.*

I nodded to myself as I accessed the camera system myself. I could access the system in a way that Malcolm couldn’t since I was in the net, multiple screens popped up, and I set each of them to be a different day the camera had recorded and just waited for the crates to disappear.

*The tenth.* I sent to him, as I noticed some of the scav guys load up a bunch of the crates on handtrucks and move them out.

There wasn’t really a good exterior camera so I was forced to move outward. Checking both ends of the street for active cameras.

Nothing.

The cameras just weren’t good in the area. I had only been able to narrow down the scavs to this street to begin with.

So I went wider, slipping into more and more camera systems in a big circle, the actual searching I left to my chooms. I was giving them access, pulling the camera data and then moving on, and then finally we got a hit.

*Found it! Going down Pondsmith.* Ichi said and I pulled out of the cafe I had been pulling a video from. I jumped across the net, I checked the image Ichi had found of the white scav van, and then I jumped to the systems down the street, finding one that had a street cam. I accessed it’s records confirming the vans path.

*Alright everyone, I’m gonna start sending the video data. Find me this truck's path.* I called out, switching back to hitting every camera just a bit further down the street I could find and pulling their video records.

Some didn’t keep records, some didn’t have cameras with the right angle.

In the end I just kept digging, letting my chooms find the vans path, from the data I pulled. Sometimes making me pull back when the van turned suddenly.

Sometimes I was forced to spread out my net wide, when we lost track of it, going down every street connected to the road we lost the van on just to see if we can catch sight of it on the cameras.

I was really happy I had my chooms helping out.

This could have been something taking me days to slowly path out the vans movements without the external help.

While a part of me couldn’t help but wonder why the NCPD didn’t do something similar, It was the reminder in my head that breaking into every business and personal camera I could on the path would be something the NCPD would need a warrant for. Plus a netrunner to do this for every crime.

I shook it off, I wasn’t here to judge NCPD’s lack of investigation talent.

I was here to track these scavs through the city, to find them.

In the end we did truly lose them.

*Anything?* I asked my team only to get groans back.

It was late. We had been tracking this truck through the city for hours. Everyone was getting close to being overworked.

*I don’t know where the truck went, Motoko! This is so fucking stupid! God damned Corpos! No wonder scavs get away with this shit! The Corpo security practically protects them!* Malcolm cursed getting frustrated at the entire situation.

*Alright I’m pulling out. I think we all need a break.* I call into the chat, and slowly pull myself back to my body.

I blinked back in my flesh. I sat up slowly seeing my chooms all sitting around the basement in different levels of disarray. I looked at the clock and winced at how late it was.

“Sorry guys. I shouldn’t have kept pushing you all so late. Let’s get some rest we can continue tomorrow.” I offered and Malcolm and Hiromi both groaned but seemed willing to stop.

Ichi’s fist slammed onto the table, startling us all.

“No. Motoko, you’ve been netdiving for like six hours. You must be exhausted, take a break. Grab some food whatever you need. But I’m not… You brought us in, it’s our turn to prove we aren’t just… hanging onto your rep. I’m not giving up. Not yet.” He said and Hiromi instantly plopped back into her chair and focused on the laptop.

Malcolm let out a chuckle and shook his head. “Yeah fair enough. Not like we haven’t done late nights before. I could use some chow though.”

“I’ll go get some food!” I told them cutting Malcolm off. “I owe you guys for being so great!” I said and before they could say anything I was there. Rushing in.

Malcolm got first hug since he was closest. I lifted him up and spun him around a bit before dropping him onto his wobbly feet and rushed at Hiromi who squeaked as I lifted her out of her chair.

Ichi tried to defend himself. But his Street Brawling was weak.

Something to work on in the future.

My grapple hugs completed, I hummed happily as I headed to the elevator. There was a diner down the street, I bet I could get a couple of to go meals there.

—--

Bags full of steaming hot meals I walked back to the apartment. The diner was close enough I decided to just walk, it would take longer to have to park the car.

While I did I considered the problem.

The Scavs obviously had to have a way to get the chrome out of the city. That was the rumor, or at least my understanding. The Scavs stole chrome from the city and sold it off, usually in russia.

Okay so assuming that is right, they had to ship it. It’s why I was so confused. Why would they drive into City Center? There were no docks big enough for a transpacific cargo ship there. You would want to go northside for that.

But they had come from the northside, traveling into City Center.

So why?

Why would you head into City Center? The truck they used was pretty big. More than enough for the many crates they loaded up. The same style of crates we had found in the original scav den. The only one that hadn’t had the same style was Charles shop, but his was obviously a weird scav situation, since he was reselling the chrome he found.

So they brought in tens of crates, how do they get them out?

Did they load them into an AV for transport out of the city? But why City Center? There were better places to load an AV closer.

So a ship?

But why? The only docks in City Center were like… High end Yacht club stuff. The sort of place that has insane security, that a bunch of scavs wouldn’t be able to slip in.

Did they gather it up and transport it out in bigger trucks? I suppose the scavs could have a corpo working with them, giving them a place to store huge amounts of their loot.

In the end I just wasn’t sure where to go next.

Luckily I could still be snack provider.

As I walked into the basement room it was quiet, my chooms were all still staring at the screens and I decided it was time for a break.

“Food time!” I called out holding up the bags of to go diner meals in the air.

“Yeah I could eat.”

“Food!” Malcolm and Ichi both spoke as one, and pulled away from the system. I settled the food on a table that Morgan had probably set up for just that purpose and parceled out the meals.

“It’s so frustrating! How can they just disappear like that! I just want to know where they went!” Hiromi whined as she plopped into the chair.

“Well they didn’t disappear.” Malcolm said after a moment as he finished swallowing a bite of the pasta that I was absolutely sure wasn’t what the diner called it, but hey it was warm and filling.

“We lost them though.”

“Yeah the fuckers drove down Corpo, I mean Corporation st. and we can’t find a camera to hit them with after.” Ichi offered, chowing down.

“Yeah but like… We know where they end up.” Malcolm said, suddenly sitting up straight as he put the food down.

“No we don’t? We lost track of them.” I reminded him but his eyes weren’t focused on me, he was a million miles away.

“Malcolm?”

“They return to the scav den.” He said in a mumble. “When they are done. They return to the scav den.”

“Yeah?”

“So they don’t disappear. We know where they are… Motoko, instead of trying to track their path to where they are going. Try to track them on their way back!” I considered it. They likely would take the same path back, but what if they didn’t?

Either way it was more data.

“Malcolm. Good job.” I said throwing him a thumbs up, but as my chooms all stood to rush back to their stations I reached out and started pushing people back into chairs. “Hold it!” I demanded startling everyone.

“Food first. Breaking a Scav ring comes after.”

 

[Seras]

Once everyone ate and had a break we jumped back in. I was back on the net. This time following the Van backwards along its path with my team helping out. And then to our delight, the van was on a different road back.

*It’s on Longshore! It just came off the Ringroad!* Malcolm called out through the call.

The Van hadn’t gone into City Central using the freeways through NC. It had been mostly on the street level. Using Congress St to go around Corpo Plaza to reach Corporation.

But if they were using the Ring road to come back? It meant Corporation St. Was close to where our scavs made their dropoff.

*I’m checking what I can find around Corporation. If they are on the Ringroad… I can’t find any good cameras in that area, everything is high end. I’m stretching out and looking for smaller shops.* I called out to my chooms as I blurred through cyberspace, trying to find something with eyes.

*Motoko. Check for 25/7’s. They tend to be all over the place down there, since the corpos use them to buy cigarettes or a beer while working.* Hiromi cut in, and I blinked.

What the fuck was a 25/7?

It took me a few seconds to find out. They were capsule shops. They could be put just about anywhere, and were basically gas stations without the gas.

Interesting!

I did a quick net search for them, finding a few of the capsules all over the area.

The trouble came instantly as I slipped onto their server net.

All of the recordings for all the shops went to a main server. It was a chain shop after all.

But the place was crazy secure. I had to duck back out instantly just to avoid the security Daemons they had liberally placed throughout.

“Slow Motoko. Take it slow.” I reminded myself. Then I began breaching. Slipping my Daemons into their system in return. Blinding their security, as I wormed my way in.

It helped that I wasn’t trying to access their most secure data. Their payment, and shipping information was heavily secured. The digital access point looked like a hallway full of lasers and things heading towards a vault.

But the camera data wasn’t something they could store that securely. There would be just too much information coming in. It would make a weakness in the security. So it was far easier to access for that reason.

Or they just didn’t care to protect it.

So I managed to slip into that section of the server without trouble, bypassing the security Daemons.

I was just starting to access the cameras, looking for the shops on Corporation st when I felt it.

Someone knew I was here.

Danger Sense.

I turned throwing up my ICE Shield, which saved me.

A Daemon shaped like a devil was rushing me, its open mouth full of chainsaw teeth that spun and buzzed. Honestly it looked more like a blender than a mouth.

But even as the Daemon hit my shield and slowed down frosting over it was the netrunner behind it that I was focused on.

“Sorry kid. Nothing personal.” He said as his hand shifted.

Barrier spun around me. The neon shields bursting to life, filling space with a flood of junk data, that when the ray of neon green light shot out, I was able to actually dodge as the incredibly fast hack stalled on the barriers before managing to work their way through.

Hell Flame burst around me slamming into the Daemon, causing the Daemon stuck in my ICE to begin to dissolve. Removing it as a threat.

“Hey can’t we talk about this? Not looking to cause trouble here.” I called out even as I continued to prepare more defenses, and looking for an escape route.

“Breaking into my server? That is trouble.” He said and I had to sacrifice another of my barriers to keep the ray of light from striking me.

“Not here to damage your biz!” I called out, sending a wave of Hell Fire at the runner who stopped attacking to throw up a solid wall of ICE to fizzle it out.

Yeah this guy knew what he was doing, and he was in his own server. I was gonna have to delta.

Unfortunately he wasn’t going to let me. Even as I started making my way to move out of the server lobby, the security Daemon dogs were gathering at the exits. Blocking my way.

Fucker.

“Yeah what exactly would a kid netrunner be doing sneaking in here? Oh did you just trip and your access connector happen to slide into the server port?”

I actually snorted, out a laugh at the joke.

“Not exactly, how about we have a-fuck!” I yelped as I dodged another ray. I was running low on barriers. Throwing up another set was only a stop gap measure. “How about we have a minute where we talk! No need to go killing each other here.”

“I don’t know from my angle. I seem to be on the winning side of this.” He called out mocking, but, keeping him talking was keeping him from blasting me.

Fine I would just flip it around. A new set of barriers surrounded him now. Leaving me without my best defense, but the Daemon was dead, so ICE burst up creating a barrier between us.

“Oh fuck off.” He grumbled and started bashing the spam barriers with his laser.

I took a moment to get a scan of it and had to whistle. That was a nasty virus. Like my fire it would try to delete anything it touched.

“How about we just talk, yeah?” I called out and while it didn’t make him stop blasting the barriers it did cause him to respond again.

“Yeah? Why should I? Some thief coming into my server? It’s my job to clean up the trash!” He yelled blasting a few more of the barriers down.

“Okay first? Ouch. Second. I’m not here to steal anything! I just need your camera records to see if I can track down a Scav group.” I waited, peaking my head out from around my ICE barrier. I was counting on the fact everyone hated scavs to give me a few seconds here.

My trash barriers were all gone, but he wasn’t attacking me anymore.

“I’m supposed to believe you are hunting Scavs?”

“Well… Yeah! Look at where I am! I’m accessing your camera records.” I said waving at the data I had been poking at.

“Worker profiles and other things are in that database too. How do I know you aren’t up to something.”

“Cause I’m trying to talk to you and not just trashing your server as I make my escape?”

“You got one minute, convince me.” He said arms crossed over his chest, the netrunners face was mostly blocked by a set of net goggles, but at least he wasn’t shooting lasers at me.

Or sicking his daemon dogs on me.

“Okay so I’ve been following a group of scavs from their hideout through the city. I knew where they started, but I need to find out where they came from. I lose them in city central on Corporation. Near Berkley. I know they get on the Ring Road, but I can’t tell from where.”

The netrunner was quiet for a minute before nodding slowly. “The security in Center is better, so you can’t… Have you been hacking into every Camera you can get your hands on?” He asked, sounding almost bewildered.

“Well yeah?”

“How are you not dead? Black ICE should have fried you by now.”

“I mean… I’m pretty good at breaching systems, and if the system is too dangerous I just skip it.”

“No wonder I didn’t notice your intrusion.” He mumbled more to himself than me, but he raised and then lowered his hands, and suddenly the Daemon dogs seemed to relax, going back to searching for intruders and not trying to eat me.

“Fine. I’ll walk you through the recordings if you don’t steal any records, and leave when you get what you want.”

“Deal!” I called out with a sigh, slowly letting my ICE down, and cleaning up the mess on the server with a bit of manual maintenance.

“Let’s get this over with kid.” He said with a grumbly sigh.

And we did. He walked over and once I told him the day and time he was able to pull up the cameras on the little shopping pods and we started looking.

“There.” I pointed out when I saw it.

It was still going westbound on Corporation. Past Berkley. What the hell? There wasn’t even much out there. Just a wave breaker road.

“Wait, that's the truck you are looking for? I thought you said you were searching for scavs?” The netrunner said looking to me with suspicion.

“Yeah I am! Those guys are with a scav group up in westbrook. I’ve tracked them all the way here from their hideout.”

“If that’s the case why are they dressed up as Gold Beach Marina dock workers?” He asked and I looked back at the camera.

The passenger. He had changed his clothes at some point. Throwing over a Blue and white jumpsuit. While the driver had on a yellow hazard vest.

“Gold Beach Marina?” I wondered aloud. The name not meaning anything to me.

“Yeah the jumpsuit the passenger is wearing, that’s their janitor staff uniform. We get them stopping in to buy smokes while they work all the time. Seen them a million times. On the camera when I need to look for thieves.”

“Gold Beach Marina… Thanks Choom.” I told him, throwing up a thumbs up as I made to log out.

“Whoa kid. These guys are Marina staff, not Scavs, what are you playing at?”

“That’s what I want to know.” I said, irritated and did a quick log out of the server. He didn’t have the Daemons guarding the access points so I was easily able to buzz back out and into the net.

But I didn’t stick around. I went straight back to my body.

—--

“Gold Beach Marina. Super high end place, has a bar and a cafe… And a bar.” Hiromi offered as she looked at the laptop she had pulled up the marina’s information from. “Private club, can’t get in unless you make more eddies than you could even try to waste.”

“Why are the scavs going to a place like that?”

“Maybe some high end scav boss has a connection there? Could park his yacht right there and load it up. The security is crazy, but if he okays the scavs that come to make deliveries registering them as staff… Fuck that would work.” Ichi mentioned looking infuriated.

“Does it? The cost for access to a place like that must be crazy! Even a scav wouldn’t make money affording it. And it’s just a yacht marina. A yacht can’t transport that sort of stuff across the pacific! So that means they have to stop somewhere else! Is a yacht like that big enough to even make a profit if you are shipping all the chrome out of the city on it?” I asked frowning.

I get where Ichi was coming from, but when you are shipping something across an ocean, that’s time and money. Boxes of Chrome are certainly a good amount of eddies into their pocket…

But enough to cover all the costs this would entail?

A yacht. Fuel. Repairs. Crew. Payment to the scavs. Equipment to the scavs.

“Something about this is fishy as fuck.”

“Well it is a marina-Ow!” Malcolm winced as Hiromi slugged him in the arm for the joke.

“At least we found them.” Ichi offered with a shrug. “Does any of the rest matter? We could go and loot up.”

“You want to steal chrome from a high security area owned by bajillionaires?” I asked frowning. “I was expecting a boat and a hidden dock, like old smugglers. Not this.”

I didn’t exactly want the sort of heat that people with fuck off money could bring.

Oh I’m sure we could steal the stuff. I was fairly confident in my ability there, but stealing the stuff and not having someone track us down after?

Just like we had done. It was totally possible someone could follow us the same way.

No, we had to figure out a way of stealing this thing without a trace if we were going to do it.

“Okay. It’s late guys. We did it, We tracked down the scavs. But we aren’t getting into the Marina security from here, so take a break. Go to sleep. I’m going to go check out the Marina tonight while it’s late.” I said, we needed information. I could collect it.

“Motoko stop being a gonk. You’ve been netrunning and going nonstop for hours and hours. We all need a break. We can continue tomorrow. If you want to check the place when it’s dark out, then tomorrow night will be good.” Hiromi said cutting me off to my surprise as she grabbed my shoulders and pushed me towards one of the couches.

“Wha-Hiromi! I’m fine.”

“Go to sleep.” Hiromi muttered, rubbing her eyes.

In the end Ichi and Malcolm passed out on the couch, while Hiromi took my net chair.

I guess it was sleepover time. I rolled my eyes and just decided to go with it. Hiromi was right. No need to rush this.

—-

The next morning we all drove out to the Marina to get a look at what we were facing.

My Quadra, and Ichi’s truck stood out like a sore thumb when we pulled out into the Marina from Corporation st.

But that was fine. We were just information gathering.

“Look at that ship.” Malcolm muttered, staring at the big black yacht that was one of the few ships in the marina. The thing looked like a stealth ship from the old world, but considering where it was, it was likely just a luxury yacht with a weird style.

“Do you think that’s it?” Ichi asked me and I shrugged.

“No way to know. They could be out on the seas right now. Or they could just be using a warehouse or something connected to the marina until a bigger ship comes by to pick it all up, right under the nose of customs… If that’s even a thing here.” I muttered wondering what customs was even like in Night City.

It was technically a city state.

Interesting but unimportant.

“Okay so yeah we aren’t getting in there easily.” Ichi muttered looking across the small marina from the parking lot we were idling in.

There was only one way into the Marina which had barricades, a security station, and guards.

There were even cameras I could see all over the area.

Yep. They weren’t interested in having riff raff enter their marina.

“Can you netrun into their stuff? You know like take over the cameras, or cause an alert that all the guards run to the wrong area to take care of or something?” Malcolm asked, and I had to snort, shaking my head.

“It doesn’t really work like that. Considering the money in the place, I’d be shocked if they didn’t have a netrunner keeping an eye on things… Which sucks, makes everything harder… I’ll probably have to get into their security room to get anything.” I said looking at the small set of buildings in the marina. One of which had the computer I would need to access.

“So got the pictures you need?”

“Yeah.” I said with a smirk already seeing the perfect way in. “I’ll need to do this at night, so we should get out of here. Break up until later. Want to get some food?”

“I could eat.” Malcolm said hand raised and grinning.

—--

“These fries are actually pretty good.” I muttered staring at my plate of steak fries in surprise.

“Yeah? What about them?” Malcolm asked, looking like he was about to try and sneak one, since I didn’t want to stab the gonk for stealing. I gestured at the plate that he could try and he did with a big smile.

“I don’t know, they just taste good. I’m kinda surprised.”

“Pfft. Picky! Motoko is picky.” Ichi said teasing, but I got a look of sympathy from Hiromi.

Made sense. While her parents weren’t the absolute high level executives in Arasaka, they were still rich. So they ate better than normal people. Hiromi must have grown up eating better foods.

I was just surprised these french fries actually tasted like french fries.

They weren’t. But they tasted close enough. No potato involved.

We had gone to a diner once we left City Center, and just crashed a booth. The four of us surrounded by food and just pigging out.

It was nice.

“I still can’t believe you became a netrunner so fast. I mean… Omaeda worked on it for a while and he was only like… Okay at it.” Malcolm said changing the subject from food taste and once again Ichi didn’t look happy.

“Omaeda thought he was hot shit, but couldn’t do anything.” Ichi retorted coldly before stuffing some of his own fries in his face.

“Kinda mean Ichi. He just didn’t have much gear. You saw his deck.”

“Ah the suitcase Cyberdeck… Yeah.” I mentioned frowning. My own knowledge let me know just how out of date that thing would have been.

No wonder he couldn’t break into the cars security on that gig so long ago.

Wow I hadn’t thought about that night and my first kills in a long time.

“Well I for one am perfectly happy with Motoko acting as our netrunner. And I don’t want to split the payouts another way. So shh.” Hiromi said as she stuck a piece of her… Pizza? Lasagna? I have no idea what it was, but she liked it. Into her mouth.

“Yeah I guess that’s fair. I’m just worried about him.”

“If you are worried about your choom Malcolm. Go check on him. I mean… I’m glad I reached out to you guys. This stuff would be way harder without you covering my back. I’m glad I cleared the air.” I said, earning smiles from Malcolm and a slow nod as he finished another bite of his own meal.

“Yeah me too.” Ichi said, smiling seemingly ignoring Omaeda’s existence. “I do have a question ‘Toko. Do we want to hit the first place we found? I know we got the big one to focus on, but that place is just sitting there.” Ichi said purposefully not saying scav as we were in public.

No reason to let anyone know what we were up to.

I hummed at the idea.

Positives and negatives.

But I shook my head. “As much as I hate the idea of leaving ‘them’ to keep doing their thing. I don’t want there to be any chance that someone realizes we are on to their higher ups.”

While I knew everyone was unhappy with the decision we all nodded to each other.

In the end, there wasn’t anything further we could do at the moment without the marina’s cameras. So we all split up for the day.

We would meet up tomorrow after I hopefully had the records we needed.

 

[Seras]

That night I parked the Quadra a long way from the marina, and spent a good walk down the sidewalk.

I wasn’t wearing my normal gear either. I was in my Section 9 outfit, including the ninja mask. Which would have earned me some weird looks walking down the street in Night City, but it was late, and I was purposefully avoiding attention. The few cameras that could have spotted me as I walked down the street were hacked and turned off.

It’s not like I cared if someone at Pawn Shop noticed someone turning off their camera.

As long as it didn’t spot me.

As long as I wasn’t spotted.

I reached the Marina. The main entrance on foot was two large stone staircases leading to the high end super expensive parking lot. The sort of place that had parking meters costing ridiculous amounts of eddies to park to keep out the riff raff.

Unless you were in the club of course.

But I bypassed that. As always the biggest weakness in a security system wasn’t the lock, but the material the lock was attached to.

You see the marina had a locked down entrance way. With barricades and an actual security room with a guard sitting there to refuse the riff raff access.

But the marina was overlooked by a large office building. I was pretty sure it was actually customs. Or a shipping corpo building, but I wasn’t sure who owned it.

But it didn’t matter because a bit higher up than a normal person would be able to jump there was a long walkway that went along the entire building looking over the marina. Some architecture worker had designed it probably intending to let overworked peons go out on the walkway for some fresh air.

Of course that would require the people in charge to have installed an actual doorway to the porch.

They had not.

So there was a visual walkway just… There.

Despite the heavy traffic of Skyline St west, behind me. No one noticed a shadow leap up and easily slide over the large glass barrier around the walkway.

The inside of the building was dark. No one was around. Like I said. It was 3am. Not every corp required people to have night shifts. I still stayed low and practically crawled across the concrete. Shimmying all the way over the marina until I was on the back end of the Marina.

There was zero security on the back end of the marina.

No one was crazy enough to just jump into the ocean around the city after all!

I used a well placed palm tree to reach the floor. Which was nice, because on the back side I was probably three floors off the ground.

It would have been a painful landing.

And now all I had to do was find a security room.

I came up from the back of the Marina. The multiple cafes and bars only gave me cover as I came up from behind one of them avoiding the few drunks that were still active this late.

The security was also quiet, most of them sitting around, or I noticed to my amusement hanging out inside one of the bars flirting with the pretty bartender.

I noticed it. The back end of what I had thought was a bar actually had a security room. Better yet?

It had an open window in the room that would allow someone to walk up to the security officer to ask for help.

No glass, or window.

There was a guard though.

Hmm.

I tucked myself away. Hiding in between the drop off of the pier and a plant, with a perfect view of the guard.

I just needed him to move.

But I had time.

There was no cameras looking at me. And there was no one that could see me. The few times someone got close. I just tipped myself off the edge of the pier, and hung on until they walked past.

Chrome arms don’t get tired.

Eventually the guard inside got up from the computer and stretched walking out and across the path to the bar. I watched him slip into the bathroom.

I ran.

Leaping through the open window before the bathroom door had even fully closed. I collected myself making sure there was no one else inside, that I hadn’t attracted any attention. Once I was sure, I turned to the large computer system. I jacked in.

The security here was tight, but the moron hadn’t locked his computer when he went to the bathroom.

I was in the system in seconds, downloading the file to a shard. I was downloading all of the camera records of the last month. It would give me everything I needed, but the camera records was a big file. I kept calm, immobile, watching as the numbers ticked up. Checking through other files, I noticed a list of the yachts harbored, and who owned them. I added that to the shard as well.

The bathroom opened. I caught it out of the corner of my eye, but now I was focused.

Fuck.

I kept watch, peeking out the window just waiting. The guard stopped to chat with a coworker, even grabbed a drink from the bartender that had been flirted with for the last hour. But this guy wasn’t going to intrude, drink in hand he started walking back to his workplace.

Double fuck.

The numbers ticked up.

He walked closer. It was going to be close… No, I realized. I didn’t have time. I tsked, considered my options and grabbed a can from the desk and chucked it out the window.

It clattered into the bushes across the path and the noise caused the guard to slow his walk and look over.

Of course those were also the bushes I had been hiding in before, but I needed a few moments.

He walked over and noticed the can looking around he ended up looking up. There was a lounge on top of the security office I was in. So he probably just assumed somebody threw it from up there. Shaking his head he started making his way back to his little office.

I was done. Unjacking my personal link, I waited for him to open the door and start moving into his little guard room. I leapt back through the window silent as a ninja and raced to the waters edge. I quickly leapt over the edge of the pier grabbing onto the concrete and disappearing into the shadows.

I didn’t hear anything and danger sense hadn’t even prickled.

I hung there for a while just to make sure. And only once I was, did I relax, but I wasn’t done just yet. Just because I had the data didn’t mean my fact finding gig was over.

I pulled open the copy of camera data and checked the time that the scavs would have arrived.

There were a few cameras in the area, but thankfully a few of them were pointed at the parking lot. I watched through the small screen as I hung there off the side of the pier. Water lapping gently against the concrete half a dozen feet below me.

They drove right up to the security checkpoint, got waved through after a brief check and drove in.

I moved to the next camera watched as they drove through the little dock area talking to the security post that I just leapt out the window from and that opened the second security gate letting them drive closer to the dock and start to unload.

They carried the crates out onto the dock and dropped them off right on the pier and then left.

The fuck?

I kept watched skipping hours at a time to try and find what happened to the crates. Suddenly they vanished, and I went back finally finding what I was looking for. Some crate bots rolled up, picked up the crates and rolled them onto one of the yachts.

The big stupid looking black military-ish one we had noticed this morning. Or rather I suppose I should call it Neo-Militarism?

I mean it did stick out like a sore thumb. Looking like some stealth boat.

I glanced over my shoulder looking right at it.

I checked the records and had to snort at the name of the yacht.

Who the hell named a fancy shmancy luxury yacht the GEIshhhhA?

I started shimmying heading across the concrete towards the wooden docks.

Sure there were still some workers around but none were going to be able to spot me. I climbed back over the edge, raced over the wooden dock, and slipped over the edge of the boat without a noise.

Their wasn’t much to see. It was all black and sharp angles, but the stairs leading down into the yacht were open.

It was a… Ew.

The smell told me everything. It stank of human sweat and other things. Drugs were laying all over the place. Money rolls and alcohol spilled everywhere.

Was this a scav boat or not!?

What the hell was going on here? I moved through the club like atmosphere just glad no one was here.

And doubly glad there weren't any cameras around.

I reached the other end and saw there were two doors both locked. One was connected to the inside of the room, the other outside on the back of the boat.

The one outside looked like it led upwards, which was probably the bridge. The other inside led down.

Which is where I would put money on the crates being.

This wasn’t going to be easy. The door wasn’t a normal lock and was actually heavily secured. I would need to breach into the system to get it to open.

I pulled the personal link out of the back of my neck and slipped it into the door jack.

The security was strong.

Really strong. This ICE wasn’t just off the shelf stuff. If I tried to breach it, I was definitely going to set off an alarm.

But I was stealthy and sneaky. I started working my way around the security, instead of trying to bash down the ICE. The door used a biomon scanner, and that scanner took in data. So I was able to ‘trick’ it into grabbing data byte by byte that would when put all together turn into a virus that would add me to the registry.

It was just gonna take a while. I checked the time.

3:47 Am.

I had some time still… Hopefully.

In the end whatever party usually took place on the yacht, it wasn’t happening tonight. It was quiet for the two hours it took to finally get enough data in that the sensor registered me as an allowed contact.

The door poofed open.

It was a small staircase leading into the yachts hold. The small lights around the hold gave me enough light to see crate after crate lining the hold. I walked up to the first one, and wasn’t surprised at what I found when I popped it open and checked the boxes inside.

Chrome.

Lots. And lots of chrome.

Jackpot.

I put it back for now, and headed back up to the deck. This time I slipped into the bridge, since I was already in the registry. Thankfully it was empty. Just massive computer systems that ran the boat and kept everything ready.

Of course it was mostly powered off thanks to being in a marina.

I took a few pictures of everything, and since I was on the bridge and already had access, did a quick dive just to download the records of the boat.

And to see if it had any security I had missed.

Thankfully the man who owned the yacht used it as a party boat, so the security that could have given me trouble was all turned off.

I pulled out.

There was nothing else I could do here. At least we got confirmation on the chrome. Now we just needed a plan to get everything out of here without alerting the billionaire yacht club we were doing it.

Getting back was an easy enough task. I retraced my footsteps until I reached the rear of the Marina. Then I just climbed back up the palm tree to reach the third floor pathway sauntering back the way I came without any difficulty.

—---

The next morning everyone met up at the basement, I had once again stopped at the diner and grabbed some food so we were having a work breakfast.

“Wow. Look at all those crates!” Ichi said eyes wide as he stared at the pictures of the hold.

“That’s not a tiny stack of eddies. I don’t even know if I could sell that much chrome.” Hiromi said looking a little daunted by the task ahead of her.

“Don’t count the chrome yet. We still need to figure out a way to get it off the ship and out of the marina. The place's security is crazy.” I reminded them by pointing at the many checkpoints and security systems they had set up.

“Okay… Can we get a smaller boat and have it come up in the night take the crates and delta?” Malcolm asked with a shrug.

“Where would we even get a boat?” Hiromi asked while shaking her head. “I can ask around, but I’m not sure we could find something big enough to even hold the crates.”

“So we need a truck… Or.” It hit me then.

It wasn’t like I wanted this asshole who helped scavs, or was a scav, I hadn’t figured that out yet. To not be massively inconvenienced by this.

“How about we steal the ship.”

Everyone looked at me.

Then to the pictures of the bridge, or the boat in general.

“Can we?” Malcolm asked, part actual worry, and part hope.

“I actually… Don’t know.” I said frowning, sure I had the driving skill, but that wasn’t the same thing as sailing.

There was only one way to find out.

“I have a lot of the boats systems downloaded. I’ll see what I can find out… Ichi, Malcolm. If we steal the boat, we will need a place to dock it to offload everything. Preferably outside of the city but close enough we can try to beat the NCPD, or worse that will want to stop us. Can you both go scout for a good place. Remember it will have to be deep enough for the yacht to get there.”

“Yeah… Yeah we can do that.” Ichi said confidently, Malcolm nodding along.

“Hiromi. Go through the data we have. Find out who the owner of this yacht is… I don’t want to end up pissing off some Arasaka executive or something without even knowing.”

“Okay I’ll figure it out!”

“I… I think… I have an idea on how to do this. I’ll need to make a call.” I told them, standing up and stepping away.

Time to call in a debt.

—--

I ended up needing a face to face.

Heading out into the badlands in my Quadra was always fun. She did seem to just run better on the dusty streets leading out of Night City. This was what she was made for after all.

The Nomad camp had moved since I last saw them, which wasn’t a surprise. Thankfully it was only about a four hour drive to reach them.

As I pulled up outside the Aldecaldos camp I was surprisingly greeted with happy smiles and waving hands.

“Motoko! Hey kid, how’ve you been?” One man called out, someone I recognized from our last visit as the man who cooked the delicious BBQ I had eaten.

I could feel my tongue lick my lips as I remembered.

“Nelson! Nice to see you!” I called back, getting a smile in turn, for remembering his name, and to my surprise it was like that throughout. As I walked towards where I would find Saul.

The man was resting back in a lawn chair among a fire when I saw him. To my happiness not only was Saul there, but Scorpion and Panam were sitting around.

“Hey! Scorpion, Panam! Good to see you! Saul. Thank you for being willing to hear me out.”

“Not every day someone sends me a picture quite like the one you did.” He said and I nodded.

I had sent him a picture of the hold full of crates loaded with chrome.

“What’s going on Motoko. Saul has been tight lipped.” Panam asked, looking eager and I nodded, settling into a seat that Saul offered.

“I’ve been hitting scav dens for loot.” I explained with an evil smirk on. “It’s easy, gets rid of scum, and brings in some good income. But I was checking out a den I found on the net, the morons fucked up their security. Their cameras were saving their recordings, and had been for months.”

Saul leaned in instantly figuring it out. “You were able to see what they did with the chrome? I always did wonder.”

“Yeah. They loaded it all up into vans and took it deeper into the city. Towards City Center. I ended up tracking them to their destination. That’s what the picture I sent you was.”

“You found where the scavs were storing their stolen chrome!” Panam nearly shouted looking at me in shock.

“I found where at least this group of scavs were storing their chrome. I don’t have the whole picture. I don’t know why they are storing it on a yacht. I mean I can guess they are intending to take it out, but it’s not that sort of yacht. I don’t think it would survive an ocean cruise.”

“Definitely not. Not unless you’re sailing in an Arasaka Super Cruiser.” Saul said with a snort.

“Anyway. The yacht is docked at a super secure marina. It’s gonna be nearly impossible to try and pull the crates off the yacht with a truck. We considered getting another boat just sailing up and transporting everything over, but that would be easily noticeable, and finding a boat that can hold that much chrome?”

“Not likely. AV wouldn’t work either.” Scorpion mentioned as his mind removed possibilities.

“Which is why I thought… Why not steal the whole yacht?”

Saul was looking at me with an upraised eye. Scorpion had a growing smile on his face, and Panam had the look of a women eyeing a big payday.

“Sounds like it could work. It would be tough. Stealing a yacht like that? Not like lifting a truck.”

“Right. Plus as soon as that thing starts moving people are going to notice, so the clock starts. So I thought to myself. Motoko. What group of people do you know that you could trust that might be willing to help set up a secure area in the badlands to offload everything into vehicles and get it moving before something like the NCPD would show up.” I said ending my words with a big wave of my arms at the nomads.

“I don’t think we can help.” Saul said after a few moments of seeming to consider it.

“What? Saul!”
“Hey Saul!?” Both Panam and Scorpion tried to argue but he raised his hand and both went quiet.

That’s right. This was before the whole Panam/Saul conflict that happened in a year or so. Panam still respected Saul, and wasn’t basically running from the Aldecaldos due to their differences in opinions.

“It would bring a lot of heat down on us. Maybe even too much. Not just the NCPD, and whoever this corpo is that owns the yacht. Imagine what will happen once the Raffen figures out what we did, and they will.”

I frowned. I hadn’t considered the Raffen angle.

“Bullshit! We should do this! Imagine all the eddies that will flow in we get a piece of that much chrome!”

“Easy Panam. Easy.” Scorpion argued but Panam was on her feet.

“Saul!”

“Panam. Enough. We won’t take part. It’s too dangerous.” Saul denied firmly. He turned to me as Panam was forced to stand there in defiance. “Sorry Motoko. This isn’t something we can take part in.”

“No worries. I get it. I hadn’t considered what the Raffen would do if they caught the scent of that much chrome.” I would actually need to figure out what to do about that. It would be a long drive back into the city with our trucks full of loot. Plenty of time for some Raffen to hunt us down.

“This is bullshit!” Panam cursed as she instantly just turned away and stomped off.

“Panam! Fuck. I’ll check on her Saul.” Scorpion said but before he ran off he turned to me. “Sorry Motoko. It’s cool that you thought of us but… Yeah.”

I threw him a thumbs up as he took off and then I was back to Saul.

“You’ve been up to a lot.” Saul offered after a moment. “You should be careful. Doing something like this will put you in a lot of peoples' sights.”

I nodded but since he wasn’t going to help. “Thanks Saul. I need to get going.”

“Good luck kid.”

Nothing more needed to be said. I walked back to the Quadra with a lot on my mind.

Was I rushing a big gig because I thought it would be cool, rather than staying safe? The heat of something like this could be… Huge.

Maybe I should just skip it. Keep taking out scav dens. Let it go?

Well I had a few hours on a long drive to think about it.

 

[Seras]

I was still hammering through the issue in my head when I got back home. I would call the team together soon to chat about what to do, but we had been running around for a few days now. Best to give everyone some time to decompress.

Unluckily for me. Jun wasn’t home which was disappointing. I really wanted to talk to him about what to do.

So instead I flopped onto the couch and pulled up all the data. All the recordings and pictures.

Oh! Hiromi had actually sent me a dossier on the owner of the yacht…

Well it wasn’t quite that professional, but it had the information I had asked for.

“Bartolomeo Mordellini.” I muttered as I read through the information. Apparently he was a purveyor of certain kinds of entertainment for the rich and famous. Parties. Drugs. BD. He did them all, and was apparently rich and popular enough his parties could even have high entry costs. The sort of thing that the rich and famous could get involved in to make themselves seem even richer and more important than the people that couldn’t get in.

His yacht the GEIshhhA was a common party spot.

I’m sure the parties were all very respectful and drugs and other entertainment wasn’t allowed.

Sure.

But there was a benefit here. As popular as he was. He wasn’t a member of a corp. If he disappeared some people might be annoyed at the lack of parties, but I doubted I would have corpo hit squads after me and my chooms.

Why Scavs? I didn’t get the connection though. He obviously wasn’t one himself. But why would a guy who hosted parties help out Scavs?

Money?

I doubted it. If he was hosting parties with the rich and famous he was already quite wealthy. So what was going on?

I shook it off. Whatever deal he had didn’t matter. Fuck the Scavs, and fuck this asshole who worked with them.

So how do I come away with this gig without getting burned.

To start with. I would need to move the yacht. I would have to make sure it even had fuel, if it didn’t it certainly wouldn’t be able to move. That would be tricky.

I would need to do this hopefully without having the marina realize until it was too late.

Then I would need to sail the boat down the coast to somewhere I could loot the thing, hopefully NCPD didn’t have a coast guard element… or if they did, they would just ignore what I was doing. I gave it a 50/50 either way.

Then I would need to have enough people to unload the ship. To pack it away into trucks and get it the hell out of there to hide it somewhere else. All without having Raffen or other scavengers come to take it from me.

The Nomads not helping made it more difficult.

I sighed.

Did I want to try bringing in the SLS into this?

I winced at the very idea.

Sure they obviously knew how to loot, but bringing a bunch of kids that I barely knew? With crates of chrome each worth tons of eddies?

I would be surprised if even half the crates showed up at the end.

Could I trust them? I don’t know. I was leaning towards no though. Maybe I can hire them out to help Hiromi while she is selling or something, but for something this big…

So who else could I trust?

The Mox?

I had to shake my head there too. While I was close to Rita, and I liked Judy and Nox. That wasn’t the Mox.

The Mox were more than just three people, especially three people that weren’t all that high up in the gang.

Suzie Q. I had met her before, but I was well aware that Suzie was very much a Mox first kind of woman.

Could I trust that I would have any of the crates left over at the end?

Ugh.

The one negative about not being part of a gang I guess. Sure I didn’t have to deal with mob boss assholes willing to throw me away at the drop of a hat for a few eddies. But I also didn’t have enough people I trusted to get some gigs done.

I was even starting to consider going to Wakako. She would know people, but I was sure if I did that my payday would start dwindling real fast.

I shook it away. I would talk to Jun. He was great at giving me advice, and being a sounding board.

I ended up getting stuck in my head despite my goal to wait for Jun, so when he finally got home a few hours later, I hadn’t done anything but consider what I was going to do.

“Jun! I need life counseling!” I demand from the couch sitting and pinning him with a firm look.

“What?”

“I need advice. Come sit when you are ready.” I told him firmly with a nod of my head, and Jun must have realized something because he snorted and nodded, first heading to the kitchen and then coming back to settle onto the couch with a drink in hand.

“What’s up Motoko?”

“So here is the deal.”

—--

“You should totally steal it all. Flatline the gonk too.” Jun offered with a sage nod.

Which did nothing to actually help me.

“Your life counseling sucks.” I informed him which didn’t seem to bother him as he shrugged.

“Motoko. You’ve been thinking about all these groups that could help you out, but you forgot one of them in your list.” He says and I have to turn my head away.

I hadn’t forgotten one of them.

It just wasn’t even an option.

“Fujimura-Sama would definitely mobilize the Kamikaze for a payday this big.”

“I’m not working with the TC on this Jun.”

“You are worried about the heat a gig like this will bring right? If the TC helps, suddenly the heat moves away from you and your chooms, and is put squarely on the TC. It solves all of your problems.” He argued.

“Except I would have to work with the Tyger Claws! Putting myself even closer to…”

“Becoming one of us?” He said with a smirk.

“I’m not.” I argued instantly, but I was definitely not whining! Jun reached over and pulled me into a hug.

“I know. You’re a bit too wild. It drives Fujimura-Sama mad.”

“Good! He’s a jerk anyways!” I grumbled but Jun just stayed there and I sighed. “I don’t want to just be some gang banger Jun. I shouldn’t need to rely on something like that.”

“Well you have choices Motoko, but it sounds like all the choices have good things, and bad.” He informed me and then like the big brother he was he picked me up as he stood up and tossed me back on the couch suddenly as I yelped at the sudden motion.

“Figure it out. I’ll help if you want help.” He said and then just walked into his room.

Oh man I am so cannonballing his ass sometime soon for this.

—--

“I don’t get the problem Motoko. Let’s just grab Richard and some of the kids. Rent a couple trucks and steal the boat. You said you could.” Hiromi said as my chooms and I had met up that night.
“I said I probably could.” I mumbled, but it wasn’t very strong.

I don’t know why, but I was just nervous about this gig. It was one thing to take out some Scavs, or something. Street level crime happens every day.

Stealing a yacht that probably cost more than a million eddies? Stealing an entire shipment of Scav chrome?

All with the chance of it blowing up in my face?

My chooms were happy with taking part, and maybe getting a ‘rep’ from the gig.

But I wasn’t.

“I like being unknown Hiromi. Doing it all ourselves means all the heat goes straight to us.”

“I’m not understanding the problem with this Motoko.” Hiromi said, continuing to argue with me across the table. We were back at my basement, which had somehow become our defacto hangout point I guess. “You need a better rep. Right now no one knows you. Like… When we went to get the car back. If you had a rep, they wouldn’t have dared mess with us.” Hiromi argued.

“I don’t think a rep would have changed that-”

“It would have. It totally would have. God Motoko You are like a super ninja killer but everyone just treats you like an unknown because you don’t… Show off! You are so standard it’s infuriating. Sometimes.” Hiromi said with a groan of frustration.

“Did… Did you just call me standard? What does that even mean!?” I demanded and Hiromi rolled her eyes.

“I didn’t mean anything bad! You just don’t try to build a rep or anything. You don’t ever hype yourself up. You do the BD thing, but no one even knows it’s you! You could be like a famous solo right now!”

“Fame just means more people know about me, and can plan around my skills. It’s a terrible idea.” I argued but Hiromi rolled her eyes at me, turning to the boys.

“Help me out here.” She demanded and the boys perhaps wisely both didn’t jump in. Malcolm even raised his hands up nonverbally saying don’t bring him into this.

“Don’t try to team up on me. That’s mean!” I said and Hiromi growled a bit.

“Motoko I think you’re amazing, but you are so gonk about this. Rep is important, it tells the gonks on the street not to mess with you. If you weren’t hiding yourself so much, you could walk into any TC place and they wouldn’t dare mess with you!”

“And it would make every gonk on the street that thinks they can make a rep, come for my hide.”

“Hardly! You don’t see people gunning for Jun do you? That’s because everyone knows Jun will flatline them! You just need to build up a rep too.”

“Hiromi. I literally got kidnapped, because people were gunning for Jun.” I reminded her waving my silver hands at her.

She winced, looking a little lost as she didn’t have a good rebuttal.

But…

It wasn’t about winning or losing the discussion.

“Maybe you are somewhat right. I’m feeling nervous about this gig. If the nomads had agreed to help I think I would have been fine, but now we have to rely on hiring another group. Either the SLS, or going through Jun to get TC gonks. It just makes me uncomfortable.”

Hiromi didn’t jump into the conversation like she normally would have. I guess my words had cut a little deeper than I expected. Instead she seemed to be thinking, so I simply let the quiet settle in.

“Sorry for pushing. I guess I get why you don’t want to have anyone notice you.” Hiromi offered and I frowned.

“It’s not like that… At least I don’t think it is… Is it?” I had to ask myself.

Is my hesitation fear of what happened before? Of being the one being attacked, and not doing the attacking?

I was definitely weaker on the defense than offense.

But everyone was really.

Was that why I was so hesitant to let myself be known, to build a rep outside of the few people I trusted or worked with?

Was I just afraid?

This time Hiromi was being considerate as I stared at my hands.

Was I afraid of people knowing? I mean sure Ninjutsu worked best without anyone knowing I existed, but I wasn’t just a ninja.

I wasn’t just a netrunner.

I was Motoko, and I had a life to live. I leaned back in the chair staring at the ceiling.

The picture of the ships hold pulled up before my eyes. That was a lot of chrome, a lot of eddies.

I wasn’t hurting for eddies, but was I the kind of person that would let an opportunity flow past me just because it was a risk?

I hadn’t thought I was before. The Nomad gig had told me I wasn’t the type to let something go just because it was dangerous.

But had I done anything that really put myself at risk since the kidnapping? Well once I got over my absolute hatred of Maelstrom?

I had been careful on gigs. It didn’t always work out like getting short circuited and shot by V3L and Morgan.

But I had been super hesitant to even do that gig at the time too.

No.

No, I wasn't going to live my life afraid. I would just have to get better. Be better.

Improve myself. Improve my chrome.

Improve my rep.

I had to admit. Maybe just a little I was turning into a real Night City Citizen.

Because the idea of just letting this go wasn’t in me.

“Fuck it. This is what we are doing.”

—--

The BD started with a blink of my eyes.

I had purposefully set myself in a good position. I was crouching over the glass railing on the office building looking over the Marina.

The preparation for this moment took a few days. Checking to make sure I knew how to get the yacht moving. Making sure it could move. Getting all the little pieces in place.

Tonight I was going to leave a real mark on Night City.

I intended it to be a good one.

Looming like a gargoyle as I looked over the marina I made sure to focus my eyes on the men wandering around.

Security, high rollers, everyone. Mentally marking them and making sure they wouldn’t be in the way. Dawn was an hour or so out. So it was still dark and it was at the moment where there was the least amount of people left hanging around.

The yacht had even had a party tonight. I would likely have to deal with at least a few passed out people before I got the yacht moving.

But that had all been prepared for.

So I moved. Leaping off the edge of the railing, enjoying the feeling of being in the air, even flipping forward once just to add a bit of flair, as I landed in a crouch on top of the open structure atop one of the bars. The wood under my fingers firm.

There was no one below me.

I had already checked, but I acted like I hadn’t. I moved. Running atop the wooden slats and then leaping.

There were cameras all around. But as I flipped again in the air I sent a command, and all of them shut down.

I landed and moved. Sliding along the bar and security room, rushing right for the open window I had leapt through before. This time I didn’t wait for the guard inside to get away.

I leapt through the window going full speed. Slamming into the guard and instantly wrapping myself around him, legs and chrome arms strangling him down and shushing his struggles as he did his best to resist before I secured his carotid artery and he went limp.

Go time.

I punched a shard into the security computer. Where it ran the program I had dropped inside. It was probably the single hardest part I had contributed while we prepped over the last few days. A virus.

It was the first act to building a rep. To making myself into something more than just a merc, or an edgerunner.

But a phenomena.

Sure it wouldn’t mean much now. Might even just be ignored in the grand scheme of things. But if I was going to be more blatant, I was going to do something cool with it.

I jumped right back out the window and raced down the docks. The path was clear. No guards were around so I had free access to the ship. With a casual move I cut the chords holding the ship secured and leapt on. I raced over the top of the boat, avoiding the inner party area.

If there was anyone still inside, they were going to have an adventure.

I hit the back of the boat and the bridge door opened. My previous escapades having already given me full access.

Thankfully it was empty and so I rushed to the control console.

Now unfortunately driving did not actually tell me how to work a yacht.

No that had taken a trade with Yoko to get a user manual for this fucking thing. Thankfully the yacht were made for rich people that didn’t know how to actually sail. I pulled it out and followed the steps to get the engine to boot up and slowly a faint rumble started through the boat.

It was really quiet. Made sense, a pleasure yacht wouldn’t want to have a loud engine.

I pulled back on the throttle, and slowly I watched as it began backing out of the dock.

Of course no matter how quiet, the marina was a high end million eddie sort of place. Some alert went through no matter how silent and I already noticed guards all along the Marina start rushing around.

That was when my eyes flashed as I reached out to the security system.

My vision shifted looking out through the camera systems at the Marina.

[Reboot Optics]

I hit them all. Guards, clients, workers.

Suddenly, like a plague, everyone's vision cut out. The fact I was already infiltrated into the guards security system meant even if a particular guard had some ICE it wouldn’t matter.

The hack spread among them causing chaos as guests and guards all started screaming as they lost their sight.

I had actually modified the Quick Hack while preparing for this. Reboot Optics when it started back up meant their vision would still be blank. Too dark to see anything, but they would be able to see their agent screen if they had one installed, or their eyes settings overlay.

It had come to me while planning this, a way to make the hack even more effective. A way to gain myself more time.

So when all of their optics rebooted, a virus had infested their system. Covering their vision as it took over the overlay of their optics.

They wouldn’t be able to get access to their settings to reset their brightness unless they were truly tech savvy because they would have to do it without actually being able to see their system behind the symbol I had implanted.

Instead their eyes were locked onto a certain symbol.

The only thing they could see.

“I thought what I’d do was I’d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes… Or should I?” I muttered to myself. The blue symbol of the laughing man from Ghost in the Shell, the symbol of the Laughing man. A super wizard class hacker, able to completely bypass someones vision.

I wasn’t quite at that point yet, but it was a reminder to myself about what I wanted to become.

Then I continued, spinning a wheel to spin the yacht around. It was a slow lumbering thing.

But I had some time…

Probably.

I did have an air canister and mask sealed into the small of my back just in case everything went wrong and I needed to leap overboard if the NCPD attacked.

But I was sure this would work out.

Mostly.

Maneuvering the yacht out of the marina I got it going forward out towards the sea, and slowly slowly out to sea.

I would need to head south, the the Biotechnica flats, south of the city would be the meetup point.

Ichi and Malcolm had done a good job finding a place we could unload the ship from.

Once I had the ship moving and a straight line would do for a few moments, I stepped away and headed out of the bridge. Time to see if I had captured some hostag-important people.

 

[Seras]

I sauntered down the steps into the yacht, and into the room that was more like a club than what I expected on a boat.

And I actually had three sleepers…

Oh no there was a fourth person passed out, half way under a table.

Four.

One of them I recognized.

Too bad for Bartolomeo. The owner of the yacht was someone I had been planning on having a certain kind of meeting with already. The other three I didn’t recognize, although the fact the other two were women told me what had been happening. Bart had one woman curled up against him. Both were naked enough I knew what had been happening. The two men were equally undressed but the big guy had rolled off the couch at some point and was basically napping under the shadow of a table.

I nearly whistled as I walked along the room, taking note of everything.

Like the fact Mr. Table had a Burya near him.

Interesting.

I picked it up and checked it. Loaded.

That was an easy fix, and then I put it back to where it was.

There weren't a lot of people that walked around with a Burya. They were clunky, heavy, difficult to conceal, overpowered weapons for most people.

It only made me more suspicious about Mr. Table's identity.

Was he the Scav contact that Bart had?

Was this guy important with the Scavs? Well I might just find out.

First I hacked into all four of the sleeping gonks. It only took a few moments to breach their systems and put in a jammer.

Any attempts to reach out for help would fail couldn’t have that after all.

Then I grabbed an unopened bottle of champagne, swished it around, shook it up to make sure it was nice and frothy, and then popped the cork.

The spray of champagne over Barts face was more than enough to leave him sputtering awake with a curse.

“The fuck! Bastard who did that? Is that you Sandra? You bitch!” He cursed, clearing his eyes of the frothing alcohol.

“Not exactly.” I told him using my Sexy Motoko Voice. After all, this guy wasn’t dealing with a teenager looking at a big score.

No, this time I was a dangerous edgerunner having already taken a millionaire hostage.

He jerked away as he caught sight of me.

I was wearing the section 9 gear with a few additions. The upper part of my face was covered by a set of tech gogs I had picked up.

I mean the Major had a set. So I needed one too.

Especially since this was my first big gig.

“The fuck-” Bart was cut off as I pulled my Lexington out from behind me.

He might be a millionaire but he was also a NC resident. He knew instantly what trouble he was in.

“Hey easy! Listen, I'm sure we can work this out. Whatever bounty is on my head, I’ll pay it out! Honest I mean this is my yacht, I have the eddies!” His gibbering had obviously started waking the others, thankfully with the techgogs on no one could see my eyes as I tracked Mr. Table as he sat up from underneath the thing taking in the sight of me pointing a gun at Bart.

“I’m not here because you have a bounty, Bartolomeo Mordellini.” I informed him calmly. “I’m here because of the multiple crates of Scav gathered chrome that is currently below our feet.” I idly tapped my toes a few times to let the sound echo around.

Then I went silent to let my statement fill the air and I could see the fear on his face.

“Bitch.” A russian accented voice said from behind me, but I ignored the big russian man that was now pointing a Burya at me.

The fact he was mostly naked was also a reason I was doing my best not to look. Nice Mr. Studd there champ.

“Let me guess you are the Scav contact Bart here is working with?”

“Hah! As if you will ever find out little whore, I will enjoy seeing your corpse ripped into-”

That was as far as he got as I drew on him. My Burya casually pulled out of my shoulder holster and aimed. I purposefully drew slow.

Giving the fucker plenty of time to pull the trigger himself.

The audible *Click* of his Burya failing to fire was very satisfying, but not as satisfying as seeing his head suddenly vanish.

I let the roar of my Burya echo around the room. The girls both screamed in shock at the sudden noise, both now fully awake and suddenly realizing the danger they were in.

“H-hey!” Bart called out hands up as I hadn’t taken my Lexington away from his face, nor had I truly looked away from him.

I loved my Kiroshi.

“Bartolomeo. Perhaps now you are more willing to listen?”

“Yeah! Yeah sure whatever you want! Yeah the hold has the chrome! I swear they threatened me! Kajetan had a gun up to my head! Honest! He nearly kidnapped me once and–”

“I really don’t care.” I told him simply because I didn’t.

I didn’t believe for a second he was just being threatened. You don’t usually have an orgy with a guy that was threatening your life.

Or maybe you did? Hell if I know how Night City scumbags ran things. Fucking weirdos.

No, I had no doubt that Bart thought he was cool and dangerous for having gangster connections.

“What what are you going to do to us?” The woman sitting besides Bart asked, she had been slowly trying to gather her clothes to cover herself after realizing the situation she was in.

“You and that one aren’t any of my interest. You are free to go once we get where we are going.” I told the woman.

“Wait. What? Going?” Bart asked, looking around in confusion, before seemingly remembering he was on a yacht.

That his yacht could actually move.

“Take a look for yourself. Feel free to jump into the water if you want to escape early, but I wouldn’t recommend it.” I told them as I pointed at the front of the boat. “I want all of you out there on the front of the boat. Get dressed and get moving.” I ordered and the girls were quick to listen, reaching around to grab clothes and start dressing themselves.

“Bart that means you.” I demanded my Lexington still aimed at him and he hurried to find a pair of pants amidst the party mess.

I simply turned away. Taking only a moment to grab the empty Burya. Didn’t want to risk someone finding some ammo for it, and headed back out and into the bridge.

We hadn’t gone too far. This thing wasn’t exactly a speed boat. So I only made a slight adjustment to the course. Of course as I was doing that I was seeing a lack of three gonks standing out on the front of the boat so I could keep track of them.

I walked back down, noticing the three had mostly huddled together. The girls now dressed, if not decent. While Bart looked like he was searching for something, tearing through the cabinets and couches.

Ah he probably had a gun somewhere.

I fired a round into the fancy molding above his head earning screams from all three.

Heh. Bart screamed like a girl.

“I said get to the front of the boat. Perhaps I wasn’t clear.”

The three hurried out barely dressed and terrified. With that done I went back up to the bridge to navigate to the drop off.

—--

With the three gonks at the front of the boat, I was able to sail it down the coast while keeping an eye on them. The one time they thought to try and sneak back inside, I had come down with a warning shot that had come much closer to hitting than they had liked.

So they stayed where I wanted them.

I was actually surprised at the lack of response. No NCPD patrol boats tracking us. Or AV’s flying in to launch a MaxTac team.

It was just a quiet trip through the waters until we left the sights of the city behind and towards our destination.

Then slowly I spotted my stop. A few trucks sitting out near the water with a dozen or so workers ready to haul the loot out of the hold. The only place along the coast that was low enough to get on, but wasn’t a beach. It was old concrete, a boat dock at one point years and years ago, but had been abandoned for decades.

Ichi and Malcolm had found it, and so we had our meetup point,.

As I approached nice and slow, cables were thrown over and only once I had the engine off did I head out to grab the cables and lock the boat in place.

Everyone was wearing masks hiding their faces and quickly got to work, setting up a ramp and dragging hand trucks up to start unloading the crates.

Richard gave me a nod as he passed by.

In the end Hiromi had pushed for using the SLS for this gig. I still hated the idea, but we needed the muscle to get this shit out of here at any real speed.

Besides as much as they all listened to me. I wasn’t their boss. We all worked together. Even if I did a bit more a lot of the time.

Ichi, Malcolm, Hiromi and I would be keeping an eye on the trucks to make sure nothing disappeared as we transported everything back to a storage yard that Ichi and I had put together for us.

The three gonks were pulled off the boat by a few of the SLS and pushed out of the way.

There was no need to worry about holding onto them.

We were in the middle of the desert miles from Night City. They must have realized it too, as the girls mostly stayed huddled together, while Bart continued to glare and curse under his breath.

Especially when crates of chrome started being pulled off the yacht.

Each one made the man angrier.

But he wasn’t a complete fool. He kept himself quiet just glaring.

Just as the first few crates started getting pulled out of the yacht my Quadra pulled up.

Hiromi had dropped me off at the Marina, and had driven my Quadra out to meet me. I walked over and noticed the eager look on her face as she stepped out of the car, but she didn’t move away from it, just leaning against the car as she looked on as more and more chrome was put into our hands.

“It’s amazing.” She whispered and I nodded along as Hiromi looked on at all the hard work she had done.

After all, I might be the one handling all the combat and stuff, but logistics were Hiromi’s speciality.

Hiromi and I watched on, after she gave me back the key to my Quadra and we watched on as the trucks were loaded up, each crate representing a ton of eddies for our pockets.

Then when the hold was emptied it was show time.

The BD needed a finale after all.

I walked back onto the boat making sure it was empty. I noticed the lounge area in the lower decks was suddenly far less full of money and drugs.

I rolled my eyes at the SLS but if they wanted to grab a bonus as long as they stayed away from the chrome I wouldn’t complain.

The yacht was let free despite Bart yelling asking what was going on.

It took a minute to angle the yacht out to sea. Then I hit the engine and ran.

I leapt off the boat landing in the shallow water as the yacht started its journey out into the pacific.

“That! That’s my yacht!” Bart yelled looking at me in anger.

But I ignored him, unfortunately for him, the gig wasn’t over yet.

I walked over to my Quadra under the watchful eyes of my crew, the SLS and the three prisoners.

There I pulled out of my trunk a special surprise.

The case was heaved out and then opened, and the moment the kids saw what I was pulling free they all screamed in surprise.

Then cheered.

“Watch the back blast.” I told Hiromi as I hefted my Uragan onto my shoulder.

I knew having a Rocket Launcher would come in handy someday.

“Wait… Wait wait wait!” Bart screamed but he was held back by the guns Malcolm and Ichi were covering him with.

Then I fired.

The Rocket launched, giving me a bit of a kick as it soared high into the sky before angling back down.

The Nomad missiles were pretty good. Normal Uragan missiles were just dumbfire, but having some guidance on them was a nice trick.

The missile came down on top of the yacht.

The explosion was shattering.

For all Barts stupid Yacht looked like a sleek stealth ship, it was just a pleasure cruiser.

It ripped apart, then exploded again when its Chooh2 went up. I might have made sure the fuel tanks were topped off before all of this happened.

Just for the extra fireworks.

The entire ship turned into nothing but shrapnel as the kids around us all cheered at the explosion.

“You bitch. You blew up my Yacht!” Bart called out sounding almost defeated as he fell into the sand around the concrete. He was angry.

He was wrathful.

He was going to be a problem.

Which is why this had already been all planned.

I walked over and before he could even realize what I was about to do. I put a bullet in his head.

*250 XP Gained.*

The two girls started shrieking as they realized I had just executed their choom.

“Working with Scavs meant you were a dead man. Did you think I was going to let you walk free?” I asked his corpse before turning to the girls. They both flinched looking horrified.

“Not gonna hurt either of you two. You have two options. Walk now, or hitch a ride back to the City. If you cause any problems though I’ll kill you.” I informed the two women with simple words and then adjusted the Uragan on my shoulder and looked back to my crew.

“Pack it up! We are moving!” I called out and everyone cheered.

Gig complete. BD ended.

—--

We did just as I said. Driving into the city, we dropped off the two women at the first metro stop we came to. They both hurried away, and that was the last I saw of them.

We drove on. Towards the storage yard Ichi had sorted out for us. Well mostly his work. I had unfortunately realized that if we were going to store this much loot we couldn’t just do it on our own terms. It would be picked clean far too easily. There was too much. It was too tempting.

We couldn’t trust the SLS to watch it without it going missing, so while they were transport they wouldn’t be the ones watching our loot.

No, I had unfortunately been forced to make a deal with the devil.

We pulled into a storage yard, waved in by the Tyger Claws gangsters sitting around the entrance as each truck moved in under their eyes.

Inside I pulled to the side as the trucks moved in to start unloading into a storage lot Ichi was managing. I had put Ichi and I into a room with a man I didn’t want to deal with to help set this up. A man that was even now waiting for me.

I unfortunately had a conversation in front of me.

“Fujimura.” I greeted as I stepped out of the Quadra. The man was leaning against his own car obviously waiting to see what would happen.

“Kusanagi. I see you were successful.” He mentioned looking actually pleased as the trucks opened up and the many many crates of chrome was revealed.

“Yeah. Worked out just like I said. No issues other than the owner of the yacht was onboard when I klepped it.” I noticed his look and rolled my eyes. “He’s flatlined, as is the Scav fucker he was partying with. Pretty sure it was his contact.”

“I see. Then it was a successful gig. If one of my subordinates pulled off a success like this, I would have no choice but to promote them.” He mentioned, obviously digging, but I shrugged.

“Too bad I’m not your subordinate. Our deal won’t have any surprise complications will it?” I asked not quite looking at the man as we both watched Ichi guide the kids into unloading.

I was really glad that none of the trucks had gone missing enroute.

Then again. Other than me driving my Quadra Malcolm, Ichi, and even Hiromi had been driving the trucks. I had been tempted to ask Nox for help as well, but there was honestly a reason I had revealed my Uragan to the kids before we left.

I made it very plain that if any of them tried to run off with a truck… I would deal with them.

“It will not. These men are mine, and they will treat your belongings as my own. None will go missing. As long as your part of the deal is upheld.”

“Course. Everyone wants chrome. Me, my chooms, even you.” It told him. That was the price of using TC protection.

Fujimura, or more specifically the Kamikaze would have the right to get some of the chrome we gathered, basically their ripper would come in pick out things they wanted, and they would all be free up to a certain point, basically Hiromi gave them a stipend they could grab some things with, the rest they could buy if they wanted to be clients. It would keep us from having to pay the TC directly as well.

Honestly the deal was pretty heavily on my side. Fujimura had seemed very pleased to try and tie me ever closer to the TC.

As always Fujimura was tying the noose around my neck all the tighter.

Their ripper would be here soon, I would have to reach out to Vik as well. See if he wanted to come down for some cheap chrome.

No, I remembered Hiromi was already on that. I already noticed the way she was still hanging around inside the truck definitely on a call with someone.

Good. The sooner we turned all of this chrome into eddies the safer we would all be.

It was a lot harder to steal bank accounts, than crates of chrome.

I would already be hanging around the lot just to make sure no one managed to get in.

A heavy hand landed on my shoulder and I didn’t startle. I had of course already noticed his approach.

“Good job Imouto.” Jun said, pulling me into a side hug as he looked at the crates with pride.

“Yeah… Good job me.” I muttered frowning. The job wasn’t done. Not yet.

Despite succeeding. Despite the potential of making a ridiculous sum of eddies from this chrome.

As long as this chrome was still chrome and in our hands, it would put a target on us all.

I shook myself free from Jun without a word and headed to look around the storage lot. I would be keeping a close eye on the chrome in the lot over the next few days until it all sold. So I was going to get a feel for the grounds.

As Hiromi oversaw the SLS unloading the chrome into the storage unit. As Ichi and Malcolm congratulated each other on their new riches.

As Fujimura looked on with that arrogant look on his face as if he was the one who planned all of this.

I watched on, really wishing I had my Nekomata with me.

Just in case.

—--

It was four long days later.

I was doing some minor programming work on my laptop while looking over the storage lot when I noticed Jun of all people pull into the storage space.

The TC gangsters all greeted him eagerly.

Heh Jun being famous was still funny to me.

Of course I put my laptop away to focus on what Jun was doing. Simply connecting back into the camera systems all over the storage lot that let me listen in.

“-don’t know where she is? She’s been hanging around the last four days!” Jun argued and the gangster he was talking to just shrugged.

“Haven’t seen her.”

Jun looked around in confusion. He must be wondering what was going on because every time he had texted me to try and get me to come home had been me saying I was keeping an eye on the loot.

So I squinted my eyes and reached out with a finger just letting the finger touch the top of where his head was and then snapped a picture, which I sent him as a text.

I watched on as a moment later he startled before looking around himself as he tried to figure out where I was.

Then of course he just called me because Jun’s Hide and Seek game is pretty weak.

*Motoko Where are you?*

*I literally sent you a picture you gonk. Head across the street into the office building. The lobby is open and you can take the elevator up. I’ve already added you into the security. Also stop trying to spot me, you are going to give my hide away.*

Then I hung up on him. Wakako might be a bitch for doing it to me, but it was pretty funny to do it to other people.

Then I just waited, keeping an eye on the lot through the scope of my Nekomata as I waited for Jun to get here.

Finally the roof access door opened and Jun stepped out and I waved at him my hand poking through the dark piece of carpet I had… ‘acquired’ from an empty floor in the office below me.

No one was using it! They could have it back when I was done.

“Motoko, what are you doing?” Jun asked as he stood up over me.

“Gonk, get down! Don’t let anyone see you!” I snap back even raising the carpet up a bit showing him the entrance so he could slip in.

The hide had been growing over the last few days. Originally just part of the AC unit chosen because I was able to get access to the plugs so I could charge my laptop. It had grown with the addition of a few chairs found in the offices below, the carpet over top and some cushions stolen from a couch that was in the lobby so I had something soft to sit on.

Thankfully it wasn’t too hot this week, and I had some nice sea breezes to double up on that.

“Here take a cushion.” I offered sliding it over and Jun gave me a really mean look. There was absolutely no reason to look disappointed! I was working! Also my pillow fort game was insane! Look at this thing! I was in the lap of luxury!

“Motoko what are you doing up here? You haven’t come home in days.”

“I already told you! I’m keeping an eye on the loot. Hiromi, Ichi and Malcolm came by like an hour ago for another load she found a buyer for. I’m making sure it doesn’t disappear before then.” I argued instantly.

“Fujimura-Sama gave you his word that wouldn’t happen. Just come home.”

“I know Fujimura wouldn’t steal from me… Probably. But I don’t trust those gonks.” I said pointing out through the peek hole made with an office chair that my Nekomata was resting on and the carpet overhanging meaning it was only a tiny hole and it would be nearly impossible to see back through.

“Ugh. Motoko you pulled off an awesome gig. The TC are all chattering about what you did, hell lot of people are. The Yacht theft was all over the news. No one is going to steal from you.”

“Trusting other people not to steal from me is pretty stupid, when I can just make sure they can’t.” I said, using both hands to gesture to the Nekomata which was very specifically pointing at the storage lot.

“The TC won’t steal from you Motoko.”

“Maybe.” I agreed without actually agreeing.

“Whatever, fine… Tell me about your gig.” He demanded and had the audacity to steal another of my cushions to rest his back against as he leaned against the AC unit.

I narrowed my eyes at the blatant theft but decided to show once again that I was the better person.

Completely ignoring how everything around me was stolen in one form or another because those were the intrusive thoughts you just didn’t listen to.

“You’ll be able to see it yourself soon once the BD comes out, but it was pretty awesome. I blew up the yacht with my rocket launcher! It exploded!” I couldn’t help but gush a little and Jun stilled.

“Wait, when did you get a Rocket Launcher?”

“The Uragan that was under my bed? I’ve had it for a while now. I traded it to the Nomads. Remember when we hit that Raffen group before the Meat Man thing.”

“What do you mean under your bed?” He demanded with a growl. Realizing the danger I made to run.

I wasn’t able to escape.

 

[Seras]

I ended up stuck watching over the lot for an entire week as Hiromi wheeled and dealed. Selling off chrome to anyone and everyone willing to buy.

Considering the amount, it was almost lucky that the TC were interested in so much of it, because offloading it was not easy for Hiromi.

We definitely flooded the market for civilian chrome to rippers and the like.

In the end there wasn’t any trouble. Sure we had a few people sniffing around, but they all gave up when they saw the TC guys guarding everything.

Nothing big.

No kids sneaking around trying to steal it. No TC grunts trying to swipe a crate.

No Scavs showing up to get back their chrome.

Nothing.

It was quiet.

At least not toward the lot. Because I was so busy I had to pass on a gig that Jackie had been given by Wakako, which sucked, Wakako hadn’t been pleased that I wasn’t able to join in, but considering I hadn’t heard anything Jackie must have succeeded.

After we sold everything, or at least enough of the chrome that the dregs left behind weren’t really something we were going to worry about. I was able to stop lurking over the lot.

For my chooms it was a week of running around selling like crazy. They were forced to protect, transport, and sell the chrome without me as I watched over the hoard.

A week before Jun’s increasing grumpiness at me not coming home ended as the chrome was finally gone.

A week before we all finally met up to celebrate our success.

“Cheers!” Ichi called out and raised a glass. I raised my own to click with his, as Malcolm and Hiromi both joined in.

We were at the Ho-Oh Club celebrating.

“Heh! You should have told me about your little act of Piracy Motoko!” Akari whined as she downed her own beer.

“Akari let them enjoy their success.” Jun said with a roll of his eyes. Practically holding the borg back from jumping into our little group.

We were at the Ho-Oh club, because Jun wanted to basically throw a party for my success and he picked the location. Akari had somehow found out about it and decided she wanted to join.

I hadn’t had the heart to tell him I wasn’t a fan of this place, considering the old management.

But it was still a TC club, and now that it had a second floor open, that is what Jun took over for the party.

At least the second floor was nice. A bit higher class than the BD bar down below. It was more like an actual club. The couches were comfier too.

I leaned back as Jun and Akari bickered, as Hiromi continued to look super proud.

She had been on Cloud 9 since we had sold the last of the chrome. Utterly thrilled with all the work she had done.

Honestly we all were.

I was just more anxious about the repercussions. The looming threat of what the response could be. Which is why I was happily hanging out with the chooms to relax.

“Motoko! When is the BD gonna be ready?” Ichi asked, suddenly pulling me back into the present.

“Ah. I haven’t dropped it off yet. I’ve been a little busy.” I reminded them with a sigh. All my chooms nodded, unlike Jun. Ichi, Malcolm, and Hiromi had all been super relieved that I had taken up watching the loot. “I’ll go visit Judy soon.” I assured them.

“You know you could go to a TC editor.” Jun offered looking grumpy at the mention of my Mox friend.

“Nah. Judy’s preem.” I denied instantly, besides. The longer it took the BD to release the better. I had actually been really tempted not to make one of the recording. Tempted to kill the two women that Bart had been with as well.

If there had been no survivors, it would have been quieter.

But the SLS had seen, the TC had known. It would have gotten out eventually. So instead I was going to be blatant about it. Show how dangerous I was, by being almost overconfident.

Yeah I had stolen the Scav shipment. What were they going to do about it? Fight me?

That last bit was the reason I was worried.

I liked my life in Night City. I didn’t want to have to worry about even more knives in the dark.

I shook it off.

That nagging feeling of danger wasn't any of my skills or knowledge.

It was just paranoia. I took a deep breath and exhaled.

“So what is everyone going to do with your eddies?” I asked and suddenly my chooms went silent as they all considered their wealth.

We had made enough eddies to put all four of us into a new economic bracket. At least until we spent it all, but it wasn’t like street kids like us normally had tens of thousands of eddies we could blow as we liked.

“Oh, well. I’m gonna save most of it for my Grandmother just in case. I mean, maybe look into some chrome.” Ichi offered with a casual shrug, although I noted that the last bit was less a maybe and more a definitely for the teenager.

“Oh I’m getting some better chrome too. I’m thinking some subdermal… Just so I don’t have to worry so much about getting shot up.” Malcolm offered. “Otherwise… Maybe a car of my own. I wouldn’t mind having my own ride.”

“Oh! I’m going to invest it into some quality flash chrome!” Hiromi happily cheered. “I need to look the part. Father offered to take me to an Arasaka medical clinic for some real corpo chrome.”

“Oh fancy!” I said smiling, considering the Arasaka aesthetics… Yeah that would look pretty preem on Hiromi. It might change her style to a more goth style, but I bet it would look cute on her.

“What about you Motoko?”

I shrugged, I had a few things I wanted. I still wanted to get a Kusanagi Yaiba of my own.

Motorcycles were cool after all.

But I also wanted to get more chrome, and I would need to set aside thirty, maybe forty grand for a future plan.

Then I needed eddies for my engineering XP grind…

And I could do well with an even newer Cyberdeck…

I snorted. “I have so many things I have no idea!” I told my chooms earning laughs from Hiromi and Jun chuckled at me too. So that was nice. But Jun reached over and pinched me!

“Ow! Jerk!”

“Get some more chrome Motoko. You don’t have to take something from the chrome you klepped, but go get some upgrades. Promise me you’ll at least get some subdermal, Maybe a pain editor, and biomon as well. Just fit yourself out.”

“I… I’ll get the Subdermal.” I admitted and all my chooms cheered and Jun nodded pleased. I really didn’t need a pain editor. Cold Blood did an amazing job of that already, and a biomon seemed silly.

I didn’t need a damn health bar.

“Good, you should protect yourself. Is there anything else you’ve been thinking about?” He asked prodding me and I did have to nod. There was lots of stuff!

I really wanted a Sandy after all! And Optical Camo! Going invisible would be so preem! I wanted to be even sneakier! Maybe some Lynx paws of my own so I would be even quieter! I mean, sure I probably didn’t need that last one, but I could get some jumpy ankles…

Was it time to get some leg chrome? I had to consider as my mind actually remembered it was a thing.

Yeah. It might be.

I would have to talk to Vik about it. He would give me Dad level advice.

—--

I woke up the next morning in my actual bed. I had decided to take a full eight hours of sleep, just to reset myself.

It felt nice to wake up refreshed and feeling good. I guess in the end I couldn’t complain about what the future would hold.

I would just deal with it as it came, and keep preparing just in case it was dangerous.

So that was exactly what I was going to do.

I got up and headed out. Jun was already gone, he must have been tired when he drove into work this morning since he stayed up so late partying with Akari. Who was entertaining at a party while also incredibly annoying. So the usual.

The sky was falling like crazy and I noticed the streets were semi flooded.

I avoided the oncoming traffic as best I could due to all the puddles and the tendency of people in NC not to give a shit. So it took a bit longer than usual before I piled into my Quadra and headed out into the streets safe from the rain.

The streets slick with oil painting the entire road a rainbow as I drove through the traffic towards Viks.

I parked outside Misty’s Esoterica like always and rushed inside to get out of the rain, earning a laugh from Misty as she watched me pull my jacket from over my head.

“What? It’s rainy out there!”

“I know you gonk, usually people bring an umbrella when it’s raining.” She teased pointing out her own neon umbrella resting in the corner.

“Pshht! I don’t need it!” I said, although the fact I was still wiping water out of my hair had Misty giggling.

“Sure you don’t. Here to see Vik? I don’t see any bullet holes this time.” Misty offered and I grinned at her tone.

“Nope, just a visit. I was too busy doing guard duty to see him after he put in the order for all that chrome I picked up.”

“I heard about that. Vik mentioned it… You going to be okay Motoko? That was a lot of stuff you dropped off I hear. More than usual.”

“Yeah…” I muttered still wondering that myself. “I did a really big gig. I found out this rich playboy guy was working with Scavs. Holding onto their chrome in the hold of his yacht… So I klepped it. You know, thinking about it. The NCPD will have to put Piracy on my rap sheet… That’s pretty cool.” I muttered I would have to go check the NCPD sheet on me soon.

Misty just snorted at my muttering and pulled me into a hug which was nice.

“That must have been dangerous, but if you stole from Scavs. That’s a good thing.”

“Yeah… It’s big though. I’m worried about them retaliating. It’s one of the reasons I’m here to talk to Vik… I think it’s time for some new chrome. I’m ready for an upgrade.” I tell her and she just nods.

It wasn’t like people really had that much of an issue with chrome. So Misty probably just thought I was making a big deal with all the eddies I had now.

But this was me deciding to overcome my fear.

“Then you should go see him. Good to see you Motoko, come by more often okay?”

“I will! I’ll come hang out later we should get food or something!” I agreed, earning a smile as I headed through the shop down the stairs and into Vik’s lair.

“Motoko! Come in come in! You didn’t say you were going to stop by.” Vik called out as he turned down the sound of a boxing match playing on his small TV.

“Vik… I need some chrome.” I said as firm as I could and Vik noticed it. Slowly he nodded.

“You sure? No, I see that you are. Alright kid. Let’s get you chipped up. What do you need, let’s make sure I have what you need.”

“First? I need some Subdermal. The best we can get. I don’t want people putting any more holes in me if we can help it.” I told him and this time Vik frowned.

“A good choice, but I don’t have anything that high end in stock… I know a guy though, give me a sec.” He muttered as his eyes went gold and he leaned back into his chair.

Since he was obviously making a call I wandered over to the ripper chair and plopped in.

Just kicking my feet for a while as Vik tried to help me.

Good old Vik.

“I got something. A set of Militech-Armalite Ballistic Guard.”

“Armalite? Isn’t that a gun company?” I couldn’t help but ask. Armalite was a name I recognized. They made one of the most popular guns in the world. The AR rifle platform. It was always weird when I came across a company that I remembered from my last life.

“Huh? Oh, they were about a century ago. Surprised you remember that.” Vik mentioned and I had to resist starting to whistle at my accidental reveal. “They make armor for Militech now. Their subdermal is top of the line. A lot of it flooded the market after the last war.”

I nodded made sense. I bet a lot of it that hit the market wasn’t brand new either. Plenty of old NUSA soldiers dying on the street only to have their chrome stripped.

It was kinda gross, but I trusted Vik.

“Well kid anything else you are looking to get?”

“Yeah.” I pulled up my leg by the ankle and pointed at my legs. “Know any good reinforced tendon cyberware? I need to up my mobility. Um but preferably something that isn’t going to make my ankles creak as I sneak around. So big jumps but still quiet.”
“Heh that’s an old wives tale, they will be just as silent as your own ankles. But that I can do. I’m guessing you aren’t looking for something cheap?”

“I want the best of the best Vik. I have the eddies. Better to go for quality for what I’m putting in me.”

“Well kid, now you're talking my language. Check that screen, let’s go through a list and see what we can scrounge up.” He said as he rolled over and I pulled down the screen on his ripper chair watching as the options changed until it showed a listing of all sorts of leg Cyberware.

Small updates, like the reinforced tendons, to nearly full chrome legs all listed out.

I shook my head at some of the many options. “Just the reinforced tendons. I don’t want to go crazy here Vik. Not yet anyways. Maybe someday I’ll get a matching set of limbs.” I joked.

“Alright kid, don't worry. We’ll find you the chrome you are looking for, In fact… Let me check my stock, I might just have a surprise that would be perfect!” He offered with a smile that I couldn’t help but return.

I was feeling a little nervous to add more metal into me, but not because I was afraid of psychosis or anything, but just because I wanted to make sure I was taking it slow and steady.

But getting shot so much would kill me a whole lot faster than a bit of mental zaniness.

Besides, I had found plenty of ways to get XP. If nothing else I could always go Daemon hunting.

—--

It took two hours for Vik to get his delivery of the Subdermal. Which I did look over in a sort of fascination.

The armor wasn’t a solid piece like cloth, or armored panels like I expected.

The subdermal instead was a sort of hexagonal mesh that could be put together like… Well Lego wasn’t quite right, but you could add and remove the hexagons to adjust it to the exact size you wanted.

In essence, it would be put together piece by piece beneath my skin turning into a bullet resistant mesh.

Vik made sure to keep mentioning it was bullet resistant, and not bulletproof despite what the marketing would tell me.

“Trust me Vik. I know the difference between bulletproof, and bullet resistant.” I assured him but he just gave me his dad look and continued setting up the blueprint of where the mesh would be implanted in on his screen.

The reinforced tendons were easier Something he had pulled out of storage covered in dust. Vik had talked up the chrome quite a bit and I did trust him but…

“They seem kinda sketchy.” I muttered as he put down the container for the implant on the table beside me.

“These are beyond solid kid. Professional sport quality Cyberware. The stuff they fit on Night City Heat… You have no idea what that is.” He said suddenly at my blank stare.

“I have no idea what that is.” I agree.

“Kids these days. It’s the Night City Professional Basketball team!”

“I don’t watch sports Vik.” I denied his excitement turning him into a grumpy old man complaining about kids not liking the right sports ball team.

“Regardless! The chrome used to be owned by a basketball player, a kid that grew up here in heywood actually. Dante, good kid, came by every once in a while for years. A few years back he came by to have me do the upgrade. He was worried his agency was setting him up to take a fall with a new set of chrome. After I checked his chrome, I swapped him up, and he said I could keep these as payment. Funny kid. Paid me afterwards anyways.” Vik chuckled but he gave me a strong look. “These things are high end sportsware. Chrome like this is in a lot of ways even better than the top of the line stuff you could find. It’s pricy, but since you don’t care about cost, trust me. This is the chrome you want.”

“Alright Vik. I trust you. I’m ready. Let’s get Chippin.”

Vik stilled and gave me a look

I returned a firm nod.

“Alright Kid. Lay back.” Vik said reassuring me with a hand on my shoulder as he gassed me up a bit and I was out.

—--

Militech-Armalite Ballistic Guard *Adaptation Ballistic Guard 0/2*
Serano Air-Groove Ankles *Adaptation Serano Air 0/1*

I was checking my status after Vik woke me up and had me sit up.

“You all there kid?” He asked and I nodded shooing away the screen.

“Yeah, just taking it in. Bit itchy, and my ankles feel kinda big, and wobbly.”

“That’s normal. Your skin is itchy because it’s healing. Once it’s done with that, you might feel some weird stretching. You are literally bigger on the inside now after all.” Vik said joking to try and keep me calm. “The tendons is a big replacement kid. I mean this is the first time you’ve ever gotten such a big change in chrome outside of the obvious. Take it slow.” He told me firmly, but I just nodded.

It wasn’t too bad though. I had chosen this, so I was pretty comfortable with a bit of weirdness for a little.

“Now normally I wouldn’t even let you walk for a while, but that’s professional chrome made for fast healing… And you already heal fast. So make sure you do some light exercise, starting in a few days!” He cut himself off poking my chest. “Before you do something crazy, you will feel like you are running weirdly at first, and you should practice outdoors in a place it won’t be too bad if you fall to get used to your new jumping ability. I’ve seen a lot of fools fall to their death because they tried to leap across something they shouldn’t.”

“Got it. Take it slow, get used to it, and wait a few days for everything to heal, or Vik will give me his disappointed dad face.” I joked and to my surprise Vik almost jolted at my words, before a slow deep chuckle escaped him.

“Yeah that’s right kid. I’ll give you the worst disappointed dad face of your life.” He said, smiling a little as he reached out and to my surprise…

And maybe secret delight, he fluffed my hair.
“Hey!” I pouted as required by all teenage girls when someone messes their hair but he just smirked at me.

“Now take a puff of this now. It’ll help keep the pain down, and help heal up the wounds. Yes Motoko I remember you heal fast, but take it anyways. Come by tomorrow or the day after at the latest. I’ll want to check you out after you sleep.”

“Thanks Vik.” I said seriously, reaching out and grabbing his wrist for a moment. “Really thanks.”

“Heh, anytime kid.”

—--

“Hey Misty.” I called out as I walked into her shop. I was very grateful no one had seen me walking up the stairs to Viks clinic. I hadn’t fallen, but the bounciness was going to take some getting used to. It was like wearing moon boots. My ankles also felt like they were made of rubber. It was fun, but in a weird sort of way.

They also hurt a bit, but between Cold Blood and Viks drugs I wasn’t exactly bothered.

Besides, I was heading home to sleep it all off.

“Motoko! You’ve been down there a while, get some new chrome?” Misty offered as she waved me over to a table she was sitting at.

“Yeah, new ankles, and some subdermal. I kinda want to stop getting shot at all the time.” I told her and she nodded at that trying not to look uncomfortable at me getting shot.

“Vik will have taken care of you though. Do you need anything?”

“No, I’m good. I’m just gonna head home to sleep it off, and then I’ll be right as rain.” I offered before noticing the way she looked a little down at that. “But I wouldn’t mind a few minutes to rest my feet. Whatcha looking at?” I asked as I took a seat across from Misty who looked up in delight as she started chattering about the article she was reading.

“Speaking of Motoko. You sure you don’t want a Tarot reading?” Misty asked already seeming to pull out the cards but I shook my head, reaching out to pause her hold.

“No thanks. I prefer to let the future be something I make… I don’t need to be told what’s going to happen. I’d rather get the fun of experiencing it directly.” I told her and for a moment Misty looked like she wanted to argue, probably tell me I was getting it wrong, but eventually she just smiled and put the cards away.

“That’s very wise of you Motoko. Living your life as it comes.”

“It’s not like that really. I’m just too much of a gonk, if you told me something bad was going to happen, I would end up freaking out and probably just make it all worse.” I laughed, it was doubly true since Misty definitely had some ability to tell the future.

Best just avoid it though.

“I think it says a lot about you though. It means you really have your own path set out for yourself. I like it.” She offered and I beamed a little at her compliment.

“Hungry?” Misty asked suddenly, and I couldn’t help but nod which had her beaming. Five minutes later we were both set up in comfy chairs with some very zen ambient music playing as the two of us devoured some takeout Misty had run out to get from a restaurant nearby.

It was nice. Cozy.

 

[Seras]

Home was nice. Jun was still at work when I got home but I was kind of glad because I was really wanting a nap.

My chest itched.

Like crazy.

I was forced to use Cool just to resist the irritation. So I really wanted a full sleep to hopefully remove the discomfort.

As I flopped onto the bed wincing a bit as I pulled my boots off my ankles that were all blotchy and swollen.

Despite Vik’s gentle touch he had still stuffed shit into my body. I was bruised up a bit. I didn’t even want to check my chest. My leotard thankfully had a bit of stretch to it despite the armored layer so It was wearable. It did feel a little tighter than normal, although that could just be the swelling.

So I laid back onto my bed and set myself to eight hours.

I blinked awake feeling pretty damn good. I stretched, noticing that the pain that had been just under my skin before was gone, although I winced a bit as the itching wasn’t entirely done with.

Sure it wasn’t nearly as bad as it was, but as I stretched and felt the way my skin stretched there was a bit of irritation in areas.

I scratched a bit and that seemed to end it.

For now.

I checked my ankles which… Well they didn’t quite look like how my ankles used to look. Part of that was the realskin seams over where the chrome had been added in. There were two seams, One along the top of my foot, and one about mid thigh height. The Real Skinn was a good match for my own so that was cool.

Vik did good work. I actually thought the seams were kinda cool too.

I wiggled my ankles left and right.

Up and down.

Rapid fire wiggled them.

Seems everything was good.

I stood up, rocking a bit, I did have a bit more bounce to my step. I would definitely need some practice to get the hang of everything again, but it was pretty natural to walk forward and I didn’t have too many problems.

Without thinking I did a little extra bounce that would normally have just put me an inch off the floor only to bounce my head off the ceiling.

“Ow.”

Hadn’t Vik warned me to be careful where I practice…

Fuck he could never know. The Dad look would shatter my self esteem forever.

I rubbed my head as I left my bedroom. I was gonna need some exercise.

Time to go for a jog.

—-

I was so bouncy! It was taking up my entire focus as I ran down the street. My feet felt like they wanted to lift off the ground with every step. Once I got used to just how much bounce I could get, I entertained myself by doing front flips over the terrain of Night City as I jogged around.

Startling people as I literally flipped over their heads if they were in my way.

When Vik had originally told me about the Serano, he had mentioned their quality. He hadn’t told me my hops would go to pro basketball player level. Or rather he had, but I hadn’t understood.

I was leaping high enough that my feet would be over where my head was at the apex of the leap if I was walking.

Hell. I was easily leaping six feet straight up without a lot of effort. Especially since I could probably get even higher with some training and getting used to them.

It was super awesome.

And sort of distracting. I just knew I was going to overestimate my leaps for a while until I got used to them…

Or until I burned a stat point for Adaptation. It was only a one drop for my ankles which was nice.

Both the subdermal, and the ankles being so low cost had reassured me.

I guess my arms had been so costly due to the unique circumstance.

I stretched my arms up to the sky enjoying the tension in my chest from the action. Of course as usual the chrome arms hitched, or maxed out their extension in a weird spot.

I still needed to add more points into them.

But my ability to move was certainly better than it had been. I started slipping into some parkour, leaping up over vending machines, or other obstacles, as I broke into a jog. Letting myself really see what I could do.

I was still right around the block of the apartment, but Instead of circling around. I turned and just ran.

Hitting another office or apartment building and just…

Going up.

Climbing straight up a building was a very unique experience, it wasn’t something most people ever really did.

But my hands knew exactly where to grab, my legs brought me to where I needed to move ever upward and I didn’t hesitate.

I reached the roof by flipping over the edge landing in a quiet crouch.

I grinned to the kid that had been hanging around the roof a can of something in his hand dropped as he flailed at my sudden appearance beside him from the wrong direction. Then just kept moving.

I bounced over the edge, landing on a sign board and then running along it until I leapt again. Hands gripping into concrete and metal as I climbed over the side of an upper level bridge. As always parts of Night City were multiple levels, and it was awesome to be able to reach them completely on foot.

Then I ran, jumping and climbing onto a street light, until I was on top of it.

I stood looking over the street chest rising and falling in a gentle rhythm. The fact I wasn’t out of breath, but I was breathing harder than normal, just a reminder I still needed to level body and athletics more.

I laughed at the thought, unable to hold back breaking into a long delighted laugh as I raised my hands above my head.

I loved this world.

I loved being able to be more.

As my laugh ended I turned Parkour helped me pick out the best rout. I jumped from the light pole to a building.

Everywhere I looked I could see a million paths I could run through the city.

It didn’t matter what was before me, because I could traverse it.

So I leapt again and again.

—-

My feet landed quiet as a mouse in front of my apartment building. I was definitely breathing heavily now, sweating like crazy and really feeling the exercise. I had gotten a few Body alerts popping up, having been running and parkouring through the city for the last few hours just loving the rush of movement, and getting practice with what I could now do.

I looked up at the section of the city high above the apartment that I had just came down from.

That would be a useful trick in the future.

I suddenly turned and remembered the attack that had lost me my arms. How I had tried to climb up a building to escape.

With my new ankles I would have been able to get away.

Not that it matters. I patted my shoulder holster. I was always armed now.

Of course I looked at my alerts for a moment.

*100 Body XP Gained*

*100 Body XP Gained*

I was really going to have to start seriously pushing myself if I wanted to grind more level ups.

I headed inside, wiping my forehead and running up the stairs because I might as well get a little more exercise.

I jumped into a quick shower to clean up and after slipping into a new leotard I flopped on the couch and grabbed my laptop. I still had another Quick Hack that I hadn’t ‘fixed’ yet.

Weapon Glitch.

Ping was an amazing utility, giving me information to better sneak around.

Reboot Optics was excellent at removing threats, but it was also very obvious.

Weapon Glitch? Weapon Glitch was just as good at removing threats, but it could also be prepared in advance.

No one missed when their eyes suddenly stopped working, but being able to turn off weapons before ever being revealed would give me a good advantage.

I looked at both the original Weapon Glitch I had bought from Yoko. The ‘fixed’ version I had put together which was okay, but still not great.

Then I considered how I could make it great.

I had enough experience now. Enough skill that I knew what to do. How to go about it.

I was going to make a Weapon Glitch that would just be hilarious. If I could get the hack to bounce through the network, I could definitely get it to spread to every weapon connected to whatever gonk I was fighting against.

I could potentially get it to bounce an unlimited amount of times within the network if I process the virus right.

Length and spread. That was my goal. Sure I could probably get a version that causes weapons to explode or something, at least smart weapons, causing their fuel and ammunition to cook off in the gun would be nasty, but that meant less loot!

No, I wanted a single quick hack to massively reduce the threat of a large group of people.

So I started programming.

—-

“-Mass hacking incident perpetrated by what the NCPD have decided to call the Laughing Man Hacker.”

I blinked as I watched the news report. I had remembered that there had been an actual news report about my act of piracy.

So of course I had checked it out!

Apparently hacking the optics of dozens of rich and famous had caused a bit of a wave. I had to giggle uncontrollably as some playboy singer was interviewed absolutely spitting mad about how I had blinded him.

Apparently he had been mid… Coitus when it happened, and it had been with a married woman. A woman that was his bosses wife. Blind as they had been, they hadn’t been able to split up before someone had come to help them.

I’d apologize but the guys rant was a bit much.

Temptation to assassinate rising.

But it was all hot air… I think. I made a note to check if the guy actually knew anyone that could cause me trouble.

In the end since they didn’t take too long to figure out how to fix the blindness the incident slipped off the news.

But for a short time the Laughing Man, had been big news.

Cool.

Scary, but cool.

In the end the news never figured out who I was before the whole incident was forgotten. In the end I had only killed the one person after all. Everyone else affected was just given a small optical virus that had been fixed that night.

I tapped my neck feeling the shard ports.

I still had the BD recording saved. I hadn’t handed it over yet. I could just forget about it…

No, that was fear talking. I rose up and stretched. It was getting late, but Judy should still be at Lizzies.

I got dressed and headed out enjoying the drive through the city, singing along to the radio.

Lizzies was booming when I got there. So much so that I had to drive down the street to find a parking spot. In fact there was practically a line getting in, but I did what any person does when they know the bouncer.

I walked past the line up to Rita.

She was glaring at a pair of gonk kids at the front of the line that were trying to talk their way in.

“C’mon! We’ve been out here for three hours!”

“And you’ll wait a bit longer.” Rita offered with a glare and a move that caused her baseball bat to tap against her chrome shoulder with a tink noise.

Of course I was getting attention by bypassing the line. Glares and a few irritated call outs, but they all expected Rita to halt me.

“Hey Rita.”

“Motoko.” She greeted with a single nod, before looking me over. “Business or pleasure?”

“Business. I’m here to see Judy.”

“Go on in then.” Rita said and the looks I got from the people in the line was pretty hurtful.

Wasn’t my fault I was here with actual business.

The insides were crowded as I wandered in walking past hordes of people flirting and drinking.

Luckily I was able to walk right through to the back and then down into Judy’s lair.

As I walked in, I was surprised that Judy wasn’t alone.

Suzie Q. The leader of the Mox was standing beside her, looking down at a monitor.

“Oh. Hey Judy. Should I come back later?” I asked, making sure they knew I was there.

I knew how sneaky I was, I didn’t want to get caught standing around waiting for them to notice and have people think I was spying.

“Jesus!” Judy jumped despite my attempt to not scare her. “Motoko! I’m getting a bell on you I swear to god!”

“Sorry sorry!” I flailed a bit as I apologized mostly because Suzie Q had jumped too, and she unlike Judy didn’t look amused.

Or very happy to see me.

“No come on in, Suzie was just looking over my list of new BD’s. What brings you here?” Judy waved me in, which I noticed didn’t make Suzie very happy.

But I wasn’t here to make her happy.

“I got another BD. A big one this time. I went on a big gig, stole tons and tons of scav chrome from where they were keeping it. Stole a yacht, blew it up with a rocket launcher at the end! Should be preem.” I offered, trying to act casual at the awesome tidbits I just offered.

“Wait. Stole a yacht? Motoko! Are you the Laughing Man?” Judy asked suddenly without warning! I wasn’t ready for this!

“Ugh! I can’t believe they called me that! I’m not the laughing man, I’m not a super wizard class hacker… Yet.” I muttered, I would get that power someday.

“Super wizard class hacker? What in the world is even that?” Judy struggled to ask as she laughed through the question.

“It’s a thing!” I argued but it was Suzie Q that broke in then.

“You’re the one that broke into the Gold Beach Marina? You?” She asked, looking me over, with a look saying she refused to believe me.

I shrugged. I wasn’t here to prove I had done something.

I popped the shard out of my socket and offered it up to Judy. “See for yourself.”

“Yoink!” Judy chirped, snatching the shard and pushing her chair wheeling over to her system where she inserted the shard and seemed more than willing to get to work.

“You’re the one that saved Nox.” Suzie Q muttered suddenly as if she suddenly remembered where she had seen me.

“Yeah, that’s how Nox and I met. I’ve been giving my BD’s to Judie, to fix up, and then Nox sells them.”

“That’s right. The XBD’s. I remember now… You’re also the one that took out Jotaro.”

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t nod, or make any acceptance of that. Just a glare on my face as I thought about that monster.

“Alright. Judy get those BD’s added to the server before you jump into that. You might not look like much, but any girl that can make the news, and murder that monster is someone welcome here.” She gave me a single firm nod as if my presence was now accepted before walking off.

“She always like that?” I couldn’t help but ask Judy.

“Yeah, that’s how Suzie is now. She used to be a lot nicer, before Lizzie died.” Judy offered, sounding distracted as her fingers ran across her keyboard.

—--

Back home I didn’t jump back into programming even if I kept having the feeling of ‘programming good’ whispered into my brain.

Inspired programmer was super useful, but it did mean I had that urge to act on it all the time.

No, instead I grabbed my guitar and my music box. I had been rushing around so much the last few weeks, first tracking the scavs, then the gig to steal from them, and then guarding the loot.

I had even jumped straight into work when I got home, but I really needed to decompress a bit.

So I hit my first note and played something actiony just to get the energy out of myself. Slowly as I finished song after song, I slipped into more relaxed music. Soothing tones and crooning vocals.

A few songs went by and then suddenly I got an alert.

*Rockerboy skill level up!*

Rockerboy 6! I smiled as I felt myself relax, as always improving made me feel better. So I just kept playing, and while I played I considered my situation.

While I still winced a bit at actually starting to get a rep, it did have benefits. There was a certain respect in the city for people who have done things.

Stealing a yacht and blowing it up counted, I guess. Maybe?

I don’t know. Night City people were fucking weird.

I now had eddies to spare. Even with the purchase of my subdermal, and new ankles I still had a ton of eddies.

It was nice, but honestly I wasn’t ready to buckle down and slam through tech yet. I was just too focused on other skills. So the eddies were pretty much just going to be sitting around for now unless something popped into my head that I wanted.

I continued to play along to songs as I relaxed, letting the sounds lull me into a calm mood.

—-

The next day I got a call from someone I wasn’t expecting.

*Yoko! What’s up?*

*Motoko. Or perhaps I should call you the laughing man?* She asked, in a teasing tone.

*Ugh. I can’t believe the news actually started calling me that, just because I used the J.D. Salinger quote.*

*It’s eye-catching, and you inflicted it upon some of the rich and famous. Of course it would become news. You should come by the server. I’ve had a lot of questions about who it was with a reboot Optic hack that could last for hours. People are interested, as someone who has been around the block? You want to come in and get some of their attention out of the way now. Unless you want to deal with everyone trying to hack you constantly over the next few months.*

*Ugh. That’s annoying! It’s not really turning them off that long. It’s just a trick.* I replied irritated.

*Oh I’m aware. You modified their user preferences, making them blind. Smart. I hadn’t even considered that before. Usually the settings don’t go that dark.*

*How do you already know? Ugh. The only reason they don’t is because the settings are purposefully limited. I just added-*

*Come to the server Motoko. There are a lot of people that want to hear all about what you did. Think of it as a congratulations party. You did something interesting enough that everyone wants to hear the story from the source.*

*Oh. Okay yeah. Sure. I’ll be there soon!*

*Excellent, then I’ll see you soon Motoko.* Yoko hung up and I smiled at that. Quickly jumping away from the couch and heading to get dressed.

There was a part of me wondering if this was a trap and the NCPD were going to attack my unconscious body, and haul me into jail, but I trusted Yoko.

Plus I was kinda wanting to show off.

 

[Seras]

I walked into the DewDrop Inn server to see there was a section set aside where a bunch of Netrunners were gathered, including Yoko.

She waved me over and smiled as I looked over the group. There were about ten of them, and other than Yoko, and the one Netrunner who Yoko had brought in when I did the server dive there wasn’t anyone I was familiar with, but they were all obviously here for me.

“Ah so it was you!” A voice called out and I had to blink.

His face… Wait, this guy? Why was he so familiar? I actually was pretty sure I recognized this one!

“Yes?”

“On one hand, I want to shove all my worst daemons in your face for blinding me right in the middle of a very enjoyable night with a woman I had been trying to get on my yacht for years… But on the other hand you killed that bastard Bart, and blew up his eyesore of a yacht… So I’ll let it go.” He offered and I just blinked at this random guy who had a very familiar face.

“Otter Business, leave the girl alone, we are here to congratulate her on her programming.” Another Netrunner called out, shooting me a smile and waving for me to take a seat.

“Pfft. It took me two hours to figure out what she had done! Two!” He growled, throwing his avatars arms up in the air. “Fine, fine… It was a good program. I was only able to recover a few fragments of the source program, though, wouldn’t mind getting a taste of the original.” He said and suddenly he was booed by everyone that was sitting around the table. A few even threw digital ‘chaff’ at him.

“Stop trying to steal the march you wannabe. Don’t you have a crappy TV show that no one watches to get to?” Another voice called out and Otter seemed to take this personally.

“I have a primetime spot! You bitch!”

“Now, now, let’s not fight. Ghost. Come join us. Everyone, this is Ghost’s first big meet and greet, so let’s all be polite or else she’ll ghost us.” Yoko offered tittering behind a fan causing everyone at the table to groan.

“I’m ignoring that you old Fox.” The Netrunner whose server I had dived called out and then turned to me. “This is pretty unusual, normally a new hacker doesn’t bring this much attention, but a new program? That’s hot stuff. We are all here for different reasons. Some to congratulate you. Some to sniff out a potential buy.” He informed me as everyone around the table then turned their eyes on me.

“Before you speak Ghost. I know what you are thinking, but everyone here is interested in your “Laughing Man” quick hack. So it’s also an opportunity to trade with others, gain information, or favors, or even equipment you might not have. But I suggest you at least hear them out. You never know what another runner might be sitting on that would interest you.” Yoko explained, even as she giggled at my grumpy face as she called it the Laughing Man.

“Ugh. Don’t you start Yoko. It’s bad enough the news started calling me that… My handle is Ghost. Not Laughing Man. But that’s kinda cool. I’m not really interested in trading it though.” I explained earning a few boos from the group.

“Ironic name, they picked out since you aren’t a man. But it’s certainly an interesting icon, what made you think of it?” Otter asked cutting in, and I noticed everyone else sort of glaring at him.

“Ignore him. Media’s always have to ask questions even when they just run an economics show.”

“It’s a primetime show!” He called out and finally my mind connected.

“Ah! That’s where I recognize you from. Your Business is My Business, right?” I asked, snapping my fingers as it struck me where I knew the guy. It wasn’t a show Jun and I watched but I remember seeing it while scrolling through things a few times.

“That’s right! Since you are a fan, I guess I’ll forgive the hack, what’s a little hacking between friends after all!” He said, chuckling.

“Oh shut up already you peacock. Hey, your hack was nasty. You slammed every person at the Marina with it, and it locked them down for hours! Even if it gets more popular there are plenty of norms that will never know how to fix it. They had to call the NCPD netrunners in just to get everyone able to see again. It was preem. C’mon don’t be a gonk. How much for a copy?” A woman asked, the only identifying feature was the fact both of her eyes were covered by a set of techgogs.

Similar to the ones I had even.

But before I could speak and deny being willing to sell my work, another Netrunner spoke. This one had been sitting back not speaking, and basically trying to pretend to be too cool for this group.

“Don’t let this shallows-runner tempt you. I checked out your previous work as well. Yoko confirmed that it was your code, so let me be blunt. Trade it to me, don’t give it to anyone else, I’ll pay you more than any of these wannabes can offer.” The man had stood up from his chair as he spoke. He was bald with piercing eyes and I was a bit uncomfortable as he was locked onto me, his eyes never shifting.

I narrowed my eyes as I noticed it, and slapped his backtrace down with the most brutal assault I could. A Barrier shooting up ahead of me, to break his attempt to find my physical body.

This bastard was actually trying to track me down!
“Try that again, and I’ll kill you.” I told him and while he seemed unconcerned, it was Yoko that stepped in.

“Ma>< I’ve warned you that actions like that won’t be allowed on this server regardless of how powerful your corporation is. There won’t be another time.” She said and suddenly he glitched and his avatar vanished in a distortion of a forced movement. “He won’t be allowed back, He is banned from the server. I’m sorry Ghost. I knew Ma>< had joined Arasaka, but I wasn’t expecting him to act like them already.”

“Ah it’s okay. I caught him pretty quick… That was a sneaky trace though.”

“Ugh now the mood is ruined! Yoko! Play some music! We can’t do a net party with this sort of atmosphere. As long as that’s cool with you Laughing Man.” Another of the netrunners sitting around asked and I was grateful my face couldn’t show how much I was flushing.

“I prefer Ghost honestly, if it comes to my handle.”

“Wait. Wait wait. Yoko was calling you that too… Didn’t Bug complain to us about a Ghost?”

Yoko then spoke up, giggling a little. “She did indeed! Was that you Ghost?” Yoko said laughing, but the way she spoke. She was offering me a denial if I didn’t want to reveal that it was me.

Yoko was pretty cool like that.

“Yeah I met T-Bug in a Microtech warehouse. She was gathering data for a choom of hers. Someone I actually know funnily enough so I helped out.”

“Oh man she was complaining for days about that! She was so annoyed that some unknown runner had her locked down.” Yoko giggled, earning some laughs from the other netrunners as well.

I guess T-Bug was well known.

“Alright, well then Ghost. What would get you to want to trade for your program?” One of the other runners asked suddenly and everyone realized that the tension had eased up enough to get back to business.

“I’m really not intending on trading it. I mean I traded my Ping to Yoko, but this one is…”

“A personal hack.” Yoko nodded and I couldn’t help but smile and agree. “Still Ghost, like I said, it would be a good idea to hear offers. You may be surprised at what can be offered, or what might interest you.” Yoko said with a toothy grin.

“How about connections for a better deck? I know someone who has an Arasaka Mk.3 that would be willing to sell if I recommended it.” One of the Netrunners offers a woman whose hair pulsed with light from scalp to tips consistently.

“Oh please she could find that on her own without your help.” Another cut in, “Stop trying to rip the kid off. We don’t want a programmer with that sort of skill to bail to the corps or something! Speaking of kid, never join a corp. I saw that Ping you dropped to Yoko, it was impressive work, real nova stuff, but they would eat you up. They would put you in a lab and never let you leave. I’m serious.” The netrunner told me with a firm finger pointed at me.

“God R1ot. Let it go. We get it you are anti-corp. They don’t lock programmers into little dark rooms.” Another cut in but a few of the others booed at him.

“Says the Militech runner!”

“Corpo dog!” Another called out, but it was more…

Teasing?

“Oh fuck off all of you. I’m not a programmer, but I do security for a Militech site, we don't lock our programmers away. We do protect them though. A good programmer is worth their weight in eddies.”

“I don’t know about that. I’m a programmer, and I never had a corp offer me that much.” Another grumbled, but that only caused the whole group to almost as one call out.

“I said good programmers!”

“You have to be good!”

“Hahaha!” Yoko’s laugh rolled over the group and I couldn’t help but smile.

What a weird group. Despite probably being enemies, here they were all… Compatriots? I wouldn’t say friends, but it still stood.

“I’m kinda surprised that everyone is so friendly.”

“Ah yeah that happens.” R1ot offered his face smiling. “Sure if I caught any of these wannabes sneaking into my server, I would Black ICE them in a heartbeat, but we are all netrunners. We all started as kids plugging into their first modem and stealing something from a vending machine.”

“Speak for yourself! My first hack was a car! It was the most beautiful Mizutani Shion I had ever seen. Drove her for miles… Eventually I crashed, but for a short time I was the happiest person in Night City.”

“Gonk.”

“So! Since everyone keeps getting distracted, Ghost, let’s talk price for that juicy new program you got.”

“Wait. I mean… I know it’s great and everything.” I demurred, earning some chuckles. “But why are you all so interested in my program? There must be better stuff already out on the market?”

“Sure, but if it’s on market, it’s already halfway solved. We are a community kid, once you get to a certain height, you already know everything out on the market, how to defend against it, as best you can anyways.” R1ot offered with a shrug. “But you have something new. Something that no one knows how to protect themselves from. So I want it so I can protect my system from it. Others want to use it. For at least a while, it’s a hot commodity.”

“I guess that makes sense… Sorry to say I’m still not really interested, but I am a programmer, and since I’ve obviously impressed all of you, there is something I’m always on the lookout for that I’d be happy to trade some debugging work if you want.” I offered and from the instant interest I guess I was right on the money.

No one liked debugging after all.

“I'm always looking for information on Scavs. If you get me something usable, I’ll happily debug your code.”

I smirked as I got interested looks from all across the table.

—--

“So that’s what happened.” I explained to Jun as we were both at the apartment. I had gotten home and brought food that wasn’t XXL burritos for Jun to eat.

We were eating Ramen.

We were rich now you know?

“So you had a bunch of netrunners wanting to buy your program you’ve been working on? That’s… Really amazing Motoko. Good job.” Jun offered with a smile and a pat on my head.

I squirmed a bit. It wasn’t like I enjoyed the praise you know!

After a few moments I swiped at his hand so he wouldn’t think I was easy. “Well it took a lot of work to make the thing! And I’m happy with it. Of course now I have a bunch of debug work I can do on the side… And a bunch of Scav data I’ll need to go through.” I smirked at that. Then pouted a bit. “Yoko offered her help in handling the work orders. In exchange for a bit of work she wants done too. Sneaky kitsune.” I had been thankful at her offer even if I knew she had ulterior motives.

Seriously, netrunners were very pushy. Having them have to go through Yoko would save me a lot of stress.

“That’s right, you mentioned Yoko uses a kitsune avatar? That’s so weird.” He muttered and I just laughed at Jun. Despite having a netrunner mother Jun was probably even worse at netrunning stuff than past Motoko.

“Well Yoko is a very… Unique woman. But the Scav data should point me to a few more dens, and I still have one that I need to clear up. So more loot to gather up!”

“Just be careful. I don’t want to have to pull you out of a Scav den again.” Jun said, and I had to look at him with that. Jun never mentioned the Scav den.

Like ever.

“I’m strong now. You won’t have to.”

He met my eyes and took a slurp of his ramen.

“Just be careful.”

“Yeah… I’m a little worried. That with everything I’m doing I’m going to piss off someone, or just get someone's attention, and it’ll cause problems.” I admitted to him, revealing a big part of my worry.

“You have the TC to fall back on if something ever goes wrong… Motoko. I want you to stay safe. I’d be happiest if you stayed home and just worked on your programming or playing music all day. Safe things. But that isn’t what would make you happiest. So…” Jun struggled then as if trying to find the words, but I was a little surprised.

Jun had really grown a lot in the last couple months.

“So it’s fine. If you piss someone off and they come for you. We can kill them together. Just be as safe as you can. But don’t stop. You’re an edgerunner. Stop worrying about falling, I’ll catch you.”

“I’m not an edgerunner! I’m just a merc!”
Jun just smirked at me and now that he was finished eating his Ramen, he grabbed the XXL Burrito he had been eating before I got home and bit into it.

Disgusting.

—--

I spent the rest of the evening hanging out with Jun as he lazed around the apartment on the couch. I had shown off my new chrome as well. My jump skills had super impressed him as I was bouncing all over the place in the apartment..

Even if he had laughed at me and asked how many times I had hit my head on the ceiling.

Jerk!

Only the one time.

Then I had a nice eight hour nap and headed out in the morning to visit Vik.

While I was technically feeling great, other than the little wiggles of new chrome. He had still wanted another visit to check everything over.

So as I waved hello to Misty who was busy with an actual client!

I was so proud!

I leapt around a bit in the alley heading down into Viks clinic and greeted him with a happy smile as I did a few cartwheels.

“Chrome is doing great Vik!” I chirped out as I saw him.

“Glad to see you are adapting to it well, but I’ll be the one that decides if it’s doing great.” He said with a smile as he pointed at the chair. “You were supposed to be here yesterday.”

“Got pulled into a netrunning thing. Sorry Vik, I really couldn’t get away.”

“Well at least you show up. Even if it’s a day late.” He teased and then he settled in and started scanning. “Your healing is still… Impossible, If I hadn’t put this chrome in myself, I would say this healing pattern is years old. Everything looks good, your nerves have definitely connected. The swelling is down around the Subdermal as well. How’s it feel?”

“A little itchy sometimes, but I’m getting used to it.”

“Hmm. Normally itchiness this early is just healing, but that isn’t your issue. Where are you getting the itch?” I pointed out a few spots and he started scanning them.

“Just a few parts of the mesh bundling up wrong. Let me see what I can do.” He muttered and I relaxed back despite the fact Vik was poking needles and things into me to manually adjust the subdermal weave.

But when he was done, I had to admit despite having a few new bandaids over a few spots. I wasn’t as itchy.

“Thanks Vik!”

“It’s what I’m here for kid… Well when people actually show up for their check ups.” He said then suddenly stabbed a cold finger right into my side making me squeal. “No missing the next checkup!”

“I won’t! I promise!” I pleaded, hands raised. Vik! Vik knew my weak spot! I wasn’t normally that ticklish, but I still had spots! How did he know!?

“Well I’m not seeing any issues. Everything looks good. How are you feeling up here?” He asked, pointing at his own head. “Any problems? Confusion? Shakes?”

I couldn’t help but smile in return. “Nothing that I’ve noticed. I think my arms are still more of a mental strain than the new stuff… But I’m not noticing any problems. I’ll talk to Jun, or you as soon as I do. Get the chrome right out if I have to.”

Vik nodded, reaching out and ruffling my hair. “You're a good kid Motoko, don’t let your greed ruin your future. I saw Jackie the other day, he came in with a big bruise he earned while on a gig, fixed him right up though. He mentioned that Wakako had finally cut him loose?”

“Ah no. I was guarding the loot I stole, Wakako called and told me there was a gig but I had to cancel, so I guess Jackie got it alone… I didn’t know he got hurt.”
“Hah. Just a bruise kid, he got in a fist fight and won just fine. He was proud of the bruise more than anything. You two still working together?”

“Yeah! Or… I guess I hope so? I’ve been a little busy the last while. I was planning a big raid, and I spent a bunch of time on the net, and I wasn’t there for this last gig either… Should I call him? Ask if he wants some work? I know of a Scav den I wanted to hit…”

“Oh? Another one already?”

“Well I have one that led me to my last big gig, I didn’t touch the peons right away while I was tracking where they took their chrome. There should still be a bunch there, and some gonks to flatline.”

“Well I’m sure Jackie would be happy to back you up, just be careful kid. Scavs might be less dangerous than the big gangs, but they can be like cornered rats. Nasty to deal with if they feel threatened.”

I nodded at that. “I’ll keep that in mind Vik.”

“Alright kid, why don’t you get out of here. I’m sure you have exciting things to do today rather than hang out with an old fossil.”

“What, where is Wakako?” I said with a faux gasp before coughing a bit as I realized what I just said. “Don’t… Don’t tell her I made that joke okay?”

“Future blackmail.” He assured me with a sinister smile.

 

[Seras]

“So that’s the place Jackie.” I told the older man as we pulled up to the Scav den.

Ichi and Malcolm weren’t far behind. Hiromi wasn’t here this time, but that’s because she was at school, and super bummed that I had decided to hit this Scav den without her.

Instead I had asked Jackie if he wanted to join.

“Huh. You sure Hermanita? Doesn’t look like a Scav hole.”

“Yep. I’ve still got all their cameras infested. I’ve already looped the outside cameras so no worries on them spotting our approach! But yeah I can see them inside. Here, I’ll cut you into the feed.” I told him and he nodded as I hooked up our call to show the live feed inside the old office building.

Jackie had actually chipped in a new set of optics, and they had a connection speed high enough for me to direct video him.

Thank fuck.

“Not too many of them. Should be easy enough.” Jackie offered and I nodded along.

“Yeah normally I go slow and take them all out quietly, but considering how small this group is.” I shrugged. “Loud and quick?”

“That’s my normal style Hermanita.” He said, throwing me a big smile.

“Great. I’ll add a tracker into your sight for each of them. Let me get my iron, and let’s take this place out.” I said as I stepped out of the Quadra waving to Ichi who was parking just behind me, I went to the trunk of the Quadra, popping it open.

I really needed to do some work on this.

My trunk was a mess. Guns, and ammo, quite a bit of the ammo now loose and rattling around reached my eyes, and I noticed the weapon I was actually going for was stuck behind the big case my Uragan was resting in. Still needed to put that away. Temptation to use it was a bit too much for normal gigs.

I winced a bit. My Poor Nekomata was jammed behind the Uragan case as well. Okay tonight I was going to take a break from everything and organize my trunk space. This was embarrassing.

But I didn’t grab my Nekomata, or Uragan. Instead I grabbed another weapon that would suit this fight.

I usually relied on my Burya, because of stealth, but if we were going to hit them hard, then I was going to use something that would keep up with me.

I pulled my Nokota D5 Copperhead out of the trunk. The assault rifle was something I had picked up at some point… Was it the first Scav raid? I wondered…

I couldn’t remember!

I laughed to myself, I had collected so many weapons I had forgotten where half of them had even come from! I loaded up holding the rifle correctly, in a way that I would be able to quick-aim it monstrously fast if I needed, and then I turned to Jackie.

Jackie still just had his Nue.

“You want something a bit bigger?” I asked him, pointing at my trunk, but despite looking a little tempted he shook his head.

“This is my shooter, I won’t need another for a group this small.”

“Alright. Let’s go then!” I said bouncing a little as I started moving towards the gate that blocked off the entrance.

The gate was locked, and I didn’t even want to open it up yet considering how old it looked I’m sure it would be noisy.

Or trapped.

So I quickly leapt right over it, easily turning my leap into a front flip letting me land on the other side without a sound, as I fell to my knee, gun raised.

I felt so cool.

I did my best to ignore Jackie's grumbling as he clambered as quietly as he could over the fence.

It wasn’t that quiet.

Thankfully the Scavs inside didn’t notice. Once he landed with a thump beside me, I raced off towards the entrance. Rifle held to my chest as I kept low and reached the entrance. I knew from the cameras that no one was inside, but it was good practice to always double check, so I was peeking into the entrance and waving Jackie behind me as I moved in.

That and it felt cool to be all tactical about it.

Not that I was going to admit that to anyone.

The office was two stories, and the Scavs were set up on the second floor. The elevator of course would be too loud, but the stairwell was easy enough to reach, and their security wasn’t exactly there to help them anymore.

I smiled as I tugged on the door and it opened, locks already disengaged.

“Nice work Hermanita.” Jackie whispered and I threw him a smile as we headed up the stairs. Just for fun I leapt, touching the concrete wall of the stairwell and then bouncing up and over the stairs skipping the whole stairs problem. In just a moment I was at the second floor door, waiting for Jackie to follow me up at a much slower pace.

Okay, the Serano may just be the most ‘fun’ Cyberware I’ve installed. That included the Cyberdeck.

Cyberspace was fun, but jump good was cool.

“Alright Conejita, let’s take it slow for poor Jackie.” He whispered when he caught up, and I chuffed soundlessly at him. Even if I had no idea what Conejita meant. Then I blinked and I was looking through the camera that showed the other side of the door.

The Scav group was small, only six chooms.

I sent the data to Jackie watching him perk up as he could see the lines targeting each Scav shooting through the wall.

His surprised look turned into a dark smirk.

I nodded and then slammed into the door.

No stealth on this run.

This was a firepower run. Hadn’t done this… Ever.

Rifle raised up I fired four rounds punching through the drywall and suddenly the light I had been using to aim winked out.

Shooting through walls was the best.

Jackie was moving Nue raised as he slammed into a door already firing at the gonk that was on the other side.

My Copperhead barked right alongside him.

While Jackie was rushing the entrance making a big noise my gun was just slamming rounds through the thin walls.

It was childsplay, and I enjoyed the noise of the alerts popping up in my head.

The actual fight only lasted a few moments. Between Jackie who killed two guys practically the moment he bum rushed the room proving he wasn’t a joke as a solo at all, and then my rifle shooting through the walls the Scavs died without much fight.

“You okay Jackie?”

“Just a scrape Hermanita. Won’t even need to see Vik. Got stopped by my jacket.” He chuckled flexing his right bicep where a round had definitely nicked him.

I nodded pleased as I went through the area making sure we hadn’t missed anyone. Only once did I need a double tap on a Scav that was trying to crawl away, leading a pool of blood behind him.

“All clear!” I called out, pleased at the whole thing.

I hadn’t really needed Jackie, but it wasn’t about needing help for this gig, it was about setting up a relationship.

This was the first time I had shown Jackie how useful it would be to have me on a gig.

I had setup the location. Got numbers and targeting data. Solved basically everything to get him right where he needed to be to do the most damage, and most importantly!

“Ready for us?” Ichi called out from the stairwell.

“Yeah come on up. I’ll get the elevator working!” I called back to him, earning a confirmation in turn.

“So now what?” Jackie asked, looking around at the few crates of chrome that was now all ours.

“We wait around while Ichi and Malcolm load up. Just make sure no Scavs show up and ambush us, and then we go home, have a party, and let Hiromi sell the chrome, we get our cut and prep for the next gig.” I told him and he blinked at me before laughing.

“You got yourself a nice little system then eh? Who registers the bounties?” He asked and I frowned confused.

“Bounties?”

“On the gonks? Most of these guys have a few hundred eddie in bounties you know?”

“Oh yeah… The bounties… That I totally register… with the NCPD… Right?” I winced as Jackie gave me a look.

Then he burst into laughter.

What!? I don’t usually concern myself over a few hundred eddies! Plus you have to call the NCPD for that!

“You never registered bounties?”

“Nope. Well I called the NCPD once on a Scav den, but I was just letting them know there were bodies there. I delta’ed right after.

“Heh, jeeze, you clear out a Scav den in seconds, but then you go and say things like that. Reminds me you’re still a kid.” Jackie chuckled, but I wasn’t laughing along with him.

Dammit. This was supposed to be my chance to show how useful I was!

I sighed and shook my head. At least I had my four alerts for XP to tide me over.

*500 XP Gained.*

*500 XP Gained.*

*500 XP Gained.*

*500 XP Gained.*

—--

To my surprise Jackie actually stuck around after we loaded everything up. He even helped out loading the chrome which went much faster with his strength. Thanks to his work we were done at lightning speed and on our way out of the den.

As we drove away Jackie made the calls to the NCPD bounty office, letting them know about the corpses, what they were up to, who they were, and that meat wagons would be needed.

Then as we dropped off the loot at the TC owned storage lot that was still under our control. Jackie still stuck around.

I was watching as Jackie joked with some of the TC enforcers hanging around getting laughs out of the entire group despite there being a large ‘tino shaped Jackie in the middle of their turf.

“What’s got you so focused?” Malcolm asked as he walked past me with an arm full of guns. Formerly Scav iron.

“Jackie. I expected the TC guys to be more aggressive about him.”

“Well he did come in with you, and he’s pretty friendly. Plus the fact he looks like he could take all of those guys at once means they probably don’t want to cause problems.”

“Yeah I guess, but I don’t think they are afraid of him, they are just enjoying his banter.” I chuckled as Jackie’s story ended with him throwing his arms up to mimic an explosion and all the guards laughed. I just shook my head.

Jackie really was the type of guy to make friends with anyone.

“Alright Motoko! All done.” Ichi said, walking up pushing the hand truck he had just unloaded into the storage unit.

“Jackie! We are all stored up!” I called over to the older man and he nodded to me, telling the guards one last joke as he walked through them and joined up.

“All done then huh kid?”

“Yep! Now we just need Hiromi to set up the sales, and Ichi and Malcolm will help haul stuff around. Thanks guys.” I said turning to the two that had to haul heavy crates of stuff around, both scoffed and laughed at me.

“We have the easy part, you have to go flatline gonks. Want to hit the club tonight?” Ichi asked and I shrugged, but before I could say more Jackie was there.

“Of course little Chiko! Hermanita, how about you all come by the El Coyote eh? We didn’t party together last time, but my Mama owns the Coyote, so why don’t you three come by and we can celebrate!”

Malcolm and Ichi were already nodding, looking interested, but I was more surprised that Jackie actually invited me.

Well us.

But last time he hadn’t been very interested in celebrating. We were just a bunch of teenagers after all.

“Sure Jackie. I’ll come, you guys?”

“Yeah, always nice to celebrate on the boss's dime.” Malcolm said specifically, throwing me a teasing look.

“Now, now Malcolm, Hiromi isn’t here-Ow! Motoko!” Ichi grumbled rubbing his shoulder where I slugged him.

“I’m calling Hiromi and specifically telling her you guys are cut off from any alcohol on our tab.” I threaten them hand on my hip and chrome finger wagging, with something that doesn’t really exist, but both boys plays along and whined to me.

Jackie just laughed.

—--

El Coyote Cojo was a ‘tino bar. As we all walked in I felt my nose wrinkle a little at the smell of cigarette and cigar smoke.

Just like most bars here in the city.

Gonna need some chrome lungs at some point just to avoid the second hand smoke.

“Nice place.” Malcolm offered as he swaggered in and up to the bartender, who quirked an eyebrow at Malcolm walking up to look at the drink menu.

“Let me get a Diente Dorado. I’m not paying tonight after all!” He said choosing the most expensive drink on the menu.

As Ichi, Jackie and I walked up Jackie got a few calls from regulars and he was smiling and relaxed. This was his place after all. He settled into the seat. “Pepe! Take care of my little chooms alright?”

“Sure Jackie. Diente Dorado coming up.”
I dope slapped Malcolm, but let him order his stupid drink that had literal gold flakes in it.

Probably tasted disgusting.

“I’ll just get a soda. I think there was a Nicola machine over there.” I told the boys, Malcolm and Ichi already familiar with my no alcohol thing.

“What? Hermanita you don’t want a drink?” Jackie asked, surprised at my words.

“Yeah I don’t like drinking.” I told him as I slipped off the bar stool and wandered over to the back of the bar to get a drink.

It took me two tries to get one that I could drink.

NiCola Classic tasted like cough syrup. I was not someone who could recreationally drink cough syrup so that was an instant pass.

With a different flavor that I could stomach I joined the boys that were happy with their own drinks as Jackie was talking to Pepe about the gig.

“They all started screaming as I bashed in the door. I flatlined two of them right quick, but by then, the rest were already done. Chica could shoot them straight through the walls!”

“The walls were just drywall, it was an old office building, it wasn't anything spectacular anyone could have done it.” I added as I took my seat, Pepe chuckling at the story as Jackie kept trying to hype it all up.

“What’s all this?” A new voice called out and from the front came in a woman that I sort of recognized. Jackie’s shout just confirmed it.

“Mama! Come meet my little chooms! I’ve told you about Motoko here already yeah? The girl is more dangerous with an iron than anyone would expect from a teenager, and these are her chooms, Malcolm and Ichi, good kids, they helped gather up all the eddies!” Jackie said with a boisterous laugh.

“Oh this is the girl that works with Wakako?” Mama Welles asked as she looked me over.

I waved a little from around my soda.

“My little chooms. This is Mama Welles, the owner of El Coyote, and my Mama.” Jackie said leaning back against the bar.

“Well if you are chooms with my Jackie, you are all welcome here. Pepe don’t overcharge them yeah?”

“You got it.” The bartender offered with a nod.

“You’ve been doing work with my Jackie?” The woman asked me and I nodded, throwing up a thumbs up.

“Yeah. We both go to the same ripper, and Jackie wanted work with Wakako, who I already work for! So I asked Wakako if we could do some gigs together to see if we click. I’ve been looking for someone with a more aggressive look. Can’t rightly intimidate some gonks if you are half their size.” I deadpanned waving my arms at myself.

Mama Welles laughed a little. “The one thing god gave my chico was an intimidating frame.” The woman offered nodding along.

“What! Mama, god also gave me my baby blues, and a sweet voice yeah?”

“Of course dear.” Mama Welles agreed without doing anything of the sort. I snorted into my drink as Jackie was teased by his mother.

This was nice.

Still wasn’t sure it was a bar I would want to relax at all the time, but then again. I wasn’t really interested in bars in the first place.

—-

We hung around El Coyote for a while drinking and swapping stories, it was nice.

Jackie felt a lot more accepting of me now, and I was tempted to ask what had changed. The last time we finished a gig he hadn’t been interested in celebrating, but now he was.

So maybe I had finally reached a point he felt I was worth being friends with?

I didn’t know, and I didn’t want to ask because that just felt a little weird.

Still I drove home, gig complete and feeling pretty good about murdering some more Scavs.

I had some time, no gigs set up for the next while. Other than helping Hiromi sell even more of our chrome, I had nothing else planned.

So it was time to play!

I rushed into the door only to stop because Jun was home, and he wasn’t alone.

“Ah! Look Jun your cute little sister finally came home. How terrible to leave her big brother all alone at home!”

“Akari you were here the whole time.” Jun grumbled as he sat on the couch to my surprise he was on a laptop that wasn’t mine, and reading something.

“Hey Jun, what’s Akari doing here?”

“Rude.” The borg grumbled and her narrowed eyes told me she was probably going to stab me at some point tonight.

“Akari failed to finish a task for Fujimura-Sama, so I’m- Ow.”

“Don’t tell her that! Just tell her you are helping me!” Akari hissed after stabbing Jun with her pointy feet.

“Akari fucked up and I’m helping.”

“That’s even worse!”

“Okay.” I chirped, deciding to ignore that entirely. Unfortunately Akari was taking up my spot on the couch, it wasn’t like the apartment was big enough for so much sitting room. Grumbling I went into my room and got more comfortable taking off my boots and collecting some things I would need before heading out.

Jun was still working while Akari fucked around, not helping…

“Jun do you need help?”

My brother looked up slowly from the laptop, his eyes a little blood shot which was impressive cause those weren’t natural eyes, but his optics.

“Yes, please.”

“Hey! I’m helping!”

“Yes I need help thank you Motoko.” Jun repeated, ignoring Akari.

“Okay.” I said, then because it was fun. I leapt doing a flip and landing on the back of the couch behind Jun and Akari. Both borgs jerked at my sudden move but Jun relaxed with what I could tell was a roll of his eyes even if I couldn’t see them anymore as Akari slowly lowered her feet. I rested against Juns back, my chin on his head as I looked at what he was working on.

“Budget report?”

“Akari is supposed to be watching over a business for Fujimura-Sama.”

“I am! I took out three guys that were stealing!” The woman whined.

“She didn’t do the paperwork.” Jun said grumbling as he continued looking over the budget reports.

“Dot.” I spouted gibberish, pointing at a number that wasn’t right, Jun looked it over sighed and quickly fixed it before continuing down the file. “Why did Fujimura give this gig to Akari if she can’t do it?”

“Ugh. Don’t say it like that! I can do it! I just… Didn’t!”

“She was supposed to learn about the company and get better at management, improve her usefulness to Fujimura-Sama.”

“Okay you are ignoring everything I’m saying, and I get you’re siblings, but it’s starting to piss me off.”

We continued to ignore Akari as she grew irritated.

“Okay I know you guys didn’t go through 200 lamps. So I’m guessing this is drugs here?” I asked, pointing at some of the numbers that were obviously off.

“I can’t confirm.” Jun said with a motion that had me rolling along with his shrug.

“Okay well. I’m sorry to say Jun-Nii, I don’t have the experience to help you with this one.” I inform him, patting him on the head as I stand up and with a quick leap land back on the apartment floor.

“Thanks.” He grumbles and I couldn’t help but giggle. He was trying to help his choom, but sometimes you gotta let your chooms live with their mistakes.

Instead I reached over and grabbed my laptop and music box.

I really wanted to finish this stupid thing!

I popped open the laptop and started programming, doing my best to ignore Akari doing everything in her power to get attention.

 

[Seras]

Two days. Of programming and I was…

Done.

My music box, or at least the code was ready. I just needed to finish putting it all together.

I flopped back onto the couch and just groaned. You would think coding something like this would take less time than a Quick Hack, and in some ways you would be right, but this was sorta… Complicated. A quick hack only did one thing, this box needed to be flexible.

I ran through my head what parts I would need and that list started to grow.

But it would be worth it. This was my pet project. Sure it was a glorified toy, but it was important for me to finish it anyways.

I got up to get dressed, stopped and realized I hadn’t showered in…

Okay so it’s been two days. I wince as I was very thankful that Jun hadn’t noticed. If he thought I wasn’t taking care of myself he would be upset.

I took a quick shower, and then realized I really needed to eat.

Okay downside to be constantly inspired. I was gonna have to start setting alarms if I was going to code anything.

I finished getting dressed and headed downstairs. Meatstick stall guy was outside the apartment like usual and I ended up devouring a few of them before I felt better. Now that I was properly taken care of. It was time to get back to it.

To finish the box I really needed some specific supplies. I headed out driving to the music shop I had bought my guitar from.

As I walked in the first few chords of Never Fade Away played above me.

Something that still made me chuckle a bit. Johnny would be rolling in his digital grave if he realized that Samurai were practically corporate jingles now.

I walked right through the many instruments laying around until I found what I needed.

A synth keyboard.

I popped my personal link into the slot to check if it had everything I needed.

“You obviously know what you want.” A voice called out and I looked up to see the sales person. The guy looked like a forty year old rocker stuffed into a corporate uniform.

His bushy beard completely covered the lanyard with his name on it.

“Yeah, just checking the code to see if this is the one I need.”

“Oh? Looking to make some digital music huh?”

“I just need to replicate a lot of different instruments.” I offered and he nodded before pointing above me.

“If you want a wide selection you want the Digi-tizer. The E-Numeral you are looking at, has a real wonky brass selection.” He offered pointing to another Synth.

“Oh. Thanks.” I muttered pulling out of the synth and moving to the next, after a few checks including running a few riffs on the keyboard because I had the ability and it was fun I nodded. He was right. The Brass notes sounded better.

“Damn. Was that Chippin In? Rare to see a kid these days know the classics.” He said and I just smiled with a shrug.

“Samurai were good. Johnny might be a bit of a bastard, but he knew his music.”

“Hah! Spoken like a true Rockerboy. You lookin to take the Digi?”

“Yeah, I’ll take it. Thanks. I’ll take that amp and a few bits and bobs as well. You guys don’t happen to have a holo emitter?”

“Oh? Looking to make some bitchin visuals too? Unfortunately not. Instruments and supplies only, but I know the place my band bought one. Just don’t tell the bosses I told you to buy from them.” He said with a wink and I laughed at that, and made the promise.

—--

Back home I was taking up 90% of the couch, and 100% of the table as I worked everything together.

The synth had a personal link port, so with the coding of that, and literally ripping the instrument apart and hooking it into my music box, I now had the ability to play just about any instrument purely through my link.

To save size, I kept the speaker, and amp as separate items, but there was another thing I needed to hook directly into the system

Three holographic display emitters.

They were a cool piece of tech, a lot of places used holographic TVs, the tech was well used, and it didn’t take me long to hook them into the music box, a bit of soldering a bit of fitting things together, a bit of adjustment to the power links and they were in.

Once I finished it, I sat back enjoying the alert telling me I got a few blips of XP for my Tech Attribute. But not a level up.

I really needed to work with tech more. It was too useful to ignore.

But I ignored that because it was done!

Well part of it anyways.

The code was complete.

The hardware was put together.

But now I had to actually create what I wanted using what I had.

First thing, I went into my room and dressed up. Brushed my hair. Did some makeup, which took a while because I hadn’t exactly practiced doing any makeup since I woke up. But I managed it. Making my eyes pop a little. Wearing a clean leotard and even cleaned up my jacket before slipping into it.

Okay then I went back out and had the music box actually record what I looked like. Standing still as the emitter slowly ran a scan over me. Creating a 3d image of myself, that it could add into whatever holographic display I wanted it to show.

Of course right around then I realized I would need images of the instruments as well.

Dammit.

I rushed back to the music shop. Carrying in my music box, I ended up dropping a couple hundred eddies, to the music shop guy to let me take scans with all the instruments, particularly the best quality, or coolest looking ones.

—--

Once more back in the apartment I was ready to start my first test.

I decided on a song and went to work. Plugged my personal link into the music box, and started with the most important part.

The music.

With my guitar in my hands mostly just to let my hands play over the notes, I started recording a track.

The sound of the guitar played back into my head sounded great, any error was easy to cut the correct chord back in, and I was off. Finishing the song with the guitar without any issue. I had played it a few times with just that already.

Then I switched to drums. Mentally creating the track. Using the Synth to recreate the noise of the drums as I played through the song adding in the drums to the guitar track.

Something I couldn’t do without all my Rockerboy knowledge. I had never touched a guitar set before outside of playing around in a past life, or while getting scanned in this one, yet I knew exactly how to use the Synth to create a digital track. What notes and how to get the sound right. It all flowed together.

Then I had to stop and do some work on creating unique sounds because some of the sounds used in the song weren't instrumental, I had to use my own programming skill to alter the Synths programming even further, to give me the ability to create entirely new sounds. Sounds that had only existed in my head.

Again and again, I played through the song until I had every beat sounding as perfect as I remember thanks to Perfect Musical Memory.

Guitar, drums, electronic, even the ending roaring vocals I managed myself. Every sound of the song pulled together completely from my brain, through a machine interface.

I loved the future.

And it was all silent as a grave outside my brain.

As I put the song together no neighbor heard it. It was just for me, and me alone.

—--

I hid behind my new stack of mess on the table when Jun came home, purposefully pretending I wasn’t able to see his judgemental look as I continued to put the display for the song together.

I ignored him when he came out later as well, as I was still editing the holographic display to match up.

I was watching a visual of what it would show on the laptop as I edited it mostly with my neural connection which was really really tough, but as long as I took it really slow, I could get better accuracy than going through it by hand.

The three emitters would all have their own image to display, and the track was finished, both with the guitar track baked in, and one without. Just in case I wanted to do a live play of the song.

And slowly it all came together.

Holographic tech was old hat to Cyberpunk. With my own computer skill it only took me a few hours to fill in the seven minute track.

Then finally it was ready. A single program with a completed version of a song that I recreated. Every note, every sound, every roar just how it was in my head.

I sat back blinking, realizing what I had just completed. That my music box was finally… Finally done. That it was working and everything was how it should be.

But I was way too hyped up to not do something. I stood up but stillled, unfortunately I was too embarrassed to just go out and start playing!

People would see me!

So I decided to fall back on my usual solution when I felt an urge to move.

Murder!

When I sold my debugging services to the netrunners, my trade had been knowledge on Scavs. Locations, holdouts, favorite bars.

Anything.

Everything.

Whatever they had.

While not all of them had direct Scav den locations. A few did.

Sure I could wait for my chooms… But it was late… Well early, the sun would be coming up soon.

But they might notice I was being weird! No one can know! If it goes bad the Scavs will all be dead anyways!

So I popped a shard into the music box, recording a copy of the song, quickly took a moment to etch the name of the song onto the shard, and went to grab some gear.

Considering the nature of the song…

My Carnage was selected. I didn’t use a shotgun often enough. I loaded one of my attachable pockets full of shells and looked around… What else could I take?

Katana was an option and I considered it. But I had to shake my head. It would be a little more finessey than I was going for tonight. This music wasn’t sword fight music, not unless you were carrying a greatsword or something.

Another time. Another song.

I did reach over into the medkit that I had been putting together from stuff I’ve collected. I grabbed all the MaxDocs I had and stuffed them all over the place, hooking them into whatever place I could. I was looking for a brutal fight tonight. Had to make sure I would walk away in the end.

I stepped out of my room right into Jun, who reached out and put a hand on my Carnage to stop me.

“Motoko?”

“Yes, this is Motoko?”

“What are you doing?”

I opened my mouth to answer and didn’t have a good enough answer.

“Murder?”

He frowned at me. “Details.”

“I know of a Scav den, I’m gonna go murder them… I uh, finished a song so I wanted to do a BD of me murdering a bunch of Scavs while I rocked out to it… It’s gonna be cool.” I explained trying to get away but Jun wasn’t having it.

“That’s… Motoko you are the weirdest person I know… I’m coming with.”

“No way!” I denied instantly. “It could be embarrassing! You can’t come.”

“Motoko you aren’t hitting a Scav den without backup.”

“Why? I usually do!”

“You usually have your chooms with you… I don’t even know how you keep finding these dens, they are usually hidden.”

“Internet.” I said smiling dopily at being able to pull out an old meme.

Jun didn’t get it.

“Why don’t you call your chooms then?” He argued and I grumbled, I had already explained that I didn’t want them to see!

“Fine! I’ll call in Ichi and Malcolm after I’m done to loot everything down. Now you don’t have to follow me.” My perfect reasoning delivered I moved to step around him.

He didn’t accept my reasoning.

—--

“This is so embarrassing.” I muttered as I parked the Quadra in the parking area for Megabuilding H11.

“I’m just here to make sure you don’t get in over your head.” Jun told me completely uncaring about how much I whined at him that I didn’t need supervision while murdering Scavs.

“I called Ichi and Malcolm. They’ll help!”

“You said you didn’t want to call them in until afterwards. I don’t want you in a firefight without someone to back you up. It’s common sense Motoko… The fact you are so skilled and keep forgetting that is gonk brain shit.” He grumbled at me. “You want me to trust you to fight, I do. But that doesn’t mean you skip basic shit.”

I huffed, but didn’t really have a response to that.

Fucking Jun. Using common sense and shit on me.

I don’t want common sense. I want action!

Whatever. I was a badass merc! Jun babying me would be water over my back!

I stepped out of the car and did the same thing I had done the last time I hit a Scav den in a megabuilding.

I found an elevator and went up to the floor above the one that I had been told was the den. Jun followed me around much to my irritation.

When I was there I circled the floor, searching for the usual signs, and while there weren't a bunch of emptied apartment buildings like there had been in the last one, they still had a whole section of the building cut off with trash and refuse.

“That’s them.” I told Jun as I pointed to the corner section of the building. This late at night the whole thing was bathed in red light and shadows, but it was still obvious where the Scavs lived.

“Sure you don’t need any help?” He asked, sounding more vicious than usual, but I shook my head.

This was my murder, get your own!

“Just sit tight and watch.” I told him instead, poking a finger into his side that he slapped away.

Then I focused, first I knelt down, and could just see a camera the Scavs had set up. As usual they loved putting up their little security system. Too bad they sucked at it.

My eyes blazed as I breached into the camera, nearly instantly slipping through the ICE and then moving through the security system.

There were four cameras hooked up around the place. None of them showed the actual ripper room, but that was just common sense. But one of the Scavs could be seen, resting on an old couch as he smoked a cigarette, and watched TV.

I pinged him, letting the program unspool and slowly slip through the Scavs system to all of his buddies.

I smirked as the group all highlighted in my vision.

Okay. There were quite a few of them. This was a big den, and it was late.. Or early. So I guess they were mostly here resting.

It didn’t matter. I was already in their system. Weapon Glitch was prepared. My personal version of Weapon Glitch had been completed, and was ready for its baptism.

The war will soon begin.

I smiled. I was ready. I shushed Jun and waved him a bit away before closing my eyes. When I opened my eyes it would be go time. What was the movie term? A single take? I was going to clear this Scav den in slightly less than seven minutes the song would last. No fuckups would be tolerated. This was going to be pure adrenaline if I did it right!

I smirked to myself. Hopefully the Scavs could last long enough.

Then I exhaled ice.

 

[Seras]

Chapter 93, or as I like to call it.

The Only Thing They Fear Is You(Motoko.)

Music above is reccomended while reading. Maybe put it on repeat though? The timing doesn't 100% work I've noticed.

----

When I opened my eyes I was recording. Staring straight over the edge to the Scavs home. Not that the people watching this in the future would know that yet.

I could feel my breath coming out icy cold, but it wasn’t enough to stop the excitement I could feel pulsing up.

I pulled the shard out of my pocket. Flashed it in front of my eyes.

Looked at the name of the song etched into the plastic.

The Only Thing They Fear Is You.

I slotted it into my neck. A little less than seven minutes.

That’s how long I had to murder all of the Scavs.

Because a moment later the music started. The sound mirroring an ancient, at least by this years reckoning, musician.

I mean if people considered Samurai to be oldies, then The DOOM Eternal Soundtrack would be considered the same.

Before the song could get going without me I leapt. My feet hit the ground on the floor below just as the first drop hit and I rolled forward to bleed off speed before jumping up to my feet, and then I was moving. I didn’t care about cameras.

I didn’t care about noise.

I was the Boss Monster. They would learn to fear me.

I blew the door open with my Carnage, not bothering with the lock, as I let all my hatred for Scavs fill me.

Cold Blood was all about control. I had only used it in one way up until now. Used it to suppress everything so nothing could interfere with the cold calculus of combat.

But I wasn’t here for cold blooded murder.

Instead, I flipped the script, I brought out all my rage, my hatred, my disgust for these people.

That feeling of horror mixed with certainty that I had to kill them.

That murder was the only option.

I saw my first Scav as I burst into the first room. The details were unimportant, but I noted them anyway. A former apartment now taken over as a recreation room for the Scavs to relax in, alcohol and drugs strewn across the table sitting under the holo TV.

As he saw me, I let that rage fill me.

As he tried to leap out of the chair at my entrance, it was time. Weapon Glitch slammed into his system, bouncing again and again as my entire Cyberdecks RAM was used in repeat.

I had figured out the best way to make sure no one could shoot me, was by simply hacking them over and over and over again.

It was a loop Quickhack. Every time my Cyberdeck would get enough RAM to run the program again it would do so throughout the system without my direct attention. As long as the network didn’t alter its security it would be an endless disruption of weapons.

I was already in their security.

Their weapons were now useless.

The first Scav didn’t even get a chance to pull the trigger to find out how fucked he was.

I leapt a snarl on my face as I cleared the distance.

From the entrance to the Scav standing in the indented recreation area, was more than twenty feet across.

I slammed my Carnage into the fuckers face like a club at the end of my leap. His scream of pain went ignored as I didn’t end there. I rolled past him to bleed off momentum and then I was on him again fist raised and slammed into his already broken and bleeding face.

Again and again. I hammered him. Even grabbing his head and smashing it into the table until I was sure he was dead.

Breathing deeply, but not heavily. Adrenaline surged through me. The music was still going, and so was I.

I moved. Leaping and practically bouncing off the walls, moving more like an animal than man as I surged into the next room. Leaping through the broken wall connecting the apartments. The Scavs were reacting, shouting for help at the sounds of my gunshot, alarm that something was attacking them. The flipping of their normal predator and prey dynamics as always making them fearful. Their bleating calls were just noise telling me where they were.

The next room was a ripper room. The stink of blood and dead bodies filled it, but I barely hesitated leaping right over a ripper chair that had an elderly man laying across it, body ripped open the face of one of the Scav ripper docs moving away obviously realizing he was in danger.

He screamed as my fist slammed into his face with all my weight and force behind it.

I loved my new ankles. Superman punching a monster in the face was the best.

He went down, but he wasn’t alone.

Carnage flipped up and his buddy who had an Ajax roared as he tried to open fire on me only for his gun to beep and not fire.

Mine did.

He went down in a torrent of blood as the carnage turned him into a newly painted wall. That done I flipped the carnage barrel up to the ceiling and slammed it right into the face of the ripper doc, ignoring his crying pleading for mercy as I continued to hammer his skull into the floor until the metal stock of my shotgun hit concrete.

Okay. Now I was breathing a bit heavy.

It felt fantastic. I pushed the cold blooded control even higher. Rage and hate flowed and it was all I felt.

I glanced up to see another Scav peeking into the room. The moment he saw me, he made an attempt to shoot me only for his gun to fail. This guy leapt back into the room once he realized it, which is the only thing that saved his life as I brought my Carnage down and blasted where he had been.

I charged, leaping into the room he had just escaped into and came out into a roll.

Four soon to be dead Scavs faced me.

Excellent.

I had all the time I needed to aim my shotgun at them and fire. I didn’t hit any of them as they fled into cover, but it did make them scramble around. Which is why the gonk that had just tried to shoot me suddenly had an intimate meeting with Carnage-chan! As I slammed her into his face like a baseball bat.

I love this shotgun. Doesn’t matter if you literally beat someone to death with it, it’ll still fire!

But before I could kill him he kicked out, his much longer legs slamming me away and forcing me off my feet for a moment, as I rolled and then came out of it with my Carnage raised.

“No! Wa-!” His pleadings ended with Carnage sounding off followed by the heavy cycle as I cocked the next round.

“Kill her!” One of the Scavs screamed out trying to do just that.

They would fail. These pathetic mewling creatures would not kill me.

One guy obviously pissed at what he saw charged me, a knife drawn and ready.

He didn’t expect me to charge him back. He knew how to use a knife. I would even say he was pretty good.

I didn’t care.

I wasn’t fighting. I was raging. I slammed into him, ignoring how he nicked my side with the knife, the blade skittering off my leotard or subdermal, wasn’t sure which as I slammed into him.

He screamed as I used one hand to literally slam my thumb into his eye socket so I could grip his face were musical, flowing perfectly into the song pounding in my head as I proceeded to try and beat him to death with the carnage in my right hand.

I ignored his attempts to at first stab me, and then just try to desperately get me away.

Neither stopped me.

His death came regardless, as my thumb wormed its way through to his end.

Then there were three, before I could even rise up though. There were once again four.

“Cyka!” A voice roared out, and this time I was caught off guard.

They had realized their weapons weren’t working against me, but it turns out it didn’t matter.

Big fuckin’ Scav decided to remind me I wasn’t invincible.

He blurred, a Sandy activated and suddenly I was the one being punched across the room. Out through a hole in the wall and into the ripper room I had just come from.

I coughed, blood flowed.

It hurt, but I would live. I pulled a MaxDoc and huffed it. Letting the adrenaline flow.

I could hear russian. Scared russian, and a firm confident voice.

Ah. The fucker had taken my Carnage. I added it into the next round of Weapon Glitch. Then, as the music once more peaked in my head.

I rose up slow and steady.

They had knocked me into a mess off medical equipment and storage the ripper room had, so as I stood metal clattered and glass shattered off me.

The firm russian voice from before wasn’t so firm anymore.

They were looking at me.

I cracked my neck, and spit the blood out of my mouth.

Big borg fucker had my Carnage. He aimed it, and like a good girl she just clicked, already disabled. Eh she only had one round left anyways.

I bared my teeth, a rumbling snarl leaving my throat in time with the roar of the guitar in my head. Then I moved.

My speed surprised Sandevistan Scav, but he activated his implant again probably a fearful reflex, as he suddenly shifted from where he was when I leapt to right in front of me. My leap was aborted, he slammed into me.

All too many pounds of him hitting me like a truck and this time he followed me back into the room pounding me into the concrete wall in a clatter of equipment.

He knocked the air out of me. He hit me hard, hard enough to rattle my head. He had me pinned against the wall as he was already starting to beat on me.

Too bad, he hadn’t managed to actually kill me.

I threw a fist back, and his Sandy speed kept him from getting slugged, but that was fine.

I had fought people with Sandevistan. The Dojo had taught me a lot about how they work. Their strengths and weaknesses.

That there was always a time limit, and not every Sandy was the crazy shit that David had.

I raised my arms up in a guard as he punched back Sandy speed punches slamming me back into the wall, and my shoulder ached from the stress of trying to keep my chrome fists from slamming into my own face.

It was a moderate success.

He hit me again, and then again, and suddenly he was moving at a normal speed..

Something I had been told. When a Sandy turns off and you go from super speed to normal? In that moment you felt like you were suddenly moving in slow mo. You felt the shift as time changed.

I had spoken with a few people that used the sandy and they all said the same thing if you could get them to admit it.

The moment the Sandy turned off was their weakest moment.

Quickdrawing my Burya, I slammed it right into his mouth before pulling the trigger.

His head separated in two from the force.

I hurt. My vision was a little woozy, but that was just a concussion, and the BD would still be recording fine. I was definitely bleeding internally. Easily fixable once this was over. Lungs were struggling to breathe. He had knocked the wind out of me twice.

But I was in control. I forced my body to breathe. I forced myself to stay on my feet. Because the rage wasn’t gone.

The Scav fell backwards as I pushed him away, letting his bulk fall and revealing the three Scavs from before.

Ah, no it was six now. There was a moment of silence. Or maybe that was just my ears ringing. Close range Burya shots do tend to deafen me for a moment, but as I watched.

I smiled.

Fear. I could smell it. I took a step forward.

“Fuck this!” One of them screamed and tried to run.

I shot him, just to prove a point.

Then I holstered Burya and rushed them. The first guy had been smart enough to try and grab a melee weapon. A hunk of wood from a chair I think. I took the blow on my forearms, not even feeling it compared to the Sand Scavs hits, and the wood broke apart. So did he when I reached up and grabbed him by his jaw and started slamming my chrome fists into his face.

His attempts to bite down on my chrome fingers were pointless, he fell backwards, and as he fell I jerked his head to slam him into the side of a table.

That either killed him or knocked him senseless because he didn’t resist as I raised up his head and battered him into the table a few more times.

His buddy slammed into me. Grappling me as he tried to body me down. I slammed my forehead into his nose despite how it made my head spin and started punching.

He started punching.

Me punching in his throat did more than him punching my face. He gasped as he fell to his knees.

I rose up and kicked him across the face before leaving him to die with his broken esophagus.

Three more to go.

They had all grabbed weapons. One had grabbed a knife from the guy that tried that earlier, the other two had metal rebar.

I smiled out another snarl as I grabbed another MaxDoc in the stillness of the fight and huffed it down. The surge of adrenaline should mask the sudden lowering of pain.

I stalked forward but not towards them, I stopped at where Carnage had been left behind and kicked her up into my arms.

The music peaked.

I moved. Like she was a baseball bat I weighed in, blocking the first gonks swing with the rebar only to leap up and drop a kick right into his nose. I could feel it break on my boots as I flipped back and the other two surged forward.

I blocked and parried the rebar and knife, keeping the weapons away from me even as my breath came out in a desperate wheeze.

Even as I was pushed back and back.

They could have had me. They were good. Working together to keep me from ripping either one of them apart.

But they had done something stupid. They backed me into a corner.

So I leapt. Backwards. My boots slammed into the concrete wall and then I kicked off, my ankles more than making up my bodies weight launching me up and over their heads.

And towards their buddy whose nose I had broken.

He didn’t have time to react, too busy trying to see through his busted face.

Carnage fell onto the back of his head, and something snapped.

I hit him again just to make sure.

Then turned towards the two.

Carnage shifted to one hand, as I reached to my hip and drew my own knife.

“Fuck this.” The one with the rebar said sounding panicked as he reached into his jacket and pulled out a fucking frag grenade.

He yelled out something in Russian, that I was just going to assume was fuck you, and threw it at me.

I dropped my knife. I grabbed my Carnage in two hands and knocked the grenade to the side.

Then I leapt at them.

The man screaming as I slammed into him, was a moment I was doubly glad I was recording.

We went down in a jumble of limbs as the grenade went off. Shrapnel pinging around the room, but I had a gonk between me and it. Unfortunately the pinging metal didn’t actually do any harm to the gonk I was using as a shield.

Fortunately I did. Both hands grabbing his face I plunged my thumbs into his eyes and with that had full control of his movement.

I slammed his skull into the floor using all the muscles I had at my disposal, even jumping putting all my weight into his skull.

I looked up expecting to have the guy with a knife trying to stick me, but he was nowhere to be seen.

No.

No one escapes.

I rushed to follow, jumping over garbage and the junk the frag grenade had strewn around as he raced away like a madman he leapt through what was once the front door to an apartment into the hallway splitting the Megabuildings apartments, then raced across the way and into another set.

I grinned as he had gathered even more Scavs for me to kill.

Idly I slowed and fixed my Carnage, reloading her as well, five shells in, before pumping her loudly, the noise echoing through the complex.

The next room was obviously another rest area. Far enough away the Scavs could take a nap without having to hear the ripping of bodies apart, or the screams of mercy.

Both of which I would make sure they heard soon enough.

I stepped into the opened door to see the group all readied for me.

Guns were aimed at me and triggers were pulled but other than clicks, or other bad noises nothing fired.

Seven.

I fired.

Six.

Madness. They charged me, or fled. The group was disorderly, despite some of them potentially being ex-soldiers, they were Scavs now. Some charged, some fled, all would die.

I fired again, and again.

Another Scav died, as they finally reached me. Swinging a Cut-o-Matic at me. I instantly fell in love.

A chainsaw sword? A chainsword that actually worked? For me!?

I wanted it.

I leapt straight up disappearing from the Scavs sight as I lined up a shot. Carnage fired and he turned into a puddle below me that I fell into. Blood coating me as I fired again clearing some room long enough for me to bend down and pick up my new chainsword.

I grinned ferally as I felt it buzz back up.

I leapt forward, dropping my Carnage as I slammed into the first Scav that was an instant too slow to avoid me.

Blood hot and messy coated me as I ripped into the monsters neck.

The Scavs started running.

I chased them. Leaping from filth to filth. Their attempts to resist were unable to stall me out as I battered down any defense.

I looked around as I grunted my Chainsword was stuck in the head of one of fuckers. Stupid chrome skull.

There was still one more. The same gonk that had fled from me in the first place I had purposefully left him for last, but he wasn’t in the room anymore.
He was back the other way?

Hah! The coward had tried to escape while I was distracted with his chooms! Unfortunately I still had him in my sight, his own agent was telling me exactly where he was. I raced back through the hallway, back into the Scavs work room.

The music was building up to the end.

And my own voice, demonic and angry roared in my ears.

‘Rip and TEAR. RIP AND TEAR!’

He had escaped back into the ripper doc room. Into another section that was covered in the plastic sheets to stop blood splatter. He was trying to hide.

He screamed as he saw me. As I ignored his attempts to hide from me.

I slammed into him like a wild cat. He screamed in terror. A true guttural horror note as I promptly began beating him to death.

I smashed my fist into his face over and over as he desperately tried to fend me off. Punches were slammed into my face and chest, that I ignored.

It hurt, but pain was passing.

Murder was forever.

Hands balled, I slammed both arms down into his face again until his struggling ceased.

Until bone bent.

“Rip and Tear.” I said, exhaling along with the songs only lyrics. “Until it’s done.” I whispered breath hoarse and heavy, I probably had a busted rib in there somewhere, but it was just… Cathartic.

Even if I really shouldn’t have enjoyed that as much as I just had.

“A-aha!” A voice weak and terrified squeaked from nearby.

I looked away from the broken body beneath me. Eyes focused and hand already reaching for my Burya.

Six red optics met my own.

Maelstrom.

 

[Seras]

My heart was suddenly beating in my ears. Teeth grinding. If I wasn’t already a bit out of breath I was sure I would be screaming with every exhale.

MAELSTROM.

My hand instinctively already reaching for my Burya to put the monster down.

I snapped my eyes shut. Inhale. Exhale.

I opened my eyes feeling at least myself. I wasn’t sure if that feeling had been from all the rage I had been pumping into myself, or just…

Maelstrom.

But my hand fell away from my Burya. I didn’t need to kill her. The girl was barely alive.

Broken. Ripped apart. White borg blood mixed with red real blood covered her. I was honestly shocked she was still alive considering how much blood was dripping from her onto the floor.

I stilled, everything that I was struggled with a decision.

On one hand, Maelstrom. Kill her. Painfully.

On the other, she was a victim of Scavs. No one deserved that. Funny how my two most hated enemies were responsible for this situation.

My eyes flickered as I scanned her. She had a rap sheet. I read it over still unsure what to do.

“Natalie Desanto AKA GearSlot.” I said finally my eyes bored into her optics. As if I could kill her by just glaring.

“A-are you-*cough* D-did Kamhead send you?” She asked, quietly a desperate hope in her voice.

The sound of it left my tongue tasting of ash, and a disgust welling up in me.

It’s all fun and games to put people in a pit to fight for their life, but get put into a Scav den and suddenly they are the victim! I raged inside my mind. My hands gripped so hard I could feel the blood coating my palms run down my fingers. I shifted them, to keep from breaking something internally.

“No, I was not sent here by some Maelstrom piece of shit! I happily kill you fucks whenever I get the chance after what you monsters did to me!” I roared back, my voice throaty and raw. My insides were still not doing great. I should really stop and take some MaxDoc to heal up again, but my hands were struggling to do anything but grip my own arms now as I glared at the Maelstrom in front of me.

All I could see is those fucking optics staring at me.

“Oh.” She muttered a raspy sigh escaping her. “Figures.”

I stalked up to her. For the first time in a while my arms felt wrong. Like just being around some Maelstrom made my phantom limbs act up again, as if I had an extra set of limbs already reaching for her throat to throttle her to death.

My head felt quiet. The song ended so it was just me and her and the sound of dripping blood.

Just me, and her.

Her life in my hands. She was dying regardless. Body torn into by Scavs. Another victim of them just as I had been…

I exhaled and it came out more like a growl. But the breath was ice cold on my tongue.

Suddenly I reached out and grabbed her face, uncaring about the blood I left there as I pushed her head to the side. She whimpered in fear and pain. As she knew a beast was here to kill her.

But I wasn’t a mindless beast.

I pulled the shard that was in her neuroport.

“I’m not going to rescue you, but that should be what was blocking your agent. Call some of your chooms. If they care about you, maybe you’ll survive.” I bit out crunching the shard in my hand. Fucking Scav shit made to shut down someone from being able to call for help.

Then I started walking away. I couldn’t deal with this shit!

“W-wait! W-where are we? I don’t know where to tell-Tell them to go!” She begged weakly, desperate.

My feet stomped into bloody flooring halting me cold.

“Megabuilding H11 Floor 37. Tell them to get to the North West side. Should be obvious where to go.” I ground behind clenched teeth, as I started taking another step away. I wanted to get out of here.

Then she was coughing, I could hear the blood in her synth-lungs. I had killed enough people to know what someone dying sounded like.

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!

I turned around and grabbed a medkit off a pile of bodies. Fucking Scavs. They obviously took care of each other in here when needed. They had a full medical kit all stocked up. I thrust a MaxDoc into her hand, which would help a little, but grabbed a canister of borg blood.

I jammed it into her, not caring to be gentle. She whimpered, but it obviously helped. Blood pressure surging back as her breathing evened out, even giving her the strength to take the MaxDoc.

“There, that’s all the mercy I have for someone in Maelstrom.” I told her firmly. Slamming the medkit back onto the table beside her and storming off.

As I turned the corner I came across the dead Scavs, and remembered what I had been doing here.

I turned off the BD recorder, and grabbed a MaxDoc of my own.

I also needed to find a damn bathroom. Jun would freak if I came out this covered in my own blood like this.

My irritation spiked when I realized I would have to go hunt down my knife, I had dropped my Carnage somewhere as well.

Plus Ichi and Malcolm would be on their way soon, and so would a group of Maelstrom.

Fuck. Fuck!

I found a bathroom, but stopped before cleaning up. The sight of myself covered in blood gave me an idea. Instead I called Jun.

*Motoko! You okay? It went quiet!*

*Jun change of plans. I need you to stay up there… Scavs had a victim in here they are fucked, They are calling for someone to get them out of here, but I don’t want you to get involved.* I said ignoring his worried tone.

*Motoko? What’s going on I can come down to help if someone is dying. I know some first aid stuff.* Jun’s voice asked, obviously concerned.

*Maelstrom. The victim is a Maelstrom girl.* Considering how much I want to kill her, and her fucking friends, I doubted Jun was much more reasonable.

*Did you kill it?* Jun asked, suddenly his voice sounded a little dead.

*No, I didn’t kill her! I just said… She was already in pieces.* I told him, and don’t think I didn’t notice how you called her an it Jun. That’s rather telling Onii-chan. *It’s ruined my mood though. Jun just let me handle this. Some of her chooms are going to come pick her up. That will be that.*

*No. If more Maelstrom are coming I should come down. Make sure they don’t ever leave, we can-*

*Jun, if the Maelstrom find out you are here alone, they are going to send a hit squad to take you out. Just… Stay hidden up there, I’ll patch you into the cameras so you can keep watch, but I just want these fucks gone so Malcolm and Ichi can loot… Please just stay cool. I know… I know this isn’t comforting. But I have an idea. It’s not like I plan on being gentle with the fucks.*

*It’s your gig.* He said suddenly just as flat as before, then the call ended.

Fuck.

—--

I had called Ichi to let him know the situation, so he wouldn’t park too close until I let him know it was clear. Then I waited. Forced to listen to the Maelstrom woman slowly die even with the blood injection and MaxDoc.

My foot was tapping in irritation when finally the elevator started up and three Maelstrom came stepping out carefully onto the floor with guns in hand.

Of course I let them approach.

Let them find the broken open entrance door.

I stalked them. My silent steps more than capable of bypassing their chrome audio equipment. The fact I had access to all the cameras meant I could stay around the corner always completely hidden from their stupid Optics which were difficult to get around.

“Fuckin’ hell this really is a Scav den! I guess GearSlot was right. Think she was actually klepped, or she just leading us into a trap?” One of them asked suddenly.

“Fuck off, she was legit, now find her!” The other growled out and the first made a motion that I knew he was rolling his nonexistent eyes.

“Just cause you fuck her sometimes…”

“No! Because she is one of us, and we don’t let Maelstrom get fucked by Scavs.” He grumbled as they stepped into the first rooms.

“Fuck, look at that scop!” The first Maelstrom whistled as they came across the first body I had left, head bashed in across the table.

“Guess Gearslot was right. Some solo came through here, wiped them out. C’mon!”

While I followed them along. I was recording. The moment the elevator rose to the top I had started recording again.

The Only Thing They Fear is You 2 Electric Boogaloo.

I waited for them to find their choom. Unfortunately for the Maelstrom, each had already had their security breached through as I tracked them.

I was now in control.

“Fuck Gearslot you look like some truly rusty shit.” The guy that sounded actually worried about her muttered when they found her.

“Fuck you.” She wheezed but she sounded relieved. “Now get me… Get me out of here.” She begged and the big guy nodded, already reaching down to pick her up.

“Hell no! Look around, look at all this chrome!” The stupid fuck said.

That’s it. Can’t allow them to even consider that.

The stereo that the Scavs were so fond of started up with a thought from where I was hiding, literally crawling among the corpse of the Scav ripper doc I had murdered before.

The first guitar riff echoed through the room.

“The fuck? Where’s that song coming from?”

“What song is that?” The third asked looking around more in interest at the notes.

“I think… I think the girl, the solo wants us to leave.” Gearslot muttered quietly in the big Maelstroms arms.

“What? Fuck that! This is our territory! It’s our chrome! Some Fleshy cunt can-”

That was when I dropped the darkness on them.

For stupid worthless chrome junkies their optics were usually high end, giving them vision way better than a normal person could have.

Even if the chrome was a disgusting mess.

But it was still just chrome.

Still able to be shut down.

Two of them instantly lost sight.

“What? Fuck I can’t see!” Stupid and the other gonk that wasn’t holding his injured choom suddenly lost their right to see. The third the big fuck that was carrying the girl was allowed to retain his vision. I wanted at least one of them to see this.

I moved.

As the song pulsed through the radio, I slammed into stupid fuck. Carnage bashing his knee in and then whipping around to smash his face. Sending him crumpling to the floor at the unseen attack. Then I slammed the barrel into his cheek putting weight behind it so he could really feel the pressure of the barrel pressing down on him. But I wasn’t looking at the gonk that was a split second from losing his head, I was staring at the big fuck with the girl in his arms.

My bloodsoaked body glaring with all my might. Every ounce of barely restrained rage on display.

The voice that came out wasn’t my normal one. Sexy Motoko voice was in play mostly to make me sound older. “Only warning. Take your chooms and get lost.” I pumped the shotgun just so stupid would know exactly what was pressing against his stupid face.

Then I let my hack finish processing. I blinded them all got up, leaping away, and then bouncing again leaving the ripper room, as I deactivated the quick hack for the entire group.

Just as their sight had disappeared, it suddenly came back, as I undid the attack. I also tweaked the stereo. Letting the sound dimm down so it was just a faint rumble in the background. A warning if they were smart.

I watched on from the camera system as I moved to a place they wouldn’t find me even if they looked.

“Bitch!” Stupid cursed as he rose up his gun waving this way and that, but after a few seconds he realized other than his chooms he was alone. “Where did she go!?”

“Don’t know.” The big guy said but as he had been holding his injured output firmly actually trying to protect her even with his vision lost. “But let’s not find out. Move your shit, we’re leaving.”

Stupid fuck looked like he was going to argue but eventually he just cursed and spit onto the floor following the other two.

I watched as they got into the elevator and left. I knew Jun had been watching too, so I was actually impressed they got away without being murdered.

Time to check on my brother, get my crew to loot this place, and deal with everything.

Fuck.

—--

“I told you Jun, I’m fine. I’ll stop at Viks to get checked out.” I told him grumbling. He had seen how much blood I had on me from the cameras, and it seemed he had taken all the feelings he had about seeing Maelstrom and not murdering them, towards smothering me.

“You don’t look fine.” He grumbled as I drove us as quickly as I could away from the Megabuilding.

This was supposed to be fun! It was supposed to be a glorious orgy of violence and brutality! Fun! I was supposed to be the Doom Slayer against acceptable targets! Like a game, but more real!

But now all I could think about was how it ended. The bitter taste in my throat at being reminded Maelstrom existed.

“It totally ruined my song.” I grumbled, the fact I had been so happy to finally finish an awesome song felt so… Far away now.

“What song?” Jun asked, almost startling me and pulling me out of the spiral of just frustration I was feeling.

That’s right. It was actually done. Like done done… I felt a tiny bit of that happiness in finishing the song and music box come back, as I popped the shard from my neck and stuck it into the Quadra’s stereo.

The song started and I could tell the noise surprised Jun as my heavy riffs dropped into the heavy drums.

Okay, so maybe seeing Jun’s face perk up in interest as he listened to a song I played helped my mood a bit.

I stopped on the street in front of the apartment complex to let Jun off at home. Despite it being so late, I did want to go see Vik. Just to get a checkup. But as I parked Jun surprised me by popping the shard out of the stereo before I could stop him.

“Jun!”

“Nope. This is mine now.” He told me actually teasing me, before racing out of the Quadra before I could stop him.

“Hey! Get back here! Give it back!” I called out as I started to slip out of the Quadra, but Jun pointed right at me.

“No! You are injured, go to Viks!” He demanded and I stalled which gave him all the time he needed to race inside.

“Bastard!” I yelled at him, but he just laughed as he raced inside.

I was going to powerbomb his ass the very next time I caught him sleeping. I decided, but it was with a much lighter feeling that I slipped back into the Quadra.

—--

Thankfully Vik was able to take care of me. To my surprise he hadn’t been in his clinic when I got there. I actually had to call him up.

Turns out Vik actually had a life outside of waiting around in his clinic for my gonk ass.

It gave me weird vibes, like meeting a teacher outside of school.

“You have a fracture in your skull, and two of your ribs kid.” Vik unfortunately hadn’t been happy at me, when I explained that I was still feeling pain even after ‘healing.’

“I figured. Broken bones don’t tend to heal up without sleeping.” I explained and he just sighed rubbing at his head with one hand not covered in Ripper needles.

“Alright, kid. I’m glad you came to me for me to check you out, so I won’t yell at you too much.” He offered with a warm hand on my shoulder as he thankfully let me off easy.

I hadn’t actually told him just why I was a bit more beat up than normal. Hopefully he won’t find out it was something I basically did to myself.

“Well I want you to rest then, here, for observation. Head wounds like that… Skull fractures are serious kid. So rest. I’m going to make sure you don’t have a brain hemorrhage in your sleep.”

With those orders from Vik what else could I do? I leaned back and closed my eyes.

—--

With a clean bill of health and skull back to how it should be I left Viks the next morning. intending to go see Judy to drop off the new BD. Unfortunately I was still kinda covered in blood. I had washed up a bit, but there was only so much I could do without a change of clothes and a shower.

So I went home instead. Did just that, and even took a few moments to get some food in me. Then I raced over to Lizzies.

I had cut out a bit of the BD already. Mostly just everything after meeting the Maelstrom victim. I didn’t want anyone to see how rattled it had made me. I had kept a copy of me messing with the second Maelstrom group, but that wasn’t going to be handed over to Judy. It wasn’t good enough to really bother with.

Lizzies was quieter than normal, being so early in the morning when I pulled up. Rita wasn’t even the one guarding the door, but another girl that I had seen around, but hadn’t spoken with. I waved at her as I passed and got a nod in return.

The insides were still active, but slower than normal. People were mostly hanging around in little corners rather than packing up the place, but I moved through.

Judy’s realm was how it always was. Dark and hidden away, but to my surprise, Judy wasn’t actually here.

Huh.

I shrugged, it would have been nice to talk to her, but it is what it is. I grabbed the shard with the virtu on it and placed it onto Judy’s desk. Knowing she would get it. I was a few steps away before I stopped and quickly picked it back up.

Etching the name of the BD onto the shard with a grin before putting it back nice and obvious on her computer there. Now she would know what to call the BD for Nox.

Showing my mature and reasonable mentality I also sent Judy a text letting her know it was on her desk, including that the BD was a bit more brutal than before so she should be ready. As tempting as it was to leave it as a surprise, that might not be an entirely nice thing to do for someone kinda doing me a favor by fixing up my virtu.

With that I headed back out of the club into the sunny California day.

I blinked at the sunny bright day, raising my hand over my eyes as I glared at it.

“Nah fuck that.” I grumbled heading to my car. I was going to go hide in the apartment… Maybe get some Ramen first.

—--

I was on the couch with a bowl of to go ramen in front of me as I looked through my system alerts.

Eighteen Scavs.

I hadn’t actually counted last night.

I had brutally murdered eighteen Scavs.

Seventeen 500xp alerts, and one 1000xp alert was in the listing.

9500xp was nice on its own. The level up to level 12 was great.

But that wasn’t even all that my system had given me. I had used skills I didn’t often practice. I had fought in a way that I never had.

Street Brawler had leveled up, and considering how early I had got those alerts, I might have gotten a good way into the next level if it wasn’t already maxed out with Body at 7.

But better than that, I leveled Annihilation! Annihilation 5 also unlocked a perk. I had to go back and check to even remember what perk I had picked before, and it was Recoil Reduction. One of the reasons I was able to even use my Burya without breaking my arm. I was a little hyped at wondering what I would pick next!

Quick Hacks 7. Also popped up in the list. I guess my rolling Weapon Glitch had been good for more than just giving me a brutal melee.

I had gained a lot from that fight.

I stretched as I considered what to do with my points.

I’ll admit a big part of me was tempted to put the stat point into intelligence.

Just to see. What was 11 in a stat/skill? What did it mean?

But I shook off the temptation. Instead I went to my adaptation page and pushed another point into my arms.

Militech Condor *Adaptation Militech Condor 5/8*

I exhaled and I shrugged, and honestly. I couldn’t even really feel the difference so much anymore. Sure they still gave weird signals sometimes. Falling asleep on my arm only to wake up and feel like someone else was touching my face was a weird recurring issue in the morning.

But it felt… Normal.

I felt normal.

Well, I felt normal enough. Ignoring the slight itch of my Subdermal. The ache my ankles gave me in my calves as they forced bone and muscle to move in ways they wouldn’t normally. Or the small minor things that I felt from time to time.

In the end. It was just me.

I smiled and nodded looking at my skill points.

Did I want to spend them?

I had two…

Nah there wasn’t anything that wasn’t already close to max level that I couldn’t level up pretty quick.

Rockerboy staring at me still at level 6 was tempting to actually grind out though.

I did finally finish my music box! I grinned as I stretched, wiggling my toes as I finished off the ramen.

Time to make some songs!

I reached over and plugged my personal link into the box humming as I started on a new track. I was thinking… Samurai. I nodded, decision made. Let’s see how I compare to Johnny.

 

[Seras]

Working through the catalog of Samurai songs took me most of the night. Each song needed multiple playthroughs, just for the initial tracks, and then I had to add the holo emitter setup which now that I had done it once with my first song, did go easier. I just needed to add a few more move sets for drums and guitar, and then set up the keyboard and bass.

Jun didn’t come home that night, which was annoying. I still needed to get my shard back from him. But at least I was able to distract myself with rocking out.

Rockerboy was gaining xp again. And in the middle of the night as I finished Never Fade Away, I got a new level up!

Rockerboy 7!

I hummed as the knowledge hit, and took it all in. That was nice addition a bit more high end musical stuff, and some adjustments I could do while singing to bring more emotion into the song.

Of course when I heard the door open in the morning I was instantly on my feet and finger pointed at my idiot brother.

“Give it back!”

“No.” He responded as he walked stretching and yawning. “I like it. It suits me.”

“No! It’s my song! It’s meant to suit me!” I argued and Jun looked at me, and just scoffed.

Which is when I did the mature thing and yowled in fury and leapt on his head. And I do mean on his head. I nearly fell feet and hands first into his hair.

How dare he!

But my jump was stalled. His arms caught me mid leap… Had Jun known what I was going to do, or were his reflexes that good? He didn’t have a sandy or Keren… Right?

My thoughts were interrupted as Jun flipped me around and even with Street Brawler leveling I wasn’t able to stop him from swinging me around a bit and bombed me onto the couch.

Which creaked a little ominously but held.

Then he sat on me.

“What have we learned?” He teased and I punched him a few times near his kidneys only for it to not really do much. Stupid subdermal! “Ah. I guess nothing apparently.” He added as he reached down and started poking me. Which only made me want to punch him more.

“I swear I’m going to chip in some gorilla arms so you can’t just ignore my punches.”

“That would just make you more like a gorilla than you already are. Sure you want to do that?” He teased and I could feel my face getting red in anger as I struggled for a bit under him.

Stupid Jun and his… “FAT!” I yelled into his face. “GO ON A DIET!”

Jun just blinked at me before smirking. He reached into his jacket pocket…

“No.”

“Oh yes.” He assured me as he took out an XXL burrito and started eating it.

“You’re so disgusting.”

“They’re good! I don’t get why you don’t like them anymore.”

“They aren’t burritos! They are just sludge!”

Jun just shrugged. “Tasty tho.”

I looked up at the kitchen to where the radio was. I would have my revenge! The radio started playing Samurai music suddenly.

Jun frowned and looked like he was considering standing up to turn it off but just decided to ignore it. He turned on the TV to watch something turning up the volume to drown out the song.

Wrong move.

I had complete control!

The TV Glitched.

It started playing the song as well.

“Motoko.”

“You will never know peace.” I told him firmly. He sighed and tried the remote.

Nope. Already hacked that.

“Motoko. No hacking the TV.” Jun demanded using his authority voice.

I gave him a deadpan stare.

“How about a truce?”

“Get your fat ass off me.”

“Fine.” He grumbled standing up as I could finally breathe normally again and I clambered up to stand on the couch so we were about the same height… No dammit Jun was still taller!

I put my hands on my hips and glared.

“Give me back my shard!”

“Make me a copy.”

“No! I already have the original. The reason I want the shard is so no one else can listen to it! Well I mean they’ll be able to once they watch the BD I guess, but I mean… Ugh! Fine keep it!”

“I will.” He said smiling and patted me on the head. “Gotta keep my Imouto’s first recording. It’s special.”

“Bwah!” I flailed, pushing his hand away. No fair! Cheating!

“Heh. You should play a live gig.” He said suddenly, smiling. “Fujimura-Sama was really impressed with the piano solo you did.”

“No way!” I argued instantly, returning to normal to cross my arms in an X. “That’s embarrassing, I don’t want anyone to hear my songs!” Except when they were the backing to an awesome XBD!

“Pfft.” Jun just laughed at me, which didn’t help! “I’ve already shown your song to some of the others. The Only Thing They Fear was a hit. They liked it.”

I gaped at Jun who was smiling at me. No!

“You didn’t!”

“I did! Akari was really into it. She bugged me for a copy, I didn’t give it to her though. She will probably come poke you for it… Be ready.”

“Noooo!” I whined at him, I was blushing! Stupid Onii-chan! Making me get all self conscious! “You aren’t allowed to show it to anyone! Give it back!”

“Nope. What else you got? Any other songs?” He asked his face in a proud smile.

“Samurai Songs!” I immediately offered, turning his smile into a disgusted look.

“Nevermind then. Let me know when you make something else.”

“I won’t! Ever! You shared it!”

“It was preem. Cool. I liked it, made me want to go murder something.” He offered and I nodded along. Yeah that’s true. That song did that to me too.

“That’s what I felt. It’s why the song is my theme song now! Motoko’s Theme!” I called out telling him why the song was important.

“Oni’s Theme sounds better.” I gaped at him.

“Never! You can’t just steal my theme! I made it myself!”

“Well you can’t stop me.” He said reminding me he had my shard with a tap of his hand against his neck.

Which was his mistake. It was reasonable enough. Jun still hadn’t quite fitted my netrunning skill into his mind yet.

My eyes blazed in code and half a second later his Neuroport ejected the shard sending it tumbling into the air.

Heh! Lucy wasn’t the only Picksocket around!

I leapt for the shard that had ejected, but Jun wasn’t giving up without a fight. We ended up wrestling and tumbling around the couch for a while.

In the end his stupid fat strength meant he kept the shard and I sulked at him in the corner as he very obviously played the song in his head.

—--

“I can’t believe you hit another Scav den without me!” Hiromi whined the exact second after almost kicking in the door and glaring at me from the entryway.

“Hiromi don’t kick doors that can break them.” I reminded her only to get a groan from her as I guess I ruined her outrage.

“Why! I could have come!”

“I wasn’t going to call anyone… It was a BD gig more than anything but Jun wouldn’t let me go alone. So I ended up calling Ichi and Malcolm after to collect everything.”

“But not me?”

“It was a school night.” I reminded her, earning a look of disgust from her..

“Stop using that as an excuse!” She whined before flopping beside me on the couch reaching out to grab me so I couldn’t escape. “I demand restitution! One Million Motoko hours of service will just about cover this insult!” She added in her most Corpo voice. It had me giggling at her act, but I pulled myself together to give her my most deadpan reply.

“Sorry, no can do, but I’ll pick up dinner.” I retorted and Hiromi giggled and seemed to relax.

“I’ll take it.”

—--

Hiromi dragged me to a more expensive sort of restaurant than I would normally go to, but considering how many eddies I had sliding into my bank account I just shrugged and accepted what she wanted, and ate the overpriced food.

It was making her happy.

We were in a dark little booth with an electric candle lighting our table and Hiromi was all smiles while she told me about her day at the academy.

“Seriously. They are so gonk. They think people will just listen to whatever they say without any care. I’m pretty sure the first time they try to hire a merc they are going to get shot.” Hiromi added with a roll of her eyes and I couldn’t help but be amused at how well she had scored on her “Workplace Reinforcement” quiz.

“I think you just have way more experience than most of them in dealing with solos… Not that I really count. I don’t think using me as an example is a good idea.”

Hiromi opened her mouth to retort but ended up closing it and bursting into giggles. “Probably not! Oh! Now I have this image in my head! Motoko! You have to record the first time some corp tries to hire you okay? I want to see the look on their face when they realize what they are dealing with!”

“That… Okay that does sound funny, but the way you say that makes it sound like I’m weird!” I argued pushing a piece of… Well it was supposed to be shrimp, but it was just scop made to look and sort of taste like shrimp.

Hiromi of course just smirked at me, until I looked away first. Meanie.

I suddenly perked up as a text came in, the chime jolting in my ear.

*Judy: JESUS. FUCK! What the fuck was that?*

Before I could even message back another came in.

*Judy: I’m glad you warned me, but still! Are you okay!? Did you go Cyberpsycho on me or something? DON’T MAKE ME CALL RITA!*

“Ah one sec. Judy just saw my BD.” I told Hiromi who was looking curiously as my eyes were obviously gold as I looked through my texts.

Before I could actually respond Judy sent another message.

*Judy: FUCK IT. I’m calling Rita anyways!*

*Motoko: Please don’t. I’m fine. Not a psycho!*

*Motoko: Cyber or otherwise! It was just for the BD. I do have a thing about Scavs after all. I’m actually at dinner with my Choom right now. Eating and doing normal stuff! Nothing psycho going on I’m okay! Don’t tell Rita I’m a Cyberpsycho!*

*Judy: Fine! Fine. I’ll chill. But seriously. You gave me a warning, but a bit more detail would have been nice! Fuck my heart is pounding! A bit more brutal my ass! You! I will never forget the feeling of sticking my thumbs in someone's eyeballs now thanks to you!*

*Motoko: Sorry.*

*Judy: Fuck, you better be! You sure you aren’t a fucking Cyberpscyho? No. You wouldn’t be this normal I guess? I don’t know I’ve never dealt with a Cyberpsycho before! Fine. Okay. Fine. As long as you aren’t a psycho I guess it’s all good. Sides, I guess it’s all good. Nox will be happy to hear about a new virtu. Well as long as it isn’t going to be evidence for MaxTac… Well yet anyways. I’m gonna finish the BD, make it fucking sparkly preem. Just don’t drop something like this on me again. Fuck I do porn, I didn’t sign up to learn what brain feels like!*

*Motoko: Double super sorry. Anything I can do to make up for it?*

*Judy: Heh, some replacement caffeine to start. I had to chug half my stash just to calm down after that overload.*

*Motoko: Judy, I don’t think Caffeine is what you want if you are- You know what. Nevermind. Sure I’ll replace your stuff. Sorry.*

*Judy: It’s fine I guess. I’m just glad you read normal. But I’m expecting you to check in with Rita or something! Or just don’t do something like that again! Anyway I’ll have it done ASAP. I kinda want to see some reactions to this one..*

I shook my head at Judy’s reaction, taking a deep breath. At least Judy was okay with it. I mean… Just because it was me at my most brutal overlaid with heavy metal that no one had ever heard before that literally ended with Rip and Tear… Surely no one could misconstrued that in the wrong light…

Right?

“I may have gone a bit overboard on my last BD.” I admitted to Hiromi who only looked interested rather than concerned.

Yep. This may have been a mistake.

A fun mistake. But still a mistake.

—--

Apparently we were having a slumber party.

Hiromi had followed me home after dinner. She flopped onto the couch as we entered besides Jun. “Hiya Jun!”

“Hiromi. Taking care of my gonk sister tonight?”

“Yep! Motoko is all fed!”

“I bought dinner.” I grumbled at Hiromi going along with Jun’s teasing as I settled onto the armrest of the couch. Jun and Hiromi taking up the rest.

“Motoko! Play your song for me!” Hiromi demanded, leaning back like a queen surveying her domain.

“No.” My instant flat denial broke her facade, and the whining began.

“Motokooooo! I want to hear you play your new soooong! Judy got to hear it!” She begged leaning into me and being purposefully annoying.

“Judy is listening to a recording of it in a BD. It’s not the same!” I argued. I had explained after Judy’s text what I had done at the Scav den. And Hiromi to my surprise hadn’t said anything about wanting to hear ‘my’ song then.

I guess she just wanted a private showing.

“I want to hear you play it too.” Jun said, a smirk shot in my direction. Earning a happy smile from Hiromi as she met his eyes and both of then looked at me.

“Don’t even think about it.”

“Motokoooo!”

“C’mon Imouto!”

They started cheering for me! Like actual cheers! They were even getting louder and I realized then if I didn’t do something… They were going to keep getting louder until I did!

FUCKING GONKS!

I felt my face heating up but pushed it down with cool, which was a mistake. Because if I was controlling my emotions, I wasn’t too embarrassed to actually play in front of people.

I did have to test my Music Box after all.

I glared at them both before walking around grabbing my music box and pushing my personal link into it.

I placed it onto the floor behind me as I grabbed my guitar. With a bit of finagling, I hooked the amp and speakers I had bought, up to the music box. While ignoring the cheers of my choom and stupid brother.

“You both better appreciate this.” I told them as I did a few tests to make sure the sound was coming out, and then walked around the apartment turning off most of the lights.

Then I activated the song.

The moment I started the first chords, behind me holograms began forming.

On my right a drum set formed and then I could hear Jun and Hiromi both gasp in surprise as a holographic me formed with it. The hologram unfortunately didn’t do anything fancy like twirl a drumstick or something. I would actually need to get pictures of me doing that and spend a lot more time improving the routine, but it did have me behind the drums and hitting all the notes on a drum.

To my left a double keyboard setup and a bunch of extra electrical equipment popped up. To represent me working on the more electronic sounds.

And then, suddenly the drop hit, and drummer me went to town.

Thankfully there wasn’t any vocals through the song, so I could concentrate fully on just making sure the notes I was playing were right.

The recorded version of the other instruments sounded fine, and I was actually doing it. I wasn’t fumbling, my notes were hitting, and I even roared along with the chant at the end.

Then it ended.

“Eeeeee!” Hiromi slammed into me once the song was obviously ended literally leaping on top of me that I had to balance my best choom with not breaking my guitar as she clung onto me. “THAT WAS SO PREEM!” She screamed and burst into laughter after.

I was just desperately trying not to fall and break something.

Jun thankfully came to my rescue, but not by lifting Hiromi off me, instead he grabbed my guitar and pulled it free.

Thanks. Jerk. I mouthed at him, and he just laughed at me.

“Hiromi. C’mon!”

“No way! I know an actual Rockerboy now!” She yelled so excited. “You have to give me a super pass to all your shows forever!” She demanded and I just laughed and nodded.

Because I was never going to do any shows! Silly Hiromi.

Besides, even if I did do shows she would have a super pass anyways. What a gonk.

“That was so amazing Motoko! I can’t believe you wrote your own song!” Hiromi said, still holding onto me like a monkey.

I winced trying to explain that I hadn’t written the song originally was… Difficult. I made an apology to the amazing Mick Gordon that I was taking credit for his work.

“Okay okay, time to climb off.” I grumbled at her as I pushed her until she had to let go. But Hiromi’s good cheer couldn’t be ended so easily.

“Motoko! We need to set up a show! We can sell tickets!” Hiromi was going a little crazy.

“No way. I’m not putting on any shows Hiromi. This is just my thing. My relaxing thing.” I tell her before realizing what I had just said.

Right. This was my relaxing thing. Or supposed to be… Turning it into another murder thing… Fuck.

Rita was gonna be so disappointed when she found out! This was supposed to be my zen thing! My hobby to pull me out of the routine murder I committed.

With that realization I exhaled in annoyance at myself. I reached out grabbing Hiromi by the shoulders and guided her back to the couch. “I’m glad you liked my song. Now never ever tell anyone about this. Especially you Jun. You traitor. Akari is going to be so annoying now.”

“Heh.”

“Nooo! Motoko you are so talented! You have to!” Hiromi whined at me, but I ignored her. No way. That was embarrassing.

In the end I ignored Hiromi’s begging, and eventually Jun just laughed at the two of us as he turned the TV on. Although he did give me a head pat for doing so well.

I ended up sitting on the floor with my back against the couch, Hiromi looming over me as she watched me work, as I worked on another song.

It was the only thing I could do to get her to stop bugging me about singing more. Of course I had to take my laptop and hook it into the network to let Hiromi see the visual of me putting the songs tracks together.

There were so many different songs I wanted to play, but since I had already started on the DOOM Soundtrack, I might as well continue with another of the songs I liked.

BFG Division was hilariously relevant in Night City after all.

—-

Jun ended up waking Hiromi up in the morning. He had gone to bed eventually, and Hiromi had just curled up on the couch with her head half way resting on my shoulder as I worked.

During the quiet night I had added most of a few other songs together, although I still wanted to actually perform the guitar sections myself to finish them off. Something I couldn’t do with Hiromi asleep.

I had gained a few Rockerboy alerts as well as I worked on the songs!

I guess creating digital music still counted as far as Rockerboy was concerned.

“Morning Motoko. Morning Jun.” Hiromi muttered groggily as was woken up by Jun opening and closing the fridge, the noise all it took to bring her back to wakefulness.

“Morning Hiromi.” I chirp as my choom blinks and gives me a smile in return as she starts stretching out and waking up.

I put my stuff away, considering I had been working through the night I wanted a break from tracks and notes for a while.

“Breakfast?” I asked my choom and she blinked sleepily and nodded.

Aww. Sleepy Hiromi was all quiet.

 

[Seras]

Nox

“It’s nothing like you’ll find anywhere else. It’s not some shock jock gore shit. This is an edgerunner, doing a real gig. A professional!” He commented practically slapping his bag as he talked the guy into it.

“Yeah kid I know. I heard about the Boat Heist.” The man offered, rolling his eyes as he looked around. He wasn’t the first customer Nox had that hadn’t been super comfortable buying peddled BD’s, X or otherwise, off the street from a street kid.

But Nox had prime shit now. Motoko’s BD’s were unique enough that word of mouth got around. It wasn’t everyday someone could feel an actual professional at work.

Nox was super thankful that Motoko had wanted to hide her body and shit from the BD. It let him sell to people that wouldn’t buy a BD from a teenagers perspective normally.

“Well I got one here for you. As well as the back log of that Edgerunners other works. Some are pretty low key, but I assure you, once you finish you will know what it’s like to be a-”

“An Edgerunner. I’ve heard your push already kid. Just show me what you got.” The older man demanded and as Nox held out a copy of all the BD’s he thought he could push on the older guy. Eddies and Shards traded hands, and the man disappeared. Leaving Nox with an easy couple grand.

He loved this shit. The Boat Heist had been on the news, so he could easily push for high end XBD prices for it. And that led to people wanting more of Motoko.

Money was flowing in, more money than he had ever expected.

As always he made a note in a program he kept on his agent of how much he made, and how much he would owe Motoko for her cut.

It was small time honestly. Motoko barely even noticed when he sent her updates on how well everything was going. Judy his only other person he had to pay mostly just wanted him to bring her more caffeine.

The eddies were just flowing in, and Nox was even considering hiring a guard just to make sure no more trouble happened.

*Ringing*

Judy? He thought hearing the call and checking the caller ID.

*Hey Jude, what’s up?*

*FUCK!* He winced, at the loud noise. He had an internal agent now. A very useful piece of chrome he had purchased with some of the profits, but it meant he couldn’t lean away from the phone. *THE FUCKING FUCK NOX. FUCK!*

*Jude?*

*UGH. I can’t believe I did this shit! Nox you are so lucky you’re a Mox. If you weren’t I would be kicking your ass right now! Motoko’s last BD was fucking! Fuck. My heart literally won’t stop fucking pounding, and I can’t get the feeling of literally… Fuck… At least she warned me first. But I need bigger warnings than this!*

*Hey, Hey Jude. Calm down, what’s going on?*

*Ugh. Motoko dropped a new BD on my desk.* And at that Nox was cheering literally jumping in the air and whooping audibly as he rushed to pack his shit.

New content! Fuck he was gonna make more eddies! Running into that beautiful girl was the best thing that ever happened to him in his entire life!

*I’m on my way! Did you finish it?*

*Yeah I fucking finished it Nox! I wou- Sorry.* Judy went quiet for a minute. *I’m still dealing with the aftershocks of the virtu, I still feel angry. Just come by, and bring me a few cans. I’m out thanks to editing this bitch.*

*On my way Jude. On my way.*

She hung up and Nox was whooping as he ran down the street. He was going to jump in his crappy car that he had bought with the eddies and run it all the way to Lizzies. Everything was going perfect today!

—--

“Rip and Tear. Until it’s done.” His mouth formed the words even as he was gasping for air. His head still hurt, and his ribs ached, but everything else just felt like fire and hate as he glared down at the last Scav. At the last monster he had ripped apart.

The transition was sudden like the BD cut off in a weird spot and suddenly Nox was Nox. He wasn’t a murder machine glaring down at the corpses of the fucking SCAVS! No he was laying on his back with Judy looking over him.

“Fuuuuuuuuck.” He whimpered, despite the pain being gone. The rage and anger and hatred, but it left his nerves feeling raw as he rolled off the chair and nearly face planted. He was gasping for air he realized, and he wondered for a moment if he was going to be sick?

“Yeah. I may need to tone that down a bit.” Judy offered. He had shown up and she had been twitchy and quick to anger and now he knew why. He felt the same way, but there was also… He rolled over and just laid on his back. Sucking in air and letting the cool floor of Judy’s workshop cool him down.

“Jesus fucking christ.”

“Yeah.” Judy replied and even handed him a soda as she stood over him. “You alright?”
“Just processing. I wasn’t… Is Motoko okay?”

“I called her. I could only stay in the virtu for like a minute before I pulled out at first. I called her then. She sounded normal. Apologized and stuff. Still not sure if she is actually…”

“Yeah… Yeah… Fuck.” Nox had felt the cool calculated control Motoko exuded probably more than anybody. He sold the damn BD’s after all. He watched them often enough to make sure he could explain them to buyers.

He knew that Motoko was a killer. Absolutely unhesitatingly murderous when she wanted. The facade of her chipper happiness disappeared when it was time for her to kill.

But now he wasn’t sure what the real Motoko was.

Was it the nice teenager that would help out a boy getting beaten. The cold calculating Solo?

Or the Monster of rage and hate hidden within?

“So yeah. That’s a thing.” Judy offered as she took a long sip of her drink. “I’m thinking of sicking Rita on her.”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll never get the feeling of brains out of my nails.” She told him and Nox had to agree. He had seen a lot of XBD’s. That was definitely the first time someone had stuck a thumb through someone's eye.

“It was fucking preem though.”

“It was the most uncomfortable virtu I have ever edited.” She retorted instantly.

“Preem work.”

Judy just laughed as he ignored her complaints. She wasn’t really mad. Judy might pretend all she wanted, but she loved BD’s and XBD’s as much as anyone. Hell he still slipped her some of the shit coming out from the big names so she could rip it apart and see what they had done. Improve her own craft. She’s a connoisseur.

And he had caught her a few times just enjoying a BD here or there.

“Fuck. I’m gonna sell that BD.” He muttered realizing what he had on his hands.

“Not until after I tone it down a bit.”

“Don’t. Leave it.” He decided. He would explain that it was more raw than normal. It was better this way. No one would forget the BD… “The Only Thing They Fear Is You.” Nox had come up with the names of all the BD’s Motoko had dropped off until now. But fuck, if she had come up with the best name possible for this BD.

Anyone who scrolled this BD was going to feel like it was the damned truth.

—--

My agent ringing in my head woke me up in the middle of my nap.

“Blargh?” I asked aloud as I blinked my eyes and sat up. I had spent the entire previous day playing with Hiromi, traveling the city shopping for clothes and just hanging out with my choom. Then I spent some of the night doing some debugging work that Yoko had set up for me. Getting through some of the backlog of service requests that were piling up in my inbox.

But now it was early-late. And I was actually muggy. Not something I usually deal with.

Realizing I hadn’t actually spoken into my Agent I shook myself and did it again.

*Hello?*

*Hermanita, It’s Jackie! Sorry about calling you so late, little choom, but I have a problem, and I need a netrunner. Uh I already tried Bug but she cussed me out. Can you help?* Jackie blurted out, and instantly I could tell he was stressed. Talking too fast, and almost stumbling over his words.

I blinked as I tried to process the question before grunting a bit as I rose up. *Yeah, Jack, I can help. What’s the deets?*

*I got a computer system here that has information I need, but I can’t get in. I’ll send you the address?*

*Sure I’ll be on my way.*

*Thanks Hermanita.*

I rose to hurry and get dressed. Noting that Jun was sleeping in his bed so I went stealthy so I wouldn’t disturb him.

Slipping out of the apartment I rushed down the stairs using the movement to get my blood pumping to help wake me up.

I hated being groggy, but I wasn’t going to blame Jackie. He had called me!

I raced across the street to the parking garage. Jackie actually relied on me! I was inordinately happy about the fact.

I checked the address and set it to my GPS and started driving, actually going a little faster than normal through the city.

—--

The address took me to an old warehouse in Santo Domingo. I pulled up to the open gate and frowned.

Multiple vehicles were inside, and I could see dead bodies lying on the ground.

Not just that. Some of the bodies were wearing armor. Orange Armor. Kang Tao? What were Kang Tao gonks doing here? What was Jackie getting himself into?

I parked and turned off the engine.

Time to move.

The chainlink fence protected a dirty lot, covered in old garbage including a fire pit and some old ratty chairs.

Obviously the abandoned lot had been taken over. Now the question was, what was going on?

I slipped through the gate, staying in cover from the sightlines of the entrance to the warehouse that had its bay door open as I came up on the first normal body.

Tino? I checked the markings and it was the same sort of tats and markings a tino might use, but it wasn’t quite right. The body was wearing a bandanna around the neck with a weird symbol on it.

Offshoot street gang? Maybe just a few Tino kids forming their own gang to fuck around? But why the murder? Kang Tao being involved was a bit much for what I would expect from a street gang.

I looked over the wounds and frowned.

Big rounds. Five rounds center mass. Someone took this kid out brutally. Kang Tao hadn’t been interested in talking.

Burya now firmly in my hand, because this was sketchy I rushed up to the warehouse's entrance, peeking in.

It was empty except for a Kang Tao Van parked in the back.

But there was a light on in the back office. I glanced around, then did it again to confirm the lack of any cameras.

The darkness of the warehouse no barrier to my optics I rushed in. Using the weight bearing struts to stay in cover as I raced to the back. The Van was empty front and back, the back door was even open. Slowly I crept up to the office window to peek in, and relaxed, almost sighing in relief.

I quickly called Jackie after confirming he was just sitting in a chair waiting.

*Hermanita you here?* He asked as soon as the call connected as I watched him physically rise up from his chair.

*Yeah just outside the office you are parked in. I’m coming in. Didn’t want to startle you.* I added, gave him a second before I opened the door and walked in.

“Whew you’re sneaky as always.” Jackie said, chuckling as he sat back down.

“Fuck Jackie! You’re hurt!” I snapped, rushing in as I noticed the blood rolling down his shoulder.

“Just a flesh wound Hermanita. I’ll be fine.” He said trying to calm me, but the way his left arm was hitching meant that was a lie. I almost went off on him, when I noticed it.

The dead Kang Tao body in the corner.

“Jackie? What’s going on?”

“One of the fuckers that killed the kids outside. They were just gonk kids. Didn’t deserve this shit.” Jackie hissed, the big man usually easy going honestly furious as he walked over and kicked the body.

He was already very dead Jackie.

“What were Kang Tao doing here?”

“The kids… The Red Piratas, Red Pirates. Just a small group of kids fucking around, klepping shit they shouldn’t have. Danny… He lives near me, I’ve boxed with him a little, just you know taught him how to punch. Kid doesn’t have a papa.” Jackie was quiet for a moment before shaking his head.

“He gone?”

“Yeah. I saw him outside. He’s the one who called me for help. The Piratas klepped a vehicle only to find out it’s owner was Kang Tao. It was a corpos car, there was something in the trunk. Danny realized how hot it was, but couldn’t just dump it… They had taken the car on a joy ride. Everyone knew who had klepped the ride.” Jackie sighed, rubbing his face tiredly.

“So Kang Tao came to get it back. Without mercy.” I added and Jackie nodded.

“I need to find out where they are Hermanita. Can’t let this one stand. Not even the corps can just walk into Tino territory and flatline our boys. Even Padre agrees. This is too far. So I called in some backup, but I’m stuck at step one.” he said, pointing with his good arm and I figured it out.

There was a Kang Tao armored case that had a laptop inside sitting on the office desk. Blood along one side of it told me how Jackie had gotten it. It was on, but obviously needed a password as it was stuck on the login page.

“Okay I’m putting things together.” I said as I walked over to the laptop.

“Knew you were the right call. Fast on your feet.” He complimented me, I just snorted in amusement, as I checked the laptop. I wasn’t even his first pick. Don’t think I had missed that he called T-Bug first.

Then I frowned. Dangerous.

“This is gonna take a bit. The security on this thing is dangerous.”

“Okay Hermanita. Just… As fast as you can. I need to find out where they ran. Can’t send Danny on without the men who killed him following behind…” Jackie grunted in anger as he glared around the small office.

In the quiet of the office as Jackie brooded, I was working my way into the laptop.

No way I was sticking my personal link into a port on this thing. Just looking at it I could see the massive module on it’s side. Basically it was a Black ICE port. You stick your link in without the right codes it tries to fry your brain. Probably melts the laptop hard drive along with it.

So instead I was relying on Ghost Touch. A few key presses caused the OS to enter a diagnostic mode.

Then I basically started poking the system using wireless connections. Sending connection requests, that would be denied, but the laptop would still need to accept a few bytes of code to verify if it was an allowed connection.

Over and over, I sent tiny bits of data through, that would all be stored in the same processing node to verify if it was a legit connection. The laptop normally would have dumped the data after dismissing the connection, but if I sent the data over a slow enough bandwidth causing the computer to assume it was a connection error, so it would save the data as it constantly tried to gather enough information to accept or deny, the data would be saved.

And slowly a virus was put together that would add in access information.

“Hermanita?”

“Gonna take a bit Jackie. Don’t rush me. I’m going as fast as I can.” I mumbled, never tearing my eyes from the laptop as my vision was filled with data.

I was literally writing a virus in real time as I sent bytes of it into a new system. A virus that would then need to put itself together after.

I heard it then, as I was going an engine rumbling into the lot. An over tuned absolute monster of an engine.

Also I recognized that noise. A Kusanagi?

“Jackie? If I need to move away from this I’ll lose progress.”

“No worries Hermanita, I said I called in some backup yeah? The fucking calvary is here.” Jackie said with a laugh as he stepped out of the office behind me, but I was focusing on getting into this system.

Stupid Kang Tao Security.

A new voice called out behind me.

“Who’s the kid?” A woman's voice behind me asked and Jackie responded a moment later.

“Motoko. Good kid, she’s a netrunner. And a Solo. She’s hacking into the Kang Tao system to find out where they ran off to.”

“Fuck Jackie. You got some street kid to try and break into corp sec? You might as well just put a bullet in her head now. Or not I guess, The fucking kid isn’t even plugged. How is she supposed to Breach?”

I ignored the woman, even if I really wanted to turn around and give her a piece of my mind, but there was only one way to really shut someone up.

Do something they already dismissed you from being capable of.

The virus was coming together. I was sending the data that was basically restructuring the data in the laptops node that would activate once it was complete.

“Hey, easy Hermana! Motoko isn’t some scop kid. I’ve done gigs with her. I told you I started working with a solo for Wakako’s gigs yeah? Well that’s her.”

“Fourteen? Fuck me. Seriously a little TC brat?” She suddenly said, and I realized she must have scanned me. Pulling up my data.

“Like you have much room to talk there Hermana.” Jackie suddenly teased and since there was an almost echoing silence I could tell Jackie was getting glared at.

“Jack you know I got your back if you need it, and hell going after Kang Tao for that piece of tech you said the kids found is something I’m all for. But it looks like they’ve already cleared off. I’ll help cause some trouble for you, but I can’t storm a Kang Tao office.”

“I know, I know Choom, just give Motoko a bit, she’ll find out where those fuckers went and we will track them right down.”

The womans scoff only told me what she really thought of that.

“I’m in.” I said suddenly as I stood up and stretched. Fuck that took forever.

“What?”

I turned around to face Jackie and his choom only to blink.

I knew that face.

I fucking knew that face!

I went cold, to keep myself from wanting to immediately spaz out.

V.

That was female V. Standing in front of me in a corpo suit was definitely Female V. The red hair, the shaved left side. Even the EMP threading was the same going from her cheeks up over her eyes.

“You’re still on the login screen. How is that in?” She demanded, instantly harsh and criticizing.

Wow she was a total bitch.

Was it weird that I always loved that about her while playing the game?

I smiled.

“Username: USUCK, all caps. Password: colon uppercase-D.” I took a step away and waved at the laptop earning a surprised look before she walked over and typed away.

The Kang Tao login screen gave way to the actual desktop.

“Fuck me.” V Whispered as she quickly hit an icon on the desktop and a bunch of future excel sheets popped up. “Oh I’m taking this.” pulled a shard out of her socket and went to plug it in.

“Hold up.” I demanded stopping her from putting it in.

“What?” She demanded a glare and a twitch of her hands that told me she had stopped herself from striking out at me. Hair trigger much?

“You put that in, and they will notice. Right now the access isn’t being deleted because it’s not doing anything. Find out where the stuff we need is first.”

To my surprise the woman continued to glare at me, as if she was deciding whether to listen or not.

“C’mon V. Padre gave me a gig to hunt these pendejo’s down. Gig first yeah?” Jackie backed me up, and smiling at the woman in that way of his.

“Fine.” She grunted and instead started typing away as she pulled up a program that after a few moments of watching her navigate made me realize it was dispatch information.

Who went where. It was limited to this group though. Which was actually good security.

“I got them. They are at a drop site that Kang Tao like to use. Whatever it is they found Kang Tao want to get it out of the city. We aren’t too late, but we have to move.” She looked over her shoulder to Jackie, her red hair hanging over just one side of her head blocking her face from my sight before Jackie nodded, throwing her a thumbs up, earning a scoff but only then did she plug the shard she had into the laptop.

It began trying to download anything and everything it could.

“Alright while this downloads Jackie, go grab the Kang Tao Van, we can use it to get close without them realizing their chooms are zeroed.” V demanded even snapping a finger at Jackie to get him to move.

“Aye Hermana, I’ll get our ride.”

“And find a medkit before you bleed out you dumb fuck gonk!” She yelled suddenly, and I could hear Jackie chuckling a little.

They were so cute! If I didn’t already know they weren’t into eachother like that I would absolutely ship them.

“Alright kid, time to clear off.” V said suddenly reminding me she was also a turbobitch.

“What, you don’t want a netrunner backup?”

“Don’t know you. Don’t need you.” She said instantly. “Clear off.”

I thought about it. Considered arguing, but in the end I turned and walked out with a smirk on my face. I don’t remember agreeing to work for her either, Jackie was my choom so it wasn’t like I was just going to let him head into this kind of shit without some backup. Walking through the warehouse and then out into the dirt lot, a splash of color caught my eye…

Yeah. That could work.

 

[Seras]

V

V sighed grimacing at the feeling of her insides swirling and shifting. Fucking BioMon was doing it’s best to keep her stress down, but Jackie just had to call at the worst fuckin’ time.

Jenkins was going to kill her when he found out she wasn’t following up on the new Militech Prototype Sandy, and instead was out trying to help out a non affiliate.

She exhaled, giving herself a moment to just breathe as the hacking shard downloaded everything it could from the Kang Tao system. Maybe this data would balance things out? It wasn’t like even someone in Counter-Intel got access to a unit database like this.

Fuck that had impressed her. A fourteen year old kid broke through Kang Tao security, without even jacking in? What the hell had she even done? Probably some netrunner wizard shit.

V shook her head, she never could wrap her head around high level netrunning. Sure she knew how to ping a system, and do some data breaches, but any good ICE would keep her right out.

The shard pinged as the laptop suddenly froze and shut down.

“Looks like they finally noticed.” She grabbed the shard out of the laptop and tucked it away. Patting it for a bit of comfort. Please be enough for Jenkins.

“Alright Jackie I’m good, you took care of that boo boo?” She demanded as she walked out, of the little warehouse backroom. Noticing that the kid was gone. Good. She hadn’t liked that smirk the kid had sent her. Brats like that always wanted to poke their nose into shit.

V slipped into the Kang Tao Van Jackie was already idling for them.

“I’m bandaged up, C’mon V don’t baby me. Where’s Motoko?”

“Don’t know, told her to split.”

“V! Motoko’s a good shooter. Hell girl is sneaky as shit. We could have used her.”

“I don’t bring along people I don’t know, Jack. Besides, she’s just a kid. I don’t want some street brat getting in the way.” Jackie sent her a look telling her he was about to argue, but she sent him a glare instead and he backed down. Instead the Van started moving. Heading towards their destination.

Good. She was already on borrowed time and didn’t have the desire to deal with any more bullshit from Jackie right now…

No. She shouldn’t think like that. Jackie was a choom, maybe the only one she had. And he had saved her fuckin’ life. He had proven to be trustworthy, the only person in her life that was. She shouldn’t think like that at him.

Her life in Counter-intel was making her twitchy about everyone. She let her implants calm her down even more. She needed a clear head and she relaxed a bit as the rush of chemicals hit her blood.

Quantified Satori was going to harp at her for overuse again.

Dammit.

She put her life coach out of her mind. She had Kang Tao to annihilate. The idea almost got her excited. She had been behind a desk for too long.

“Jackie, you got anything bigger than that peashooter you run with?”
“I don’t need anything but my baby, you know that V!” He practically squawked at her in outrage.

“Jackie for fuck sake. Get a bigger iron! At least a Yukimura if you have to have a damn handgun.” She snapped at him, her Biomon beeping at her about her blood pressure.

Fucking piece of shit, the Biomons job was to control her blood pressure not hers!

“Buy the top of the line Arasaka stuff huh? Can’t take the corp out of the woman eh?” Jackie teased and V just huffed cause he was sort of right, but then the thought hit her.

She shouldn’t have snapped at him. He didn’t deserve that. Even if she had yelled at him so many times about how his low firepower was going to get him killed…

He should get a fucking Overture or something. Brawly fuck!

She took a breath and let it out. She had to say something. She had been quiet for too long. He might think she was actually angry at him. Or he might be angry himself. He wasn’t saying shit. Fuck. C’mon V, you stupid bitch. Say something to break the tension…

“Oh but I don’t like revolvers Chica I always run out of ammo.” She mocks in his voice, literally as she used her chrome to emulate him for a second. Jackie looked to her for a second and then started laughing. Long and loud Jackie broke into near giggles at her. She felt herself relax.. She hadn’t pushed too hard. Hadn’t pissed him off for the last time leaving her alone.

It was okay. She hadn’t messed up the one good relationship she still had.

“We’re here Chica. You ready?” He called suddenly and she realized they were.

“Always.” She rolled her eyes, pulling out her Shingen and linking in. Immediately the reticle followed her eye. Smart system ready. But she also pulled her sidearm. The Kenshin with the big silencer just like she enjoyed. “Just roll up on the entrance. I’ll get us access.” She said knowing Jackie would know what she meant.

They had pulled this maneuver back on the border. Hell it was how they had gotten out of that mess.

“You still using that overdesigned piece of scop? Should get a real pistol. Nue are good.” Jackie teased and V seriously considered beating him over the head with her extremely expensive, Arasaka Handgun.

“It’s still the best handgun on the market!” She hissed quietly at him, as they were getting close.

“Maybe if you want an ugly piece of shit.” He argued practically giggling. Fucker was riling her, but it… Well it felt good. You didn’t have these sorts of conversations with people during an Arasaka Op.

She was either in charge so they shut their fucking mouth and did what she said, or she was being ordered around by Jenkins or someone even higher up, so V kept her mouth shut.

Fuck she missed doing work with Jackie.

She sometimes worked with other mercs, but they were either intimidated by her. The black suited Arasaka enforcer. Like they should be.

Or they were assholes treating her like corpo scum. Jackie might rag on Arasaka, but when he laughed he was laughing with you.

She closed her eyes and opened them. Dropping her emotions a bit more.

It had been a long time since she felt this happy.

As the van pulled up to the checkpoint of the old Kang Tao warehouse, which in reality was just one of their drop off points. One of the few places Arasaka weren’t bullying them like the helpless bitches they were, out of. Kang Tao were so far down the totem pole, they had to operate out of a fucking ‘abandoned’ warehouse for their more black op pickups.

It was time. The Van stopped at the guard entrance, and V was ready. Crawling across Jackies stupid lap. Pistol right up against the glass.

Jackie waited for her nod, and rolled the window down. Letting her send four silenced rounds with unerring aim into the Kang Tao guards face. After a few seconds she matched Jackies growing smile as no alert came out. The Kang Tao vans tinted scan proof windows protecting them from the security even noticing the shots as V shot still within the cab.

“Give me a second to turn the damn turrets and Cameras off.” She said as she peaked out of her side window at a security camera through a tiny gap, her eyes scanning, and she activated the security system Daemon she had.

She had no idea how it worked.

She had no idea what it did exactly. But it turned off cameras and turrets on a network without her having to do anything herself, which was by definition the best Quick Hack she could ever have. One that didn’t need her to sit there and beat her head against ICE.

Fucking puzzles gave her a headache. Sure it was expensive, but being part of Arasaka meant she got the best goodies.

After a few minutes the camera system at the checkpoint powered down as did the turrets.

“Good work Chica.” Jackie offered as he slipped out of the van and nearly crawled into the guards window looking for the switch to open up the dividing bar blocking them.

V snorted at the sight of her big chooms ass shaking around barely held in by his jeans as he struggled to find the right switch. Jackie was practically crawling into the little window.

“Jack. We gotta get you into the gym more choom.” She whispered to him teasing.

“Hey! You know the chica’s love a little- Oh, hold up. Found it!” He grunted a bit as he finally got himself out of the window as the bar rose up and slipped into the truck to drive onto the property.

“Alright Jack, it’s real now. So watch your shots, and your head. Let’s try to get through quiet at first then fast. Maybe we can get in and out before the snipers they probably have set up get us.”

“I remember that plan V. We tried that plan last time. It didn’t go so well Hermana.” Jackie teased, even if he was in game face.

But V couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed even through the biomon dampening everything.

“The garbage chute worked!” She hissed back.

He turned to look at her just as he was about to slide out of the van, having parked in a shadowy corner of the lot where a few other vans were parked out.

Not a good sign, but Jackies look took all of her attention. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to.

“Not a word!” She told him with a glare. Sure leaping into a trash chute hadn’t been her greatest plan, but it had worked!

“Heh. You pulled that out of a movie. Still can’t believe we survived. I swear I still got bumps on my ass from the landing.”

“You landed on me.” She reminded him. As they both gathered together at the side of the warehouse checking around to make sure no one was there.

“Yeah, but Hermana, you’re all chrome! You broke my ass!”

“I’ll break your ass alright choom. Now shut up.” She demanded as they moved. Jackie easily fell into lockstep. The two had only been on a few gigs together, but honestly that’s all it took. She knew his tells by now. He knew hers.

And she trusted him.

They went into the warehouse unlike the one they were in a half hour ago it was brightly lit, a few men in Kang Tao uniforms or armor hanging around, all of them helmets off relaxing, joking, and drinking from vending machines or office coffee.

Jackie was behind her. So V was the tip. Jackie would cover up the slack. Helmets off? Stupid mistake.

The Kenshin came up first. She charged the shot letting the capacitors reach their limit before firing the first time, then swiveled perfectly on target, body and aim exactly where she wanted it to land. Robotic.

She used to like firing guns. Had been damn good at it. But the Arasaka chrome used a skill chip integration. It wasn’t as good in all circumstances, but it could load up a set of moves and perform them perfectly in a blur.

For an operative that was too useful to pass up. Not that she had a choice. Everyone got the standard package after all.

Now it was just targeting, and letting the chrome work. Bodies started dropping, but it took a moment before the Kang Tao noticed. A moment longer than they had, because the second one of them did notice her Shingen came up. The reason she used smart weapons. The skill chipped chrome was good, but unable to adapt.

Smart weapons mitigated that factor. She started firing, Jackie right behind her, His Nue covering her back as she waded in, Flowing from cover firing right over it, and sending Kang Tao guards scurrying into the shadows.

It didn’t save them.

She tugged a grenade out of her pocket now that she didn’t need the Kenshin and threw it exactly where it needed to bounce into that particular corner. It activated quietly the GASH Anti-Personnel grenade was her favorite. Instead of big loud explosions you had lasers chopping everyone into bits. Ending another threat.

All was silent for a moment after as she scanned the area, her optics counting the corpses confirming all of the people she had seen were now on the floor confirmed dead.

Seemed so. She didn’t relax, she could have missed one. “Jackie. Confirm we got all of them maybe, find the package they took back from the boys, but we need to get out of here. No way we didn’t set off an alarm.”

Jackie walked off, gun raised as he checked his corners, he might be a reckless street merc, but he was still a merc.

She checked the floor as well as starting from the opposite side.

“Hey V, I found it!” Jackie called out, coming back gun at his side and a big metal case held in hand, a sinister grin on his face. “Gonna fuck these guys for the shit they pulled.” Jackie practically growled. But V was fighting her own urge. Every inch of her Arasaka Counter-Intel training was telling her to neutralize the non-affiliate his usefulness at it’s end and take the case.

She ignored that insanity. Pushing every piece of that thought away.

This was a favor returned. This time Arasaka would just have to buy the info from Padre, like the rest of the world.

Even it if would have been a nice notch in her profile.

She nodded to Jackie no sign of her inner thoughts on her face. Turning around and heading towards the door, it was time to get out of here.

Just as she reached it, her chrome reacted, activating her sandy, which caused the Acrobatics skill shard to force her into a roll towards the nearest cover without any thought from herself. Which meant she vanished just as heavy fire burst through the opened entrance way that would have sprayed her down.

Reinforcements were here. Fuck.

Fuck! That fast? Not possible! This was a fucking drop off spot! Not a hub! Kang Tao couldn’t just keep a full company of troops here! Arasaka, Militech, all of the big players wouldn’t allow it!

Unless this was the team meant to come by and secure the case they were stealing because it might actually be important.

Fuck.

“Jackie?” She asked after her sandy turned off. The sandy cool down had her huffing and puffing as she instantly felt overheated and sick.

“I’m alright V!” He yelled back from behind a support pole. Good. Shit. She peaked and ducked back letting a few rounds bounce off the wall before sticking a hand over the edge of the wall and firing. Her Shingen held the lock for a few seconds and putting some rounds down got her some cover. She leapt, rolling away from the entrance and gaining actual mobility.

“Ideas V?” Jackie asked, having fired a few rounds himself while she moved.

“See any trash chutes?” She demanded and the laugh that escaped him helped a little. Even if it was the realization they were in deep shit.

She peeked again. No lock engaged at her quick glance, they were behind cover now. Armored and carrying heavy weapons.

“Maybe a back entrance?” Jackie called and V shrugged he had been the one to look back there.

“You see any?”
“Nope!”

“Well that’s fucking helpful then isn’t it!?” She snapped at Jackie but he just shrugged and then ducked back, going to see what he could find while V held the entrance.

She just sighed, peaking and firing two rounds to scare a few brave Kang Tao back into cover.

They would hold for a while. At least until they had enough men. Or an AV. Fuck Kang Tao AV would definitely be on it’s way.

“Anything!?” She called out and Jackie’s head peaked out from the back of the warehouse.

“It’s all solid back here!” He replied as he then started moving back towards the entrance slipping cover to cover. Dodging a few ringing shots.

Great.

She peeked out, snapped off a few more shots that might have hit, or not. The Kang Tao armor wasn’t complete garbage. More than capable of saving them from a couple rounds.

“Got any smart ideas Chica?”

“Bum rush them?” She offered sarcastically. It took a moment to realize Jackie didn’t respond back and as she looked over her shoulder the look on his face! He was actually considering it. She reached around and grabbed an old bolt and chucked it at him. “We are not bum rushing them!”

“Owe! Hey I was just considering it. No harm in that right?” He patted his head where she had donked him.

“It’s too bad you guys sent away your backup huh.” A new voice spoke from inside! She spun her Shingen up searching. Where!?

“Motoko?” Jackies voice caused V to only slightly relax what? The kid?

“Sup Jackie.” The voice was suddenly clear and its origin appeared as a hand waved over the edge of the catwalk above them, well out of sight of either of them and from the entrance way. Suddenly a purple head of hair poked over making V realize the girl had been…

Just fucking laying on her back? Directly above her. V realized with a chill. “You want help now?” Then, she was sure just to piss her off there was a crinkle and the girl stuffed a chip in her mouth.

“Hah! You enjoying your break Motoko?”

“Hey don’t blame me for letting you guys have all the fun, I try not to interfere in gigs I’m not invited for. Want some?” She offered the bag of chips to Jackie who despite being in a firefight, seemed to delight in the situation and nodded. The kid rolled it up and tossed it over.

“We aren’t eating right now! What the fuck Jack! What’s the kid doing here!?”

“Don’t know! You followed us Motoko?”

“Technically you followed me. I was there when you got the location, remember? I left first. You old guys are slow. But seriously? You want some help? I accept payment in eddies, and fun adventures.” She said in a teasing tone, and Jackie just started cracking up.

“Hermanita. If you can help us out a bit I’d love it! You have something in mind?”

“Already breached the gonks' defenses. I’ll blind the whole group we mop up and get out of here. They're all talking about an AV coming in to just blow holes in the building until we die. So let’s do it quick fast, alright?”

“Fuck.”

“Fuck.” Jackie and V both uttered together looking at each other and Jackie grinning at the synchronicity of the statement.

“Do it. How long will they be blind?”

“Please. This is my shit.” The girl said, suddenly slipping almost off the edge of the catwalk. Revealing she was actually wearing Kang-Tao Armor. “They’ll never see again.” And with that ominous reveal, the purple haired girl hanging from her knees from the catwalk upside down just turned towards the doors. The open doors that had a full Kang Tao squad outside of.

The squad that she should be in full view of, and she started firing.

“You waiting for me to count down or something chooms?” She asked while still firing, holding a Copperhead of all things. Ugh. A Nokota, and Militech chrome arms? Fuck this girls equipment offended V at every level. Using those shitty corps equipment.

But she put that aside, as Jackie was already moving, running out the door looking to kill the group blocking them from leaving.

So V didn’t hesitate. She followed even if it meant she was about to die. Yet, she didn’t. As she raced out there were no gun shots. The Kang Tao guards were seemingly trying to shoot, but nothing was happening, and none of them were pointing in the right direction anyways.

They were blind.

She charged, fired her Shingen as fast as she could until it was dry and then holstered it.

Then she leapt and her Mantis blades slipped out. For just a moment V actually felt like herself, as she sliced through gonks that needed to die. This was the one piece of chrome that wasn’t controlled by Arasaka chipware, and mandates from the on high, and all sorts of bullshit. Jenkins had okayed her request for them only after she had proven herself reliable.

Now if only she could get Jenkins to allow her to carry her fucking LMG around! Stupid operator pistol bullshit was so fucking boring!

Her poor baby wasn’t ‘Arasaka’ enough for Counter Intel. So she was always stuck with these fucking pea shooters.

But these thoughts were in the back of her head as she ripped and cut through helpless blind Kang Tao guards until the entire blockade at the entrance of their little black site was dead.

It felt good.

Then it was over. And her implants soothed her enjoyment into that morass of just existence.

“Whew! That was pretty lucky hey V?” Jackie asked, smiling in that dopey way as she calmly closed her arms back up. The blood would be cleaned and mess would be cleaned with the internal systems without her input.

“Lucky. Your street kid followed us.” She grumbled then jerked as she turned around and the girl was right there. Seemingly having been checking out her blades.

“I was here first. Technically! Since I found the info and arrived first you followed me.” She said… Teasing. “I like your mantis blades, always thought about getting a set. My Condor were sort of an emergency buy. I know you are going to say something something Arasaka, but what’s your best suggestion for a set?” She asked surprising V but before she could even process Jackie cut in.

“Ladies, before we meet and greet? Let’s get out of here before more Kang Tao show up.” Jackie begged.

“Oh yeah.” The kid said, and then surged away bouncing up and over a Kang Tao Van leaping right over the fence. The sudden movement caused V to jerk a bit nearly trying to shoot at what startled her. She grumbled at the kids sudden moves looking at Jackie for some commiseration.

“That kid…” V started and Jackie chuckled.

“She kind of grew on me too. C’mon. Let’s grab this one and delta.” Jackie said and only V’s desire to not get killed by a combat AV kept her from arguing.

Growing on her? Not even a little!

She shook her head and focused. They still needed to get out of here.

 

[Seras]

V

It was time to get the fuck out of here. V ran straight towards the first Van Jackie right behind her.

She might make fun of Kang Tao as a corporation, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t send enough hardware at her to end her bought and paid for ass.

She slid right through the driver door into the passenger seat Jackie right behind her as he instantly started up the car and started driving. There was a parking garage a few blocks away that they could stash the van call in their own rides and get out of there. Then all of this would be over with and she could go home and get drunk.

Which is why she really wanted to murder her luck as she caught what was happening out of the corner of her optics and reached out and grabbed the wheel from Jackie and spun it moments before they would have even left the warehouse gate. The van spun out Jackie cursed, but they both survived the high caliber rounds, and missiles that shattered where the van had been a moment before.

The feel of the Van knocking around from the impact of the high explosive causing her stomach to flop as it just barely managed to stay on it’s four wheels.

They were stopped though. Whether the van was damaged, or just pinned on what was left of the entrance checkpoints little hut was up in the air. She looked around and grimaced. The other vans were now burning wrecks smashed and crumpled from the power of a corporation not playing around anymore.

An AV was here.

“Fuck.”

“Shit Hermana. I don’t think we are outrunning that.” Jackie admitted trying to back up, probably to head back into the warehouse to get some cover, but the van was sputtering, and they weren’t moving.

V looked around. They wouldn’t make it back inside the warehouse. But there wasn’t any other cover. Even the fencing was chainlink. Then suddenly the sky lit up. The sound reached her. Hissing fuel and shrieking air. V looked away, not willing to look at her end. But she noticed that Jackie, who had a second before been looking backwards while trying to reverse the truck, had calmly looked forward at the sound.

A man to the end her Jack. Looking straight at his death, staring it down.

V would remember to tell him that because that wasn’t today. The explosion was far enough away V realized she wasn’t dying.

A rocket had been fired, but not at the van. As the AV was lining up for a landing probably to disgorge troops, or just block the road while broad siding them. A rocket slammed into it. A horrid rancor of erupted steel and fire echoed out as the AV spun from the blow.

V knew Av’s. They were tough fuckers. One rocket wouldn’t completely kill it. Maybe mission kill it for a bit, but it wasn’t a fucking movie or something, it wouldn’t blow up. It should be able to stabilize and reorient, or at least safely control crash.

But the missile had nearly hit the cockpit. It was damaged enough that V was sure it must have jumbled the pilot, chrome or not. It spun and before it could stabilize it slammed into a nearby building.

The horrible noise as it ground itself into the concrete stonework was bad enough.

Then it tilted with a sharp jerk, something catching on the interior of the building and then there was no saving it as it was pointing straight down.

It came loose and smashed down onto the street crushing a car beneath its flaming bulk.

Then there was silence for a minute as she barely breathed just taking in the fact she wasn't dead.

Then the silence was broken.

“I FUCKING KNEW I WOULD NEED THIS SOME DAY! FUCK YOU SAUL!” A yell absolutely blasted from their right and V looked out the window and couldn’t help but stare at the kid.

The kid had a fucking Uragan Rocket Launcher!?

Who the fuck gave a teenager a rocket launcher!?

Then much to V’s confusion, while she was standing on top of a Black Nomad Quadra 66, arms raised above her head holding the Rocket Launcher between them. The kid was shaking it up and down then she started making a… Honking noise?

“Van is fucked.” Jackie interrupted her from the horrified shock at what she was seeing.

“Right we need to go.” She said kicking the door open and jumping out. There were plenty of other vans…

Or there had been. Fuck.

The roar of engines as another Kang Tao van turned onto the road obviously driving like mad.

“Shit! C’mon you old folks! Get in the car!” The fucking little brat yelped as she jumped down and tossed the rocket launcher into her open trunk before slamming it shut.

The desire for V to scream about what would happen if that launcher went off while in there was just thrown away because this entire gig was now officially shit show status. She raced around the gate. Jackie puffing along right behind her as he carried the big metal case that was the cause of all the trouble.

“I drive!” V yelled as she raced towards the car but the purple haired girl took the time to turn, give her a single look and then slide into the driver seat.

Fucking little shit!

The car roared to life and for a second V wondered if they were about to be abandoned, but its tires screeched and it spun out flipping it around and revealing the open passenger door towards both of them.

“Run faster!” The kid yelled back and V grit her teeth. A gun shot rang out and then another. “Jackie get in!” She yelled as she hit the side of the car and turned Shingen pulled free and unloading towards the van that was racing at them. As Jackie nearly leapt in she fired until she was dry and then with an internal sigh leapt in landing basically ontop of Jackie.

The moment she was in the wheels squealed, and the Quadra kicked. Racing down the street away from the pursuing vans.

“Oh man you guys! I’ve been wanting to get in a car chase forever! Jackie! You're my favorite fixer… Don’t tell Wakako!” The kid said laughing in delight as she hit an intersection and the Quadra roared as it got some air before continuing its race through the streets.

V and Jackie weren’t having such a good time. Jackie was sitting, barely fitting with the case by his feet, V flopped over his lap. Her legs half out the car.

“Jackie grab me.”

“Trying Hermana! A bit out of place myself!” He said but his burly arm thankfully grabbed her tight as the street turned a bit and she wasn’t flung out of the car like she feared was going to happen.

Then a gun shot thunked into the back of the car.

“Asshole!” The kid yelled angry at the noise. “We have a turn coming up! Get your ass situated!” She yelled at V.

V listened. Reaching up to grab a car handle she flipped, thanked her chrome for giving her incredible flexibility, as she basically turned herself into a ball and spun around. Now her legs were in the girls space. But Jackie could hold her easier, and V could actually do something. She reloaded her Shingen as Jackie just sighed at her. Probably irritated, he had to grab her around her chest.

Grow up Jackie you gonk these puppies were fucking preem chrome. Chest sticking out of the car. She aimed and started firing at the van that was following her.

“Trying to drive with your stupid corpo shoes in my face here.” The kid yelled and V ignored her as she kept firing.

Kid was obviously competent enough she’d live.

“Jackie hold on! I’m drifting!” The kid warned and Jackied clamped down on V which was one part of the warning because a moment later they were suddenly going sideways.

“Ahhhh!” V Screamed. She couldn’t help it. Her face was very very close to that light pole, and the street and they were going sideways! Cars don’t go sideways!

The massive bark of a Burya had her jerk her eyes away from her imminent death to the inside of the car where the kid was actually.

Okay fine. That was maybe slightly preem. The kid was drifting the car while shooting a handgun that she should not be able to handle with her left hand.

Then they were straight and the kid returned the gun to her holster a moment later. “I missed the driver. Bet I spooked him though… Jackie Grenade! Red top.” She demanded holding out her left hand as she continued driving with her right, eyes locked on the street.

“Sorry Hermanita. Hands are a bit full here.”

“Fuck off Jack! Where are the grenades?” V Demanded, she would punch Jackie for that joke another time, just cause he had his hands on her tits. That wasn’t funny!

Maybe a little funny.

Maybe just some teasing at Lizzies later.

“Under the seat. C’mon hurry it up!” The kid demanded, and V rolled her eyes leaning into the car and digging around under the seat which was pretty awkward. Jackie better not make a joke with her digging around his crotch.

“What the fuck are these?” She asked, looking at the very much non-standard grenades.

“Red top!”

V found one and handed it over. She had thought about using them herself, but she didn’t recognize the brand. “Where did you even get these things?”

“Made them!”

“Jackie jump out of the car with me.” V said instantly. Sitting on a box of homemade grenades while in a car chase was not how she wanted to die.

“Oh fuck off.” The kid snappedback, then with one hand popped the tab, spun the timer on the top and then released.

“Kid…”

“One sec.”

“KID!”

“One Cooking Potato…” The cook offered back and V literally thought she was about to die as the kid just held the ticking fucking grenade.

Then she dropped it out the side of the car.

A second later it exploded and the Quadra barely even rumbled…

“We’re alive?” Jackie asked. And V looked to him. The gonk literally had his eyes closed.

“I made those timers myself!”

“That’s why we’re worried!” V snapped back but then it got quiet.

“The Van?”

“Took out the tires. They are losing us. I’ve been running them around this industrial park, gonna get onto the freeway and we’ll be long gone. Would you two sort yourself out? You’re embarrassing me.” The kid joked flashing a grin despite her eyes never leaving the road.

“Where did you find this kid Jack?”

“She sorta found me to be honest Hermana.” Jackie said with a shrug. V finally just decided to fuck it and relaxed went limp as she flopped on Jackie for a minute.

“Jackie, this was a total shit show.”

“Sorta like the border yeah?”

“Jackie, I've told you. You aren’t allowed to make reasonable points to me, when I’m angry.” She denied him.

“You two are great!” The kid offered and V seriously considered just kicking her.

Nah. She’d probably be the one to die in the accident not the kid who was wearing her fucking seatbelt.

Who did that?

When they finally stopped it was by unanimous consensus. The kid had just pulled them off the freeway in Heywood. Found the first parking lot and basically just slid into a spot.

V was so done with tonight. Despite the camaraderie filling a piece of her she knew she would have to smother again come morning she had not exactly enjoyed the shitshow. She oozed off of Jackie the only way she could actually get out of the car as she finally got free. Ignoring the mess on her hands as she had to pull herself free by crawling out fo the car.

She rose, flicking her hands to remove the worst and shifted her shoulders and back her suit adjusting back to how it should be. Good. She didn’t look like she had just gone through hell.

Jackie took a bit longer. Untangling himself from the big case they stole. The box of grenades, and just the awkward angle he had been sitting. He got free and stumbled a few steps as he stretched and groaned.

The kid popped out the driver side and rested both arms on the top of the roof seemingly just watching.

“Okay now that I can feel my-well there are ladies present. I’m going to call Padre.” Jackie said cutting him off as he realized he was the lone guy present. Fuckin’ Jackie. Always telling a joke to break the tension.

“You do that Jack.” V said as she looked around. Just a bunch of shops and kiosks. Shame she could use a smoke right now. So instead she focused on the stray. V was a meticulous woman. Had to be to last in counter intel.

Netrunning. Shooting. Driving. Heavy weapon on hand. Stealth. That last one was probably the one that as she made a thought of it caused her eyes to narrow.

The kid had been right above her. Literally laying a few feet above her without a care during an intense firefight. She hadn’t even known she was there. She had searched that warehouse. Her eyes were high end Arasaka optics meant for intel gathering.

They hadn’t even noticed her.

“You’re all glary right now.” The kid offered back with a smirk.

“You were laying above me on the catwalk.”

“Heh! Yeah that was funny. You should have seen your face when I spoke up. You whipped around like a freaked out cat.”

“People don’t sneak up on me.”

She shrugged without a care. “I’m an infiltrator. It’s my specialty… Wait, should I be telling you this? Eh. Hiromi’s parents are with Arasaka too. So I guess it’s fine.” She added talking more to herself than anything.

Hiromi?

A few seconds of searching, and she got it.

Hiromi Mitsunashi. Only child of Keiko and Albert Mitsunashi. They were unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but they had known about the girl?

She did a quick check, and yes. She wouldn’t have to have a firm conversation with them. They had updated the Flathead project with information gathered from a contact and even marked it appropriately. But had marked it questionable, which meant it wasn’t flagged in the system directly to intel to look into.

A fourteen year old had gotten info on the Militech Flathead? Bullshit. Absolute bullshit. Militech were acting like mother bears about that project. Nothing had come out yet. V had been on the taskforce trying to steal the plans.

Twice.

“Who the hell are you?”

The girl blinked at the question before seeming to smirk as her head disappeared and a moment later she had leapt onto the top of her car.

“Glorious Infiltrator Motoko Kusanagi! Netrunner and all around amazing person!”

Then she struck a pose. Hand on her hip which was cocked out and making a V with her fingers over one eye.

V really wanted to shoot her.

“Yeah! You tell them hermanita!” Jackie called out as he finally walked back looking pleased and Motoko seemed to take the attention to heart and puffed up even more.

Why was V dealing these idiots? Why was she wasting her time working with a fucking washed up merc that couldn’t ever seem to get himself out of small time, without everything going to shit, and a now a teenage wonder that V desperately wanted to either put a few hundreds bullets into. Or drag back to Counter Intel.

As an experiment or the future super thief she wasn’t sure which yet.

So why wasn’t she?

“C’mon Hermana! Padre promised a lot of eddies for all the trouble! Rounds on me at the bar tonight!” He said dropping an arm over her shoulder, and pulling V into his bulk in a side hug. The first gentle touch not gained from joytoys or people literally trying to honey trap her in…

Oh right. She was a lonely friendless gonk, and Jack was literally the only person in the city she could put any trust in without being burned.

“Fuck it, fine. But you are gonna pay for that Jack.”

“Hehe. Go a little easy on me choom.”

“Fuck no.”

—--

Half an hour later everyone pulled into Lizzies.

V’s bike had showed up. Jackie just decided to stick with the kid. A runner for Padre had come around and taken the case, freeing them of that concern.

“I still can’t believe you both come to Lizzies! I’ve never seen you here… I mean I don’t come here to drink, so that’s probably part of it.” The girl blathered as soon as V stepped off her bike.

“We usually hang out in the private booths Hermana.”

“That must be it. Hey Rita!” The little gonk ran off to Rita fucking Wheeler with a hand over her head waving like a kid. Ignoring the line ran right up and to V’s surprise didn’t get a bat to the face, instead Rita nodded her head inside without a seconds thought. But the kid didn’t just disappear, instead throwing a finger to V and Jackie.

If V wasn’t who she was, she would have missed it. But like Arasaka wouldn’t put in listening devices into a Counter Intel agent.

“Rita these are my chooms, we just did this massive gig! We’re here to party! Should we get in line? They’re here to drink. I’m never sure of the rules of that kind of thing.”

Wheeler looked over the kid then Jackie and V before just letting out a chuckle. “Heh. It’s fine Motoko. Take your chooms in. I recognize Welles, and his stiff bitch corpo. Neither will cause trouble. Or else.” She said looking up the last part of the sentence they had been close enough to catch.

“Rita you’re the best!”

“Well you owe me one. I want a private rendition of that song of yours.” Rita said teasing smile going wide as the kid gasped

“How did you-Judy squealed!”

“Of course she did! She came up the other day legs shaking and needed an actual drink. You okay kid? Judy said it was pretty brutal.” She asked the kid who looked a little nervous about something.

“Ah…” Motoko made a noise before coming together, clearing her throat and straightening up. “I’m good Rita. That was more of a forced experience. I finished the song and it was so brutal and heavy I wanted to… set the scene? Just… don’t watch it! It’s not good! Yeah you should totally not watch it!” The girl rambled on but the fucks waiting outside were making noise and Rita was forced to focus on them.

“Fuck off! They’re allowed! Go on Motoko we’ll talk later. Remember what I said! You owe me!”

“Never!” The kid called out behind her as she slipped inside and rejoined them. So the kid had Mox connections too.

V shook it off. She wasn’t here for intel.

She was here to get fucking drunk and forget all the trouble she would be in come the morning, when Jenkins found out what she had been up to. He would cover for her. He always did. She was too useful not to. But he was still going to grill her ass and probably have her do scop work for weeks.

They passed through the bar and grabbed one of the circular private booths along the edge of the bar. Settling in.

“I’ll get us some drinks then! V the usual? ‘Toko what are you drinking tonight?”

“Oh I’ll just get a soda Jackie. I don’t drink.”

“Fuck that.” V said, slapping the table and pointing. “You fought beside us. We survived, we celebrate. Grab her something fruity Jack. But she’s gonna drink it.”

“I don’t drink V.” The kid responded back flatly. No give at all.

V actually felt impressed, most teens would have folded with just that.

“You can’t toast a new friendship with just soda Hermanita.” Jackie said having not run off just yet. He reached over and patted the kid on the shoulder. “I’ll bring something, and if you don’t drink it you don’t. But you should at least for the toast!”

“Ugh you drunks! It’s just alcohol! It has no actual meaning!” She hissed back, but Jackie was just laughing.

“Stubborn kid aren’t you?”

“Can be!” She settled into the wide booth as V took her own spot and finally relaxed. No one was coming to kill her here. Jackies crazy gig was done with, and everything was just… Quiet.

Until the girl started humming along to the pop song that was playing above them.

“Like the song or something?” She asked half trying to point out that it was annoying and half teasing.

Fuck Jackie had been right. She had sorta grown on her… Probably right around the time she had drifted them through that intersection.

V could respect a preem line like that.

“Huh? What? Oh! The humming. Not really! It’s kinda shit to be honest. Bad habit I picked up. I tend to sing along to stuff now.” She mentions and just laughs at herself. “This stuff isn’t my thing. I like Samurai and that sort of stuff.”

V sat up a bit. “Chippin ‘In.” V said instantly, and the girl scoffed.

“Never Fade Away! Obviously!”

“Never is good, but Chippin ‘In is the song that speaks best!” V argued pounding a fist into the table.

“Says the borg. Never Fade Away is the best. It does the best job representing human spirit! Never stopping!”

“It’s barely even a Samurai song! Silverhand wrote it when he went solo, and just integrated it into the band when he came back for their reunion tour!”

“Oh no the band only played it together on stage during their all come together tour. Are you going to say Black Dog doesn’t count too?” The kid hissed back.

“Hey Black Dog even existing is a fucking miracle! Everyone gives it leeway!” V retorted back. That song had almost been completely lost when the one copy of it had gone to shit after the Arasaka tower bombing.

“Besides, Never Fade Away was shit as a Johnny Solo song. It took Kerry on Guitar to actually make it work.” She offered and V damn near leapt out of her seat.

“You take that shit back! Without Silverhand Kerry wouldn’t be shit!”

“Oooh. Feisty. We got a Silverhand Fangirl? Really?” The kid seemed absolutely thrilled at this little piece of knowledge.

Thanking her hormonal control implant V just scoffed instead of sputtered. “No. I just know the truth. There’s a reason that for all his fame and fortune and plat albums and shit, Eurodyne doesn’t have the cultural impact Silverhand had.

“Eurodyne is the better musician.”

V had to stop herself from popping her blades at the audacity of this bitch!

Then she realized.

She was having fun. When was the last time she got to talk music with someone? Enjoyed getting into an argument about her favorite band?

What was she even doing with her life? When having a conversation with a teenager made her feel this invigorated…

She flopped back into the couch, the fight going out of her. She really needed that drink. The intrusive thoughts were getting to her.

 

[Seras]

V went silent after my victory with nothing to refute my perfect argument for what Samurai song was the best. I settled down as well. V looked… Tired.

Honestly I kinda wondered who would look more worn. V now, Or V dying from the engram?

I felt a little sad for the woman knowing her future. Knowing that all the stress and heartache and pain she was suffering under from Arasaka would all amount to nothing. Hell less than nothing. A bullet to the head, if Jackie hadn’t been there.

“And two drinks for mis amigas!” Jackie said, showing up with his hands full of drinks, dropping a tumbler in front of V, one for himself, and to my surprise a martini style glass, and a can of soda in front of me. “You don’t have to drink the alcohol Hermanita, but me and V do this every time after a gig it’s our little tradition.” He said as he settled down.

“V?”

“I’m fine Jack. Just been needing a drink.” V said, arching an eye at Jackie who chuckled.

“Sorry choom. The lines were a little long tonight, had a big group dropping off like forty orders right in front of me.” He just laughed it off and V looked for a second like she was going to go bust some assholes down to size but just shrugged it off and grabbed her drink.

“To good fortune.” V offered.
“To good friends.” Jackie replied back.

“To the good fortune to have good friends!” They both said at the same time and then looked to me.

Ugh. Miserable bad influence adults!

I grabbed the stupid martini glass.

“To adding new friends to that list.” I added on my own and Jackie burst into a bright smile. I guess I had done well then we clinked out drinks and took a swallow.

Blegh! So gross!

—--

“A thing of beauty! I know! Will never fade away!” I shouted out standing on top of the table V right beside me singing along with me. The Corpo woman had a pretty good voice!

“Motoko! Get off the table!”

“Rita! Hey! Hold on the songs almost done!” I called back. I don't know why she winced. I had just yelled a little!

We were partying! V and I were great chooms now! Sure she was a little drunk, having been absolutely hammering back shots, but that was okay! One of us had the brilliant idea of requesting some Samurai songs from the system, and one thing led to another.

I don’t remember exactly who got up on the table to sing first, but I was having a great time!

“Oh no you don’t.” There was a jumble of movement or something there and the next thing I remember is waking up as I crash into a pile of trash bags.

It had been surprisingly gentle though.

“You able to get a handle on these two?”

“No p-prob-prob… I can do it! Come on now Hermana! Hermanita, let’s stand up yeah?” Jackie was there and I blinked, raising my head out of the trash.

“You okay there kid?” Rita asked and I checked myself. No injuries. I threw her a thumbs up. “You good to have these two help you get home?” She asked as well, glaring a bit at Jackie which was unfair. He was really struggling with V from the looks of it. Was the Corpo woman passed out face down in the trash? Oh no she was just puking.

“V and Jackie and I are chooooooms!” I called out in response. I even reached out and pulled V’s head out of the trash.

The regurgitated flood of nastiness meant I quickly let go of her hair ignoring the slimy plop as she fell back.

“We’ll be okay Rita, Honest. I’ll drive them home.” Jackie offered. The man sounding a little tipsy. You shouldn’t get so drunk Jackie.

Wait. Driving and drunk?

“NO! Drunk driving is bad! BAAAAD!”

“I’ll call a cab.”

“Yay!”

—--

I blinked awake instantly. “Unfamiliar ceiling.” I muttered as I Rose up and stretched. “Oh gross what died in my mouth?” I grunted wanting to stick out my tongue at the taste, but other than that I was fine.

No headache or anything, I patted myself down noticing most of my gear was settled on the table next to me, but my Kang Tao armor was missing…

I don’t remember what happened to it.

Looking around I tried to figure out where I was.

The array of men stuff around the room gave me a hint to where I was. “This Jackies place?” I asked, looking around in surprise. I was on his couch with a little blanket strewn over me.

“Oh you awake too kid?” I sat up and there was V. Not a hair out of place, the corpo woman looked like she was ready to step into a boardroom or a battlefield.

“You can just call me Motoko.” I told her as I got up and stretched.

It hit me then. Aw man. I got drunk. I hated that! It was so gross! “Huh no hangover or anything huh? Must be nice to be a kid. Poor Jackie is still laid up.”

“Heh. Really?”

“Yeah nasty hangover. The oaf.” V said as she sipped on a can of something. “I’ll be heading out soon. Kid, it wasn’t horrible working with you.”

“Is that your nice way of saying I’m more competent than you expected and I’m useful?” I asked as I took a seat across from her.

She scoffed but didn’t actually deny my words.

So I threw her my deets.

“Really?” She asked with an arched eyebrow.

“Hey, I know what it’s like up in that stuffy office they probably got you in. If you ever need someone you can trust to watch your back, I am a merc.” I explained and she seemed kind of surprised at my words for a moment before her face blanked as always.

“I’ll keep it in mind.” She sends her own deets back. Giving me a number and even an email although it was a .Arasaka address which meant I wasn’t going anywhere near it. “Oh I looked into our little jaunt last night. Kang Tao are frothing mad, but they don’t have much to go on. I’d suggest you get your car repainted, maybe reset the ID, and don’t let it spread around.”

“It wasn’t exactly a big deal.” I said honestly. I mean you don’t see AV’s much in the game, but that was engine limitations, those things are everywhere in Night City. I’d honestly been surprised I hadn’t gotten involved in an aerial chase through the city until now.

“Pfft. You took out a Kang Tao AV kid. You do know the price tag on those things right?”

“Million or something?”

“More like twenty.” She said with an actual laugh. “And worse, it crashed in the city. NCPD, get involved for things like that, which means KT is paying fines and bribes to make it go away. Like I said. Alter your car a bit, and keep it quiet.”

I hesitated but nodded. “Shame. I wanted to make a BD of that explosion. Commemorate it a bit.”

V went still for a moment before speaking. “You record BD’s while on gigs?”

“Yeah! It’s preem! I have a choom with the mox that edits and then another that sells them off.” I explain in a rush, happy to share. V just shakes her head.

“Not sure if that’s preem, or just crazy. Be careful kid, and don’t put me in any of them. Last thing I would need is my boss finding out.”

“Deal.”

“Alright I’m out. I already checked on Jack. If you’re feeling good feel free to leave when-”

“YOU BITCHES!” A voice screamed out as the door opened and a woman I didn’t know stomped in. She started absolutely going off in spanish, which my limited vocabulary recognized most of them as insults.

“Hello to you too. You’re Camillla right?” V said calmly, seemingly unbothered by the slightly short spanish woman that was ranting and raving at her.

Oh and me. The woman spit out something at me too.

“Who wants to know some homewrecking whores in my Jackies home!?”

I blinked.

Did… That’s right. Jackie mentioned he had an Output.

So this was the girl that Jackie had left, eventually dating Misty.

The girl that Mama Welles had preferred.

Huh. No accounting for taste Mama Welles.

“I’m V. An associate of Jackies.”

“Yeah I’m sure he associated with you all night you-” And there was the string of spanish added on.

Awkward.

This was so awkward. My cringe meter was absolutely blasting and that thing was broken half the time.

“Hey, how about we all take a second. Jackie V and I all had a gig last night. We didn’t like… Do that.” I said, waving my hands in different shapes to show the things that we didn’t do.

Before the woman could turn to me and start exploding because she was definitely about to Jackie came stumbling out of his bedroom.

Jackie looked like shit. I almost wanted to giggle as he stumbled into the room clutching his head. Voice croaking as he barely could open his eyes.

“Cami? That you? Everything alright?” He asked as he stumbled over and finding the right woman pulled her into a hug. But she slapped him away and started screeching.

Ow.

That was making my head hurt, and I didn’t even have a hangover. Jackie looked utterly fucked up.

“Jack. I’m gonna head out.” V said showing zero sympathy as she just walked out after everything leaving poor Jackie to his fate.

I followed after her, because I wasn’t a gonk.

—--

V and I split up, and I did as she recommended. Jackie had dropped some eddies into my account last night at some point, so I just headed over to a detailing shop.

This time my Reaver didn’t look like a Raffen vehicle, so it only cost a more reasonable amount to redo the black paint and add some purple in for highlights. By the time it was done, I had already modified the identification with a bit of netrunning and it was lunchtime and I was getting hungry so I stopped for some noodles.

Oh, and my Kang Tao Armor had been in the passenger seat. I must have taken it off at some point.

Then I pulled open my system alerts.

I had to whistle a bit as I looked through the alerts. Blowing up that AV had certainly given me a nice stack of Engineering XP from the Uragan.

And a level up.

*Engineering skill level up!*

Jeez that skill was so low. And it still made no sense why Engineering had to do with explosions!

I shook it off and continued going down my list.

“Assault XP, Assault XP. Assault level up!”

*Assault skill level up!*

Assault 6! I guess using my Assault Rifles instead of just defaulting to my Burya all the time came in handy.

Aww yiss! New levels!

*Driving skill level up!*

Driving 7!

I guess that race through the city while being shot at had helped me out!

Well that and my daily driving.

That was all my skill upgrades from the night of hell raising with V and Jackie, but that wasn’t all I pulled out of the wreckage.

*750 XP Gained.*

*750 XP Gained.*

*750 XP Gained.*

*750 XP Gained.*

A short burst of XP in the middle of the fight. That was where I blinded everyone and shot a few guys.

But then there was the big bunch.

A single 1000 XP stack, and then five more 750 drops.

In the end I wasn’t quite at a new level up, but I was very close. Considering it had all happened sort of on accident. I would have to do something nice for Jackie as thanks for all that XP.

Ah wait, he wouldn’t know what I was talking about. Better to just be there for another gig if he ever needed me.

I slurped up the last of my ramen and dropped a tip to the Ramen chef who gave me a bow as I headed out of the shop.

I’d been running around doing gigs a lot recently.

“Time to go get some more songs!” I decided as I stepped away from my empty bowl of ramen.

—--

Despite only being Rockerboy 7, it wasn’t hard to basically recreate songs. Any mistakes I made while recording them through my music box were easily fixed with a bit of digital chop shopping.

But it was a nice time waster.

Each song had to be played through multiple times, then multiple times on top to fix errors. Then mashing it all together, which took more time.

The very second song I wrote out for my box?

Never Fade Away by Samurai!

Maybe I would bug V sometime and get her to co vocal it with me? I had been pretty drunk, but I still remember noting her voice was really good.

The song after that, I went with something that didn’t exist.

Smells like Teen Spirit by Nirvana.

It was a simple song to work on and grind some more experience. I mean. Some of the songs were incredibly technical, and it was only because of a perk giving me perfect memory that I could remember how they went.

Nirvana was… Simple by comparison to The Only Thing They Fear.

Not that it wasn’t a good song.

I mean. It would fit right into Night City, the first lyric was “Load up on guns, bring your friends.” If there was ever a song lyric that fit Night City that was it.

So I added the song to my list. Enjoying crooning aloud as I recorded the audio.

As I was finangling the drum track, which was taking a while, considering I had to do it completely digitally. Jun got home, opening the door and seeming to relax at seeing me camped out on the couch like normal.

“You left last night.” He commented as he put down some of his stuff. His Katana joining my own on the Katana rack near the shrine.

“Jackie called me for netrunner help on a gig.” I told him leaving out all of the actual exciting bits.

“You could have left a message.” He said and I nodded at that. He was right. I mean. I hadn’t because Jun might have tried to stop me, or follow along, but I could have. He sighed seeing I wasn’t going to actually do the right thing and say I will in the future.

“You okay?”

“Oh I’m fine. I met one of Jackies Chooms! V’s so cool. Arasaka Counter-intel. She has this I’ll kill you and destroy your entire family aura about her. But she can sing Never Fade Away so she isn’t all bad!”

Jun blinks at my rather odd words before seemingly deciding asking isn’t worth the effort.

“Counter-Intel? Those kinda of people are… Crazy. I’m not sure I want you hanging out with someone like that.”

“Nah. V’s more Jackies Choom. They saved each other on some gig. I didn’t get the deets. Anyway, she’s safe enough. I don’t think I’ll hang out with her, without Jackie or something, and he’s like… Her weakness. She goes all buttery soft around him. It’s adorable.”
“They Input-Output?”

“Nope. I think they might have something there, but neither is willing. I think V’s life is just complicated.” I shrugged, deciding to take a break from this drum section.

“And the gig he pulled you into?”

“Break into a corpo laptop for some info on where something was taken. When I got there everything was quiet. Took me like ten minutes to break in.”

“You were out all night. Motoko, you’re avoiding saying what you actually did on the gig. You always blab about the entire adventure when I ask. I usually have to leave to get you to stop.”

“Rude!”

“Avoiding the question.”

“Okay, fine. Yeah the corp was Kang Tao. Some minor gang of kids klepped a car that had some stuff in the trunk. Kang Tao wanted it back, and killed the kids. Jackie was hired by Padre to get the stuff back, mostly in revenge for the killing and well… I followed Jackie and V on the gig as their backup. Shit got a little crazy.”

“Define crazy.” Jun said flatly and I winced before looking around a little.

“Okay, first. You can’t tell anyone. V mentioned Kang Tao has no idea who did it, so that’s good, because they are pissed.”

“What did you and your chooms do?”

“Well… This is more of a me thing?”

Jun was done paying attention to his gear that he was taking off, he walked over and sat on the couch glaring down at me.

“I blew up an AV with my Rocket Launcher! It crashed and made a massive crash and Jun-Nii it was the coolest, most preem thing EVER! I’ve been wanting to tell someone all day!” I let it all out in a rush making an explosion motion with my hands to emphasize how amazing it was!

I blew up an aircraft!

I always wanted to do that!

“Fucking hell.” Jun said as he tried to process what I had done. It wasn’t like you could just walk up to someone you know and say you shot down an airplane with a rocket launcher and not have it be a bit of a deal to process.

So I remained quiet just squirming under Jun’s gaze as he came to a conclusion about how he felt.

“Ow!” He hit me right on the head.

“Don’t go to war with the corps you idiot!” He hissed at me quietly, obviously not wanting to shout something so incendiary through the walls.

“I didn’t!”

“High explosives is an escalation!”

“Well! Fine! I’ll get a Techtronika Grad and use that as an AT rifle instead! I’ll just snipe the pilots ou-Ow!”

“Don’t blow up AV’s! Fuck I can’t believe I have to explain this!”

“Okay fine! I’ll leave the AV fuckers alone. I’ll just kill everyone they drop off if I ever run into them or something.”

“Just stop putting yourself in situations that corps are sending AVs at you! I’ve never had this problem!”

I considered it.

He had already hit me twice so you know what?

“Wow, that’s pretty sad Jun. You should get on my level.” There was silence for a moment between us as we locked eyes.

“OW!”

 

[Seras]

I slept a full eight hours after that. Woke up to a warm sunrise over Night City that I could only just see outside the apartment window. Did the normal morning things. Had breakfast, watched TV, realized NC TV still sucked and in the end just didn’t do anything serious.

And in the end I was rewarded! Hiromi called asking if I wanted to meet up for lunch. Giving me something to do other than be lazy around the apartment.

Turns out she meant for us to meet up on her lunch break from the academy, but I wasn’t going to complain. Because Hiromi had a surprise when I picked her up!

I pulled in across from Arasaka Academy into a waiting area, and idled while waiting for HIromi to show up, that I was actually surprised when someone walked up to the car and only when I noticed her did she strike a pose.

Hiromi had chipped in some chrome!

She had new optics. It was the thing that caught my eye, as they were glowing in a hypnotic swirl of colors although mostly her eyes remained a neon green. Her favorite color. I was staring as she slipped into the Quadra. My scan was blocked as I was so interested in what she had chipped in. High end Arasaka Optics for sure, stuff that competes with Kiroshi definitely.

She also had some changes to her EMP threading as well, and her Neon makeup.

The threading was darker now. My previous assumption that I would end up with Goth Hiromi had been fairly accurate, as the lines were now a more matte black to match her other new chrome. She definitely had some sort of hand chrome now, with all the black plastic and metal that wrapped around her fingers and a bit over her knuckles.

“Preem chrome Hiromi.” I finally said after checking out all the changes for a moment and I could tell she was preening under the attention.

“Oh these little things? Nothing big. Just some minor changes!” She faux played down her changes and I couldn’t help but giggle at her attempts.

“How’s it all feel? Any issues?”

“No, it’s no big.” She denied instantly, but I wasn’t going to let it go with just that. I reached over and grabbed her hand with mine partially to catch her attention and also to examine the new chrome.

“If you ever have trouble. It’s not something to be ashamed of. My arms gave me trouble and I’m glad I talked to people about it.” I told her, eyes meeting her own and I could see the swirl of colors in them shift suddenly even faster.

“Bwuh! It’s fine! Minor alterations for the most part! Most of it is just some upgrades you know, new eyes with better scans, and some hand chrome that will help as an Arasaka goon… Executive. I should probably stop saying that.” She muttered and I laughed at her as she blushed a little.

I reached out then, tracing a finger down the dark EMP threading going along her cheek. “No more kitty whiskers huh?”

She was flushing a lot at me pointing out her old aesthetic. “It just felt childish! So I changed a little!... It looks okay?”

“Yeah, it’s preem! I like Goth Hiromi. She’s cute.”

“G-goth? What the hell is that?” Hiromi asked, and I had a moment of complete brain shut down.

Goth wasn’t a thing!?

“It’s… A thing. With stuff? Anyway! You look cute! I always did like the Arasaka aesthetic to be honest.” I told her, and while she didn’t look like she was going to let it go, she did preen again under my words.

“Well good! C’mon let’s get some food. I only have so long for a lunch break… So thanks for coming to pick me up. I wanted to see yo- to show off my new chrome!”

I nodded quickly, pulling out of the little park and really just heading a bit down the street to an area with some food shops. “The chrome is absolutely preem.” I continued to assure her as we pulled in and took a few minutes to order.

I ended up eating some weird fancy wrap thing. It had.. Lettuce? No I’m pretty sure that wasn’t actually lettuce but I was pretending. Really hard.

Thankfully Hiromi wasn’t just wanting to show off her chrome, and was distracting me.

“It’s so boring Motoko!” She whined as she stuffed her own wrap in her face as she sat with me in the Quadra.

“School is important.”

“I know! It doesn’t make it any less boring though.” She grumbled. “I saw your newest BD.” She said suddenly and I jerked as I realized the last BD I had dropped had been ‘that’ one.

“O-oh. You okay? It didn’t make you sick or anything right?”

“What? C’mon Motoko. I don’t entirely get why you hang out with the Mox, but Judy is definitely a Maestro when it comes to tuning BD’s no way I would get sick. It was fucking preem though. That first drop? I felt like my stomach was going out of my throat, but you just hit the ground in a roll and were off.” Hiromi made a few punching motions with her fists.

I didn’t really know what to say as I was a little embarrassed at how brutal that particular engagement had been. “It didn’t bother you? The whole…” I rolled my wrist as I couldn’t find the word.

“No way! It was exciting, and knowing it was you behind it all only made it way more preem.” She assured me. “I see why you wrote that song though. It really did fit way better with the action.”

“Ah… Yeah. It’s meant to be a song that plays during a brutal fight.” I muttered a little embarrassed that Hiromi had actually seen it!

She wasn’t supposed to see it!

“It was very preem, it’s getting super popular. All the rich kids are buying it. This one had so much brutality even the normal XBD watchers wanted it.” She informed me as she took another bite of her wrap. “The Only Thing They Fear is You. Preem title. That’s the name of your song?”

“Yeah… Yeah that’s the name of the song. It’s not too weird?” Ah! I was right! It was so awkward having my bestie see that BD! I shouldn’t have made it! Stupid past Motoko!

“Not at all! A lot of XBD’s have weird names! Seriously, I've handled so many weird BD’s over the last couple weeks. I only agreed to help Nox sell to the academy kids so I could make sure everyone could see your preem BD’s. But I’ve had to deal with a lot of trash. I even had to do a hostile takeover of this street kid that goes to the academy. He was selling stuff, but he was selling the BD’s like some weird corner hawker.”

“Wait. Some kid was selling BD’s in the academy?” And why did that sound familiar? I asked myself already knowing the answer.

“Yeah. Some street kid that got in on grades. Which is totally weird by the way. Anyway, you’d think some smart kid would know how to sell BD’s but he was hawking them like a back alley dealer. Barely anyone bought from him. I took his little attempt and turned it into an actual business.” She said flipping her hair with one hand.

“That’s really impressive Hiromi!” I chirped and I could see her face go red at my compliment even if she side eyed me a bit to make sure I was actually being sincere. Which I was.

I couldn’t set up a business like that.

“Ugh! I can’t look at you with your dopey smile! I have to get back to class anyways. Thanks. Motoko. For coming to spend time with me.” She said as she slipped out of the Quadra with a wave and then a little jog to run back to the academy.

I just laughed at her fleeing form as I started the car and pulled out of the little parking the food shops had.

It was too bad. I was pretty sure the kid Hiromi had taken over the BD business from was David. I still wanted to meet the gonk.

Eh, someday, I decided.

—--

“Heeey Rita.” I called, drawling out the greeting a bit at the look the older woman gave me.

“Give me one reason I should ever let you inside again?” She asked, arms crossing over her chest.

“Cause. I’m super duper sorry about causing trouble! It won’t happen again… I uh. Don’t drink for a reason you know?”

Rita kept the unamused look on her face for quite a while before finally it cracked and she laughed at me.

“Well at least a little trash dive hasn’t hurt your ego too badly.”

“Nah I’m okay… I only kinda remember that night. So I guess V and I singing on the table was causing some problems?”

“Oh please, that's barely a problem. The issue is you hacked our music system to play Samurai music on repeat. Judy had to come up and reset the whole thing to stop the ten thousand repeats of Never Fade Away.”

“Ooh. I don’t remember that… Sorry.”

Rita huffed a laugh and rolled her eyes. “You’re lucky we owe you one. Just don’t do it again.”

“Deal.” I agreed and Rita nodded, making a motion that I could enter, but I just blinked at her. “Oh I’m not here to party or something. I just knew I should apologize for causing trouble.” I said and Rita looked at me.

I looked at her.

She blinked.

I blinked.

“You came here to apologize… To me?”
“Well yeah! I caused you trouble! You even had to throw me out of the club… Drunk Motoko can’t have been easy to deal with.”

“You were actually docile once I got you off the table. I just had to tell you you were in trouble and you were kinda blubbering and going along with it.”

“I definitely didn’t blubber!”

“Can you say that for sure?” She asked and I had no real response to that one.

I huffed in outrage and Rita once again broke out into laughter. “So what are you doing just coming by?”
“Mostly! I just stopped to see Hiromi on her lunch break, and I don’t have any gigs or anything for the day.”

“In that case why don’t you come hang with me. I’m getting off soon. You can show me how far you’ve come with your hobby.”

“Oh that’s right! I do owe you for that… Why don’t you come to my place then! I can show you my music box! I just finished a few songs!”

Rita blinked and then seemed utterly amused at my offer bursting into a full body laugh. “Sure Motoko I’ll come over to your house and play.” She said cracking up.

I just pouted at her, because that’s not what I said!

—--

“Welcome to my home!” I introduced with a wave at the apartment for Rita.

“Huh.” She commented looking over all my junk still left out on the living room table.

“D-don’t just huh! Sorry about the mess though.” I muttered a little embarrassed. Dangit Rita was a cool older woman! It wasn’t fair that my place was a little messy! Dangit Jun! Aren’t you the responsible one!?

No wait. He almost went full Cyberpsycho.

I was the responsible one.

Fuck no wonder our apartment was a damn mess. No one should trust me with responsibility!

I shook off that horror filled realization as I gestured for Rita to take the couch.

“Want anything to drink? Eat?”

“I’m good Motoko. I had a lunch break about an hour before you showed up. So this is where you’ve been working on your hobby?”

“Yeah! Mostly! I mean. I could probably go find a better place for acoustics, but I’m using a high end mic I picked up for the vocals, and the rest of the tracks are recorded digitally, so I can tweak them if they sound off… Do you want to hear?”

Rita settled on the couch and gave me one of those cool smirks that told me she was totally humoring me!

I was just gonna have to blow her socks off!

I went over to my music box and took it from the living room table to set it on the floor and set up the song I was gonna play.

Then I grabbed my guitar. Doing a few test chords to make sure it was ready.

One good thing about the new guitars, no need to tune the strings. It was a digital guitar after all.

“So this is called Smells like Teen Spirit.” I told her and she huffed a bit at the name but I pulled my Personal Link cord out of the back of my neck and slotted it into the music box behind me, and started the song.

Instantly behind me two holograms slowly came together, obviously surprising Rita, as I went into the stuttered chords of the intro.

“Load up on guns, bring your friends.” I crooned the intro to the song, my voice wasn’t quite the honey of Cobain, but I could make it a more similar sultry croon with Sexy Motoko Voice!

And I jammed out. A one woman band. Showing off to the person to originally give me the idea to find a hobby.

“A denial.” I ended the last lyric letting the guitar finish humming out the final chord.

Then silence. The holograms that had been jamming out behind me went out leaving the room how it was before I started.

“So… What do you think?” I asked the woman. Rita’s face had gone kinda blank middle way through the song.

“I think that’s a bit further along than a hobby.” She said honestly.

I didn’t really know how to take that, so I just sort of smiled and probably looked a little uncomfortable.

“You got talent Motoko. I’m really impressed. I’ve never heard that song before either.”

“Ah. I like it.” I said, I never was very comfortable with taking credit for work others had done. Even if they didn’t exist in this world.

“I do too. It’s got a certain flair. Maybe we’ll have you come in and play at Lizzies.”

“No way!” I denied instantly. “I’m not interested in live shows like that! It would be so embarrassing if I messed up.”

“Pfft. You’re adorable kid.” Rita said, laughing at me! How mean!

I was definitely going to come up with an amazing retort and make Rita apologize when the door opened.

“Thought that was you playing.” Jun said as he meandered in looking tired.

“Jun-Nii!” I greeted, but there was a sudden tenseness in the atmosphere as the two older people noticed each other.

Rita was Mox, and Mox were not exactly on good terms with the TC.

“Oni.” Rita finally broke the silence. A simple greeting but using Jun’s work name. What is up with that? Does everyone know who he is now? How come they know who he is, but not me? This is unfair!

“Bouncer.” He greeted back, without any additions.

“Awkward.” I broke in instantly, cutting out the tension.

“Rita, this is Jun my older brother, Jun this is Rita, she’s the one that helped me start looking for a hobby, so I owe all the music stuff I’ve been working on to her. I brought her over to show her a song I wrote as a thank you.”

Jun blinked, seemingly stepping back from the semi-hostile edge.

“Motoko’s a bit of a gonk, but thanks for looking out for her. I know it’s not always easy.”

Rita took in Jun’s words and just shrugged, seeming to relax a little. “I’m used to helping out with the younger girls. Motoko’s no trouble… When she isn’t standing on a table and drunk singing her heart out.”

Jun blinked before a smirk popped across his lips. “She didn’t share that story. I’ll have to get it out of her sometime.”

“Rita! You aren’t supposed to share that!” But they both just ignored my offense. Jun wasn’t supposed to know I got drunk and thrown out of the bar! He would never let me live it down!

“Any of Motoko’s chooms are welcome.” Jun said breaking up the fact they were ignoring me by then patting me on the head as he moved past. “I was just bringing some food home, hungry?”

“No, but thanks.” Rita said back, sounding much more relaxed.

“Well if you need anything let me know. Motoko. You finished a new song? I want to hear.” He demanded and I glared at him Jun was up to something!

I knew that look on his face, the one where he got all smirky and pushed his chin up like he was looking down at me!

“Nope. You don’t get to hear my awesome cool new song.”

“Well that’s a shame. Rita right? What’s this about Motoko drunk singing-?”

“Right! A new song I finished Jun-Nii! Why don’t you just take a seat for the full experience and no talking while I sing! In fact no talking at all! Ever!” I demanded, forced to switch gears at my brothers evil vile blackmail!

—--

Despite my best attempts once I finished off my second rendition of Smells like Teen Spirit. Jun and Rita still got to talking about their one and only shared point.

“So she was dancing on the table?”

“With V, a corpo woman that comes in from time to time. Never seen her get so wild either.”

“It’s all Jackies fault!” I groaned into my hands, and Jun laughed at me, openly amused at hearing about my drunk escapades.

“I wish I had been there now.” He said with a sigh and Rita chuckled at the two of us as I glared at Jun in return.

“Well now that you both have had so much fun making fun of me! I’m gonna go hang out with cool people!” I told them both as I rose up and settled my guitar back on the stand and the Music box back off the floor.

Really didn’t want to deal with someone kicking it on accident. Especially since the only person likely to do that was Jun, and his stupid borg feet.

“C’mon now ‘Toko. It’s just a little teasing.” Rita said, while still laughing at me, so I didn’t give her the benefit of a response, just a huff as I crossed my arms and walked into the kitchen with all my dignity.

“Bathroom!” I retorted as I did just that, going into the bathroom to give myself some space and hopefully have the topic change when I came out. No fair for Rita and Jun to both pick on me!. I was just finishing up when I heard it.

A laugh.

No. That wasn’t a laugh. A laugh is more Hahaha. This was more. Tehehe!

That was a fucking giggle!

I poked my head out of the bathroom to peer into the living room with my wide eyes demanding explanations, because that was Rita.

Rita. Mox Bouncer badass, and all around scary woman, giggling like a schoolgirl with my brother.

It was impossible.

I refused to believe it, but my lying eyes showed me the truth.

Did… Did Jun have game? Was he actually good with women?

Because I was seeing my brother. The TC enforcer, flirting with the Mox Bouncer.

He must have scored some sort of critical. Because I refuse to believe my burrito obsessed brother who likes garbage like the Us Cracks actually has game!

“Uh. Motoko. What’s gotten into you?” Jun asked suddenly as he caught sight of my staring.

“Nothing.” I said firmly but I didn’t move my eyes. Instead I was kept them wide and locked on Jun and Rita. Refusing to accept what I was seeing. As I stayed half poking out over the kitchen counter.

Rita caught it after a moment. And I got to see the delightful look of the womans plastic looking Real Skinn flush a little in an actual blush.

“I should get going.” She said then to both Jun and I’s surprise.

“You don’t have to!” I argued.

“There isn’t a rush.” Jun said much calmer than my own response. “Don’t mind Motoko. She’s always like this. She’s probably just planning some petty revenge.”

“Petty!?”

“No. I appreciate the offer, and the show Motoko, but I should get out of here… This was a surprise, but a good one.” She finally said looking to Jun, and if I wasn’t a super secret mega hacker…

And the fact I had totally breached into Jun’s agent forever ago… Mostly for fun. Mostly.

Well I caught the shared deets.

Rita… Rita just gave him her number.

Jun looked as gobsmacked as I was as Rita flashed him a smirk, and then looked to me. “See ya around Motoko. Keep practicing. I want to see you up on stage someday.” She offered as she walked out of the apartment.

“Wait what ju-” Jun’s question was cut off as I leapt on him wrapping myself around his head and squeezing.

“WAS THIS THE IDIOT FLIRTING WITH GIRLS UNDER MY ROOF!?” I yelled, probably loud enough Rita would still catch it.

Details.

“I wasn’t flirting!” Jun yelped in surprise as he quickly startled wrestling me off him, unfortunately he was still much stronger than me, and he was getting used to my holds at this point. “Was I?” He asked himself after finally pinning me down.

“Gonk.”