Ghost in the City Cyberpunk Gamer SI

I reconnected my audio and visual link with Malcolm once I was sure it was over.

“Malcolm you there?”

*Motoko! You okay?*

“I’m fine Malcolm, just some unexpected defenses. I guess I should have known a gun shop wouldn’t ignore their net defenses as well. I’m moving in now.” Then I did just that, first stopping at the Turrets to examine what was left of their code.

I couldn’t find anything that would give them a defense against my stealth Daemons. Until I looked up and noticed there was actually a defensive system around their cubby. A few minutes of examining it and it made sense.

The turrets had their own barriers around them that turned off once they started attacking. It was actually brilliant, as they were protected right until they noticed someone. Sure with this knowledge I could probably make some adjustments and double check for such a thing in the future, but to see something new like this?

“Fascinating.”

*Motoko?*

“It’s nothing Malcolm, just some cool netrunner stuff. I’m heading in now.” I took a long moment to examine the door that led further inside and even sent a breach access into the door, just to make sure it wasn’t trapped. After confirming it was clean I opened the door and stepped through.

It was a room. Just a server room really. Files stored in digital file drawers that would be folders on normal computers.

I accessed the rooms functions after making sure there were no defenses in here, and did a search for grenade information.

A few minutes later I found the file I wanted. Blueprints to create an EMP grenade that the shop sold, at least it would be better than the junk I had messed around with so long ago. Better than just a battery overloading.

I looked around and did a few more quick searches, gathering up more details on other grenade types, and some data on silencers. Just in case I could learn something new.

Then I pulled out, making sure to cover my tracks, and running the hell away before whoever owned the shop figured out they had a digital break in.

—---

“Blegh.” I groaned as I pulled free. I was mostly okay at this point, but my brain still felt hot from all the hacks I had pushed through my deck.

“You okay?”

“Yeah yeah. Just a headache.” I grumbled, as I pulled out a MaxDoc and huffed it down. Instantly the pain faded, and I unplugged from the netrunner chair and stretched as I wandered over to the small sink in the basement. A few seconds of washing my face, and pouring cold water over my neck I felt much much better.

“So that was kinda scary.” Malcolm offered and I nodded.

“Yeah I wasn’t expecting that sort of defense. I mean most shops I breach into don’t have much security. Then again I don’t think I’ve tried to hack a gun shop before.” It was usually food stands, or hotels.

“You handled it though?”

“Yeah. I could have just disconnected from the server as well. The system couldn’t lock me in.” I threw him a thumbs up. “But more importantly. You got the data upload right?”

“Yep! Right here!” He ran back to the laptop and flipped it around, showing the blueprint of an EMP grenade. “Looks complicated.”

“Eh. Mostly I just need to know how they make it. Once I know the parts they are using I can either copy it, or make adjustments to make it cheaper… Or stronger.” I answered. “But really. Malcolm. Thanks. I appreciate the backup.”

“Hey, no worries. Honestly. I’m glad I was here to help, especially if you are in the net doing stuff that crazy.”

“Yeah the net is certainly a world of its own.”

—---

I treated Malcolm to lunch, and he ended up actually following me around to all the shops I had to hit to gather the parts for all the different grenades I was going to make.

Slamming all the bags onto the work bench in the basement, Malcolm was carrying bags as well, helping me save a trip all the way to the car park. He grunted as he dropped the bags, sighing and rubbing his arms.

“You really need all this?”

“Not really, but I want to make a few Laser Grenades because… That’s just cool.” I answered and Malcolm did sort of shrug and nod together at that.

“True.”

“And those things are kinda complicated. EMP stuff is pretty cheap, and that’s what I have here.”

“Preem. So are you going to make them now?”

“Yeah, I can do that. Want to watch?”
“Yeah.” He offered and I smiled as I ran over to the CAD program. First I needed to make my own design since I wasn’t using the weapon shop's exact design for the grenades.

I pulled up the design of my frag grenade that I used to print the casings in the printer, and started making adjustments.

*100 Engineering XP Gained.*

I smiled at that as I almost instantly got the alert and slammed through it. The changes were only minor really, a few additional holes cut into the casing to fit the battery that would be the source of the EMP.

Finished with the file I uploaded it and sent it to the Printer, then grabbing an old casing I plopped it into the 3d Printer and in ten minutes cut out the sections I would need.

“Here Malcolm, something you can do to help. See all these Casings? When one is finished just put it into the machine to keep making more. I’m aiming for at least a dozen of these.” The boy looked over the printer and nodded instantly.

“That I can do.”

With that I set to work. Malcolm was a big help in running around to grab things for me, as I took the blueprints I had learned from the weapon shop, and made a few minor adjustments for my own style, and then slowly put together an EMP grenade. I was extremely careful when I finally placed the battery into the casing.

Almost nervous as I purposefully rolled my chair to the far side of the basement as far from the server and netrunning stuff as I could before finally sealing it all together.

*100 Crafting XP Gained.*

“Done?”

“Yeah. First one anyways… Want to go test it?”
“Hell yes!”

We left the rest of the stuff there as we hurried out of the basement.

—--

I couldn’t exactly throw it around in the middle of the street, and while I was confident in the range of the EMP effect only being a couple of feet, I didn’t exactly want to be wrong, so we once more drove mostly out of the city until we started seeing dirt lots and open spaces, then I just pulled into a dirt lot ignoring whoever owned it as Malcolm and I stepped out of the Quadra.

“Okay Malcolm? Want to do the honors?”

“Hell yeah… Just pop and throw?”

“Just like the frags yeah. Same timer and everything.”

He popped the clip holding the timer locked, twisted the timer and chucked the grenade sending it arcing away.

We waited for a few seconds once it bounced and then a few seconds more…

Then suddenly it burst into a visible wave of light and a spark of electricity and I even got a second of fuzz in my Kiroshi, although we were far enough it didn’t do anything more.

“Whoa.” Malcolm offered and I nodded smiling.

“That is NOVA!” I screamed into the air, arms upraised.

“Totally nova.”

Malcolm and I high fived and then we hurried back to the Quadra.

—---

“I still think it was a good show.” Malcolm offered, he had decided to hang out with me despite the fact I was just working on making more and more grenades, and the distraction was actually kind of appreciated.

Except his taste in TV shows was as bad as my brothers.

“Watson Whore was literally one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. And I saw Bushido 5.”

“Bushido 5 is the best one!”

I looked away from the grenade I was fitting together to give him a look of disgust.

“They had a train top Kusanagi sword battle before the whole train exploded for no reason-”

“The minions Kusanagi landed under the train and it exploded!”

“Nothing explodes like that! It blew up the entire train!”

“I know it was so preem!”

“Then! If that wasn’t stupid enough the explosion launched the ‘hero’ into the air and he landed his Kusanagi into the bad guys AV.”

“It was such a preem scene! They didn’t use stunt doubles or anything for that! It was all practical effects!”

“That… Malcolm I literally saw some of those minions get stuck under the train!”

“Yeah the stunt guys all have Gemini and super hardened brain cases. They get torn apart all the time.”

“God that sounds horrible.” I shook my head as I went back to finishing the grenade.

“How many of those you going to make?”

“I honestly was just thinking of making as many as I can until I ran out of parts… I bought… Thirty batteries?”

Malcolm nodded wisely and then threw up a thumbs up.

Which I instantly returned. Malcolm got it.

—--

*100 Engineering XP Gained.*

*Engineering skill level up!*

I looked up from the CAD software. I had been working on designing the laser grenade and it was honestly a lot more complicated, since I needed to have the laser emitters cut through the grenade casing.

Well that and it was a much chunkier grenade, since the power source and all the emitters took up space.

But, I was making great progress and now I had a level up from it!

Engineering 6!

I leaned back away from the computer and stretched. Malcolm and I had hung out all day making grenades and talking about movies or other stuff. He had even asked me about chrome. What I had planned, and what he should get.

It was fun! But eventually he had decided to head home to check in with his folks leaving me time to design more grenades.

But maybe it was time for a break.

I got up and headed to the elevator, and then out of the SLS apartments. Just as I was walking out though I ran into a familiar face.

“Nox?”

“Motoko! Hey!” The Mox boy had some changes since I last saw him.

For one, he had gotten a set of Tech Hair which now was split in half, with Mox colors. “Nice chrome. Just the tech hair?” I asked and his face burst into a smile.

“No, I got a few other things as well. Some preem optics for one. Helps me keep track of customers and stuff.” He said flashing his eyes through a few different settings. Mostly just making them brighter.

“Preem choom. How’s business?”

“Eh. Not a lot of new content.” He said, teasing me lightly and I just shrugged.

“Yeah, most of the recent stuff is no good. Too much chance of pissing off corps or big groups. I’ll try to get something that’s workable to Judy soon.”

“Hey, whatever you can bring in will be good I’m sure!” He offered and I shrugged. I hadn’t really thought about it in a while. The BD stuff was still mostly just something for fun.

“I’ll have to reach out to Wakako and see if she has any gigs. I did a short one of me klepping a car, but nothing really happened, so I never bothered to give it to Judy.”

“Hey you know… There is one thing we could use some help with.” He suddenly asked, and I blinked.

“What’s up?”

“So Hiromi’s got the SLS working guard duty right? Well, there’s been some trouble recently. One of the sellers and his guards were beaten and everything was taken. Didn’t think much of it at first, but then it happened again.”

“Wait. The girls already brought this up. I told them to bug Hiromi.”

“Yeah, same situation, but this just happened. She hasn’t done anything yet, but the guys I have selling are getting antsy, and SLS aren’t doing much better.”

“When was the last attack?”

“Yesterday.” He said and I frowned at that. “I’ll talk to Hiromi about it, let me know if anything new happens as well. That’s not okay.”

“Thanks Motoko, I knew you’d want to get involved as soon as you heard.” He said and I realized he had purposefully been out here waiting for me.

“You wanted to go around Hiromi with this. Why?” I asked suddenly and he jumped at my words before relaxing.

“Honestly? She doesn’t care enough about my chooms that are getting beaten. You’re a street kid though. You’d understand.”

I really didn’t understand, but I sighed regardless. “I’ll talk to Hiromi again, talk to you later Nox.”

“See ya around Motoko.”

This was not the problem I wanted to deal with right now.

—--

“It’s not like that at all! Nox you fucking shit. I’m gonna fine you so hard for this shit!” Hiromi ranted a bit after I called her wanting to meet up. I was at her apartment after school, and she wasn’t happy.

“This is the same problem as before. If it was still going on, why not have me help?” I asked more curious than anything.”

“I was trying to get more info! I have some feelers out to try and find out what is going on! I’m not even sure they are being honest. The three that have been stolen from were all the lowest sellers. I had already spoken to Nox about how we might cut them loose if they couldn’t sell anymore just before this happened!”

“Hiromi.” I groaned, rubbing my face. “Just, assume this actually happened. What would you do?” Hiromi looked a little uncomfortable for a moment.

“Probably call you and Section 9 for a gig to hunt down whoever is attacking my workers.”

“Okay, so that’s what we are going to do. Call in everyone. Malcolm and I were hanging out most of the day so he should be just home with his parents. But this is a gig.”

“Wait, you and Malcolm were hanging out all day!?”

“Yeah. I needed someone to help watch my back while I did a net dive. Then when I was making more grenades we just hung out and talked. It was fun.”

Hiromi’s face went through a wild array of emotions before she went blank. “I’m glad you had a fun day.”

“Thanks Hiromi. Sorry you were stuck in class all day. Will your parents let you leave to do Section 9 stuff right now? I know you can’t always get away on school days.”

“Oh it’s fine. After the Badlands gig, my parents gave me a blanket exemption from most of the rules as long as it’s work related. I just really can’t abuse it, or else.”

“Nova!” I cheered smiling. “That's really cool. They must really trust you now.”

“Ugh. Mom is acting super proud and stuff. She even told her co-workers about me, to sort of make fun of their kids who are all idiots.”

I just snorted and nudged Hiromi. “Well let’s get to work then!”

She nodded and her eyes went yellow as she started making calls.

—---

An hour later everyone arrived at my netrunner lair.

“So that’s the situation. We are going to find out who is attacking Hiromi’s business and kick some teeth in.” I explained. But Malcolm shook his head right away.

“Motoko. If the sellers are the ones being jumped like this? They are probably moving in on someone else’s turf. Hiromi isn’t the only one selling BD’s after all.”

“I know that!” Hiromi snapped, but I put a hand on her shoulder.

“Hiromi Malcolm wasn’t being mean, just explaining something he noticed. Right?” I turned to him and he nodded.

“Yeah. It’s preem that you put together a BD business ‘Romi. You’re our Corpo, I wouldn’t shit talk you.” He added and Hiromi perked up a bit.

“Right! Sorry. I just… I feel stupid for ignoring this.”

“It’s fine! We are here to handle it now! Malcolm, Ichi, you both have a better feel for the city than us. Do you know of any groups that sell BD’s in the area that might be causing us problems?”

“Charter hill? Difficult to say. No one technically owns the territory. So it could be any minor gang. Or one of the big ones but honestly? If it was 6th St. They would have told the kids to fuck off. Then they would have beaten them.” Malcolm said and Ichi nodded.

“And if it was the TC, we wouldn’t be talking, because the poor gonk’d be dead.” Ichi added. “Most TC bosses don’t appreciate someone moving in on their income.

“Okay so in that case… We do it the old fashioned way.” I muttered looking at the netrunning chair.

“Yes!”

“Awesome!”

“I’ll go on a snack run. Just the usual stuff Malcolm, Hiromi?” Ichi asked as he rose up, and I was left as the only one in the room annoyed at the situation.

This is what I get for being skilled at things huh?

I sighed and headed over to the chair to get plugged in.

Chapter 153
—--

The last attack on the SLS had happened in an alleyway just off Lele st. This was Charter Hill. One of the richy rich places in Night City. Which is why I was struggling to find a good camera to peep through.

Most of the camera systems in the area were controlled by whatever corp owned the building. Or were heavily protected by building security.

I quickly slipped out of another server as I could see a netrunner beginning to look around at the increased server load of me wandering around on it.

“Another bust.”

*Dangit! We’ll try to find another business.* Hiromi added and I nodded as I hid myself in a corner of the digital city. This area was cleaner than most other sections of the net. The net felt clearer, and faster.

But it was also much more dangerous.

City Center hadn’t even been this bad, although that was because there were lots of little private shops all through the area.

Not so much here. Most of the stuff was all kept controlled by the corporations in charge.

I was watching the data move around, trying to find new access points, when I noticed it.

“Heya.” I called out casually, as I rested against the side of a digital skyscraper.

“Never seen you around here before.” A response came as a netrunner stepped out of the shadows.

“On a gig. Not looking for any trouble.”

“Well that all depends.” She offered. I looked into the rainbow colored blazing eyes, and fiery burning hair.

I readied myself. I didn’t like threats. Especially not on the net.

“I don’t like threats. Get processing choom.” I said, even using a fun bit of netrunning jargon.

“Pfft. You entered into a server I got under contract. You slipped inside without me even noticing, and then you were out. Not long enough to grab anything. So what’s the deal? You scoping out? Am I gonna have to worry about an attack? I want some answers, and I’-”

“Nah. I’m trying to get eyes on an alley on this street. One of my clients was attacked a few days ago. I’m tracking the attacker. Nothing to do with you.” I answered back much more calmly. This wasn’t going to turn into a battle after all.

The woman looked confused at my words like I was talking nonsense.

“What? So you try to slip into protected servers to what? Peek through the cameras?”

“Basically.”

“That’s crazy.” She answered instantly. “You’ll run into ICE and get brain fried. No one is stupid enough to do that.”

“I kinda do it all the time.” I answered honestly, mostly because the look on her face as I said it made me grin.

“You… Slip into servers all the time just to check their cameras.”

“It’s really useful for tracking gonks down. I don’t suppose you’d let me peek at your outdoor cameras on the server you protect?”

“Not a chance.”

“Figured. Hey, you must know the area pretty well.”

“I don’t like where this is going.” She interrupted sighing.

“Know of any small businesses in the area that have cameras peeking at the alley on Lele, between-”

“I know the alley. There is one. And… Well it’s not my hide either way. Sure there is an access point to a transport business down there. They have an external camera. If you are trying to keep an eye on the alley, that’s the way to do it… But it’s not like they don’t have ICE and stuff. You can’t seriously just jump in.”

“Sure I can! Thanks Choom. I’m Ghost by the way.” I introduced myself since we weren’t going to fight. Awesome that saved me so much time hunting down the access point.

“Blazed.” She answers and then to my surprise she follows me as I head down the steps she had pointed out. As I walked down into the steps. I instead came out into an open space stepping out of the darkness of the transfer.

The web was really silly sometimes.

“Ah there it is.” I confirmed finding the access point without any fuss as I could see the data traveling through it.

“Yeah.”

“You following me for a reason?”

“I kinda want to see you get stuck in the ICE and brain fried.” She answered and I scoffed out a laugh as I decided to just ignore her then.

I walked to the point, and after a few moments I breached the defenses, opening it up, and sending my Daemon into the system. A few moments later I waved at Blazed and slipped inside.

I nodded pleased. The security in this server was waaay lighter than the others in the area.

I slipped past a blinded Security Daemon. And then to a password secured connection to the camera system.

Less than a second later, I was breached into the door, the password accepting an admin password for this particular model of camera and letting me bypass the ten seconds it would take to breach it normally. Then I was into the camera security logs, and I pulled up the date and general time.

I copied an hour chunk and sent that on to my chooms to begin examining.

Then I just walked right back out.

If we needed a different time period, I could always slip back on, but the longer I was on the server the more likely the increased load of my presence would be noticed.

I stepped back out into the small open space, and to my surprise Blazed was still there.

“Bullshit.”

“What?”
“No way you just slipped the data that fast. That was what? Thirty seconds?”

“I mean. I just needed to copy an hour chunk of the camera logs, it wasn’t really hard.”

“Bullshit, that’s bullshit!”
“Okay? Anyway, thanks for the help-”

“Fuck no. Hold on. I have to see this.” She demanded and then she walked over to the access point, and started poking at it.

The seconds tore on, and I waited, and winced, as I could see her breach attempt. It was working, sure, but it was kinda slow.

“How the fuck. Did you fix their security or something? How’d you breach so fast?”

“There’s a bypass in that version of ICE they are using.” I answered and she looked to me, before scoffing and just stepping away. Ending her breach attempt.

“Ghost?”

“Yeah?”

“Never heard of you. At least I don’t think so, I mean you aren’t the only gonk calling themselves Ghost or a Ghost.”

“Yeah I don’t really hang out much on the net… I mostly hang out with Yoko at the Roundabout? I do programming work.”

“Shit. You program too? You any good?”

“I’m pretty good! I do a lot of commissioned Debugging work! Yoko bugs me all the time to fix her code.”

“Yoko? Nova. Alright, I'll take it back. You aren’t some 2-bit. I’m Blazed. Mostly contract security. Here.”

I blinked as she sent me contact info.

“Umm. Thanks?” I responded a little confused. Was I supposed to send my info back? Was this some sort of netrunner thing?

It seemed so, as a moment later of me waffling trying to figure out what to do, her face shifted from a smile into a frown.

“Not in your league huh?” She responded and I just shook my head.

“Umm. I just don’t know what’s going on. I really don’t interact with people on the net much. I kinda just hop on to get whatever gig I’m doing done, and then jump off.”

“Wait seriously? I mean… How many hours on the net you got? I’m hitting about 21k. Mostly server security. They got me doing 12’s every day.”

“Umm… Yeah I have no idea. I never kept track.” I said instead of admitting it was less than 100 hours or something. The long camera hopping days had taken up most of that.

“Right. Yeah makes sense. It’s pretty common, if you run into a runner and you make contact a lot of time we share contact info. Increase our contacts you know? Someday I might call you up and offer a favor for work, or you can call me, and do the same. Usually we give each other heads up if we might need to agro their server or something.”

“Oh! Sure, here.” I passed over the same contact info that Yoko used for my netrunner work. Mostly an email to send programming work to, but Blazed seemed pleased at that.

“Nova. Alright. I gotta get back to work then. Nice meeting you Ghost.”

“You too!” I offered, smiling as she disappeared back into the depths of the stairs.

*I don’t like her!* I jumped at the sudden words in my ear.

*Motoko trying to get a new Output while on the job? For shame.* Malcolm spoke up next, his tone absolutely teasing.

“What?” I asked wondering what these gonks were talking about!

*Motoko watching you flirt up a girl is entertaining, but maybe we should focus on the gig?* Ichi added in next and I heard Hiromi then choking for a minute.

“I wasn’t flirting!”

*Suuuure.* Ichi responded back really rolling with the sarcasm.

“I wasn’t!” Then I remembered they were fucking with me. I rolled my eyes at the boys teasing, as I focused instead on the gig. “Okay tell me you found our suspect.”

*Found. The time was about right. Showing you what we got… You uh. Probably aren’t going to like this.* Malcolm offered, and I watched as a video was sent to me, it popped up on a screen in front of me and I watched in interest. As a van pulled up at the end of the alley.

Our seller was sitting on a loading dock in the alley with his bag open. I have to give Hiromi credit. It actually did look like he was slacking off more than trying to sell stuff, but I wasn’t a BD seller, so who knows how that worked.

The van let out two men from the side door and I frowned.

It wouldn’t have been noticed in person. But the same function in my Kiroshi that blurred my face was in use on these men.

I felt my hands tightening and I was glad we were in the net because otherwise my chrome hands would be creaking with how hard I was gripping.

The two men walked over and one instantly punched the seller, throwing him around, as the other grabbed the bag, and then once they roughed up the kid they turned and left.

The fact the seller didn’t have a SLS guard was the reason this happened. The two men got back in their van and then took off. Not even in a hurry just casually driving away.

*Motoko?*

“I know what’s going on.” I answered back furious. The video ended thankfully I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply, the virtual air not satisfying me in the way I wanted.

The two men had the same glowing masks that all Scavs tended to use.

Fucking Scavs.

—---

I didn’t have time to jump out of the net and deal with my fury of once more facing Scavs. No, instead I needed to track that van.

It wasn’t easy. But since I wasn’t trying to look down a specific alley. I had a lot more options for systems to slip into.

A cafe down the street, a clothing shop that had melted ICE for security, a food stand on the street that had a security camera pointed at the street that could see the four way intersection.

We tracked them right down.

As usual Scavs never expected retribution. Especially not for something this low level. Who would care about a single teenager selling XBD’s in an alley?

I would. Especially when they worked for my friend.

I would. When they were attacked by Scavs.

And so unfortunately for these fucks, they had someone actively hunting them and they never even knew it.

They took a right onto Pardey, not far from the assault, and then headed over the bridge to Arroyo.

I lost them right after, because North Arroyo was all industrial parks, and there was no street level cameras to peer through. I searched for hours, trying to find something on the other side of the bridge that would give me eyes on which way the van went.

The only thing I could guarantee was that the Van didn’t take Republic way into City Center. They traveled through Arroyo.

We even tried Malcolms back tracing idea. Following them from the other direction, but they actually just came from the same direction, and we lost them at the same place.

*What do we do now?* Hiromi asked, and I hummed as I sat on the steps of a digital building to think. Watching the traffic slip by. Digital information traffic was kinda soothing to watch.

Scavs… What were they doing? BD stuff? They didn’t kill the kid which was interesting. Why not? Northern Arroyo? What was in Northern Arroyo that would interest Scavs? Industrial parks. Mostly abandoned, and 6th st. claimed most of them.

I felt like something was there. Just on the edge of my tongue. I just couldn’t solidify it.

“Any smart ideas Malcolm?” I asked, and he laughed, but I could hear the denial.

*I got nothing here Motoko. Nothing fast anyways… You made those spy cameras right? Maybe we go out and put a few of them in the area. See if we can’t get eyes on the same van later?*

“The license plate was blocked. We would be tracking every van that travels through the area. That’s a bit more work than I’m willing to do.”
*Yeah… Then a trap? We send out another seller, and bait them into attacking?* He offered and I hummed.

“Could work.”
*Not really. No way my sellers would let themselves be bait. I might not have accepted this actually was the truth before, but the sellers have. I’ve been getting requests for more security, and I think I’ll have to do that now.* Hiromi added with a sigh.

*Duh, then we just have one of us do it.*

“Absolutely not. The Scavs were gentle before. But there is no telling what they will do in the future. If this is their way of saying stay off their territory, then…” I trailed off letting my chooms fill in the blanks.

*Right. You’re right. We can’t do that.*

“Alright. I’m done here. I’m coming out.” I called out, as I stood up and leapt into the data streams sending me back to my lobby in a flash of data.

—--

“Oooh that feels good.” I moaned as I shoveled warm food into my mouth. “Ichi you get a promotion.”

“Nice.”

“Hey!” Malcolm said as he pouted. “I got the food too!”

“But Ichi got me this food, so he gets the promotion.”

I ignored Malcolms faux outraged mumbling before I laughed and just stuffed more food into my face.

“So let’s put together what we learned. Scavs attacked the XBD sellers. We know they come and go from northern Arroyo.” I added and left off looking around.

“We know that they have something to do with BD’s. These aren’t Scav targets they are after. They were only interested in the BD’s.” Hiromi added in.

“The van they were driving was set up to look as common as possible. Nothing defining on it. I couldn’t even see any scratches or something we could use for verification.” Ichi added in.

“Okay so we have a bunch of Scavs hiding in Arroyo… Can we call in any contacts? Anyone that could give us more information?” Malcolm asked.

“I can reach out.” Hiromi said, looking fierce. She obviously wasn’t happy about the entire situation happening under her nose.

“Alright. I need a break. Let’s call it here tonight. We’ll meet up in a few days if we get more info.” I offered with a groan as I stretched out my legs a bit. “I think I’m done for the day.” I called out as I headed out, to the calls of goodbyes from everyone. They were all packing up as I entered the elevator and headed out.

The drive home was quick and it left me feeling refreshed.

I got home and threw my jacket over the couch as I headed for the fridge pushing aside all the XXL burritos to get a soda that I had hidden in the back.

No Jun huh? I shrugged, it wasn’t that late yet, instead I headed into my room, and had to stop and giggle.

The Tachikoma drone had somehow ended up on its back. Its legs wiggling in the air weakly.

“Silly thing.” I cooed, as I picked it up and carried it over to the laptop. I would go over what it had learned so far today and make some improvements!

—--

“Motoko?”

“Jun! Welcome home!” I called out, the Tachikoma code had evolved a lot, although not that much with it getting stuck on its back and then sending the entire thing into a loop.

But that was okay. It had a few hours of growth for me to trim and improve.

“What’s that you’re working on?” He asked as he poked his head into my room. I spun my chair away from the laptop I had been working on and instead lifted the Tachikoma drone from my lap. Lifting it over my head I spun the chair and sang

“Dooo dooo do doooo! It’s a Tachikoma! A drone prototype!” I answered after I stopped spinning.

“Huh.” He uttered a little confused, but as always Jun liked to be supportive so he walked into my room to get a closer look.

“That’s preem. What can it do?”

“Right now? Walk and get stuck on its back when it hits a wall. But the goal is to have it running a SCSM. Mostly sneaking into places, maybe some assassination work. I’m going to install a gun into the chassis, once I got the kinks worked out.”

“Why not just buy a drone? Those floaty ones are everywhere.”

“The Bombus? Those are garbage. It was originally a caretaker drone that people realized was cheap enough to duct tape a bomb onto. Tachikoma are meant to be fully autonomous recon assistants!”

“Right. Why blue?”

“It’s cuter this way!” I chirped, showing off the blue paint scheme.

Jun just snorted and patted me on the head. “Well as long as it’s keeping you busy and out of trouble.”

“Eh. Only partially. I stole blueprints for a bunch of grenades from a really protected gun store server, and then found out that Hiromi’s BD peddlers have been attacked by Scavs. So we went on a hunt for-”

“Motoko… Just call me if you need help.” Jun interrupted sounding tired, and I laughed at him.

“Sure Jun. We are hunting down the Scavs right now. But they are sneaky, hiding in Arroyo… Or maybe Northern Arroyo, it’s hard to tell. Once we find them, want to come slaughter some Scavs with me?”
He blinked, and I was honestly a little surprised as well. I hadn’t really invited Jun to come on a raid before, and the words had left my mouth without me thinking about it.

“Sure.”

I smiled brightly. Jun might be a kill stealer, but this could be fun. Now I just had to find some damn Scavs, with a connection to BD’s in Arroyo, I mean, the only connection I remember from the game would be the-

“Fuck.” I uttered as the lightning bolt of awareness hit me.

I knew. I knew exactly where these Scavs would be hiding, and more importantly? I would happily murder all of them for the horrible shit they did.

“Motoko?”
“I know where the Scavs are. I think. Pretty sure. Ninety percent. Jun hold on a second.” I demanded putting my Tachikoma back on the floor as I started pacing.

The same location that the Scavs had holed up in, the place that V would someday in the future break into, murder blending everyone to find Evelyn. The place Scavs were setting up XBD’s with captured people.

I had forgotten about it. I shouldn’t have! I had done that quest in the game enough times. I should have remembered!

“Motoko.” Jun said but I ignored him because the fucking scavs had been there this whole time!

I stomped as I paced around. How could I have forgotten something so obvious!? Those fuckers had been allowed to work completely unopposed! That should have been my first tar-

“Motoko!” Jun demanded arms wrapped around me and lifting me entirely off the ground. I went still in his grip as he hug-grabbed me. “Are you okay?”

I breathed in, which was hard with Jun’s arms pinning my back to his chest, but then I exhaled. Cool.

Feel cold. Control the emotions, don’t let them control you.

“Yeah. I’m better. Sorry Jun. I had the clues I needed to know where a big Scav setup is at, and I totally spaced it.” Slowly I was lowered down to my feet and was released.

Jun looked worried.

I exhaled again. “Don’t give me that look, I’m okay. Not Cyberpsycho or anything, just angry. And mad at myself. I know where a group of Scavs are taking people and using them to make XBD’s. And funnily enough. It’s the same group that was attacking Hiromi’s BD sellers. I literally spent hours searching for them on the net… But I knew where they were the whole time.” I grumbled. Jun nodded then slowly, and pulled me in for a more normal hug.

“We’ll get them.”

“Hell yeah we will.” I whispered back.

So my night was a bit off from there. I ended up camping out on the couch with Jun, as he watched TV. We didn’t talk much more about the Scavs. I just tried to relax, but that was only that night.

After a good night's rest, I headed out. First things first, I needed verification. Driving over to Arroyo on my Kusanagi I parked far down the street, and instead of walking down the street which would leave me far too open. I leapt into the industrial parks and used my ankles and Parkour to leap through the abandoned factories until I was on the roof overlooking the Electric Corp power plant.

There I leaned down, hiding in the shadows of old brickwork to watch.

The factory as I expected was active. Tires tracks ran through an old gate in the destroyed asphalt and dirt loading area.

I waited for a while, simply looking down into it. For now the rolling door was closed, and no sound escaped from within.

The camera to the side of the door told me this wasn’t as abandoned as it appeared. I began breaching, carefully, utterly slow and quiet.

Slipping in, I accessed the camera, seeing the loading area through its eye, I then moved to the other cameras in the system.

Smiling as just inside the plant there was a very familiar looking van. I couldn’t be 100% sure it was the same one, but hell. I was willing to bet.

I took pictures of everything. Going through every camera and gathering everything they could see. Then since I was fairly confident I was right. I pulled free of the cameras.

There were men and women inside, and it hadn’t taken but a single NCPD database check to verify they were wanted for Scav related activities.

This was it.

I had found the assholes that hadn’t liked Hiromi moving in on the XBD market.

I slipped away without a sound. As I jumped through old rusted metal landing on the concrete far down the street, I brushed myself clean. Taking a moment. I sent a single picture to my chooms. The van parked in the dark plant, and a message.

*Found them.*

—---

“Motoko! You did it!” Hiromi cheered as she slammed into me laughing in delight.

“I did. Jun gave me a reminder of some other info I had and I put it together, and then I went and checked it out.” I said as I spun Hiromi around. We were all meeting up at my place, and Hiromi was last as she had school today so she had to finish that up first.

“This place is nova. An old power plant? Kinda pissed the Scavs claimed it.” Malcolm added from the couch. “Motoko says it goes down pretty deep.”

“Yeah definitely some sublevels. I’m going to need backup just to secure the whole place. Which is where you guys come in.” I then looked to Jun who I had invited to join us, since I had offered him a friendly sibling murder session. “And Jun agreed to help out too.”

“Perfect! Jun! Thank you for helping!” Hiromi added throwing him a smile but he just waved her off.

“Don’t worry about Hiromi. I’m just glad to keep Motoko out of trouble.”

“Which is an absolute lie! I’m never in trouble!” I lied confidently as I jumped back onto the couch. “Now we have some external images and we’ll need to figure out how we are going to hit this.”

“Go in kill everyone?” Jun asked, and everyone looked at him like he was crazy but I was nodding along.

“The most straightforward method.” I confirmed.

“I mean do we really need to do anything more than that?” Ichi asked, looking between Jun and I. “Motoko clears out places like this before breakfast, and Jun is the Oni.”

“Of course not!” Jun answered while I cut him off.

“Of course we do!” I roared louder than Jun and even slammed my fist into the table lightly the metal on metal sound echoing.

“Wha?” Jun asked but I ignored him pointing at my chooms.

“We can’t ever get complacent! It’s one of my own weaknesses! So I need my chooms to keep reminding me! We plan, we prepare, it’s an advantage we might not need, but it’s not something we should throw away through overconfidence!”

Thankfully Malcolm responded. “She’s right. Just because we don’t need it every time doesn’t mean we shouldn’t prepare as much as we can, we are still talking about a gun fight. What if they have a bomb or something and it blows up. If we just sit back and expect Motoko to handle it, how can we move in to help if she gets hurt or something.”

“Exactly! We prepare and gather every advantage we can before we move in!” I called out. “And also it’s totally your guy’s job to remind me to do that when I get too excited.” I added offhandedly.

“Oh so it’s our job is it?” Ichi asked sarcastically and I just threw him a thumbs up.

“Yep!”

“That’s fine! We can all remind Motoko to be careful and prepare before rushing in. We all want Section 9 to keep going for years and years after all.” Hiromi added and I nodded along with Malcolms eager nod.

“Right. That’s true. Okay so what can we do to prepare?” Ichi asked.

“Well I do have more gadgets now, but none of them are directly going to help this time. Not yet at least. The Tachikoma are still in alpha testing.”

“The what?” Hiromi asked, looking confused, and I smiled brightly because it was the perfect excuse!

I leapt off the couch jumping over Hiromi’s head as I did so and ran over to my room and then came out holding my little walky bot.

“The Tachikoma Drone system!” I called out and placed it on the table in front of everyone.

Where it immediately started walking much smoother than it had before.

Until it hit the edge of the table and just fell right off.

“Umm…”

“It’s an alpha product! I haven’t done edges yet!” I said happily as I picked it back up and placed it on the table again. Where it walked off.

“Motoko?”

“Hold on. It’s got this.” Then I placed it on the table again, and this time, as it walked forward it stopped at the edge, one of its legs reaching out to check the edge.

Then it walked off again.

“Right.” Hiromi said flatly.

“It’s learning! Give it some time.”

“Motoko… Is that an AI?” Jun asked, utterly serious and I started laughing at such a foolish question.

“Jun the Tachikoma is running a small CPU, and the extra processing power of my laptop in my room. Your XXL Burrito SCSM has more processing power.”

“That didn’t really answer the question.”

“It’s a learning system, but not an AI. I would need like… Four of the servers I have down in my netrunner cave to even process a small AI.” I answered truthfully. Well… Not exactly that much. I could do it with a lot less, if I used some different processing choices.

But this? Tachikoma wasn’t an AI. No Ghost. Not yet anyways.

“Anyway! The Tachikoma are cute, but aren’t ready for the battlefield yet, but give me a bit and we’ll have our own battlefield reconnaissance drones!” I cheered, just as my agent lit up with a call.

A call with a very familiar name, but not one I expected.

“Hold on chooms. I’m getting a call.” I turned away from everyone to answer.

*Hello?*

*Yo Kitten.*

*Becca I told you I wasn’t accepting that as my nickname.*

*Too late.* She said but she wasn’t the rambunctious girl she normally was. Something was wrong. *I’m not calling for fun though. Since you’re chooms with Sasha I think… Well I figure you should know.*

Rebecca started quietly, there was honest dread in her voice.

No. Please don’t be… Please don’t be that. I took a breath and then asked the question I had to know, but wasn’t sure I was ready for.

*Please don’t tell me she’s dead.* Had the Biotechnica job happened!? I hurried over to the TV and turned it on to the N54 news channel, only for a segment on the weather to be playing.

Right this wasn’t a movie where the big topic of conversation is the most important thing in the world.

*Not dead. But she did get worked over pretty bad on a gig. She’s in and out at the moment, so I figured I’d call to let you know. Cause you guys were close right?*

I took a moment to just process, staring at the news report before shutting it off as my brain turned back on.

*She’s alive?* I asked in shock exhaling loudly as I almost fell back onto my butt from where I had been pacing the moment the topic came up. Was it the gig? Or just something else? I still didn’t know! I rushed to my room to grab my laptop flipping open to the N54 news site. Nothing on the front page, but a moment later I typed it in.

Securicine. The medicine that started it all. That had killed Sasha’s mother. The fact Biotechnica had hidden the side effect, and when Sasha discovered it while infiltrating Biotechnica’s system she hadn’t just let it go. Sacrificing her life to send it to the news.

There. A brand new news article.

Securicine, and its hidden side effects.

Posted this morning.

It had happened.

*Motoko?*

*Sorry. I’m just a little out of it. Sasha’s okay?*

*She’s hurt, but alive. Getting taken care of. Maine is making sure she’s being treated real nice.*

*Can I see her?* I asked before I could think about it.

*I… Listen. Sasha was on a big gig, like massive, and she pissed off a big corp. We aren’t sure what they are going to do, so Maine and them have gone to ground. I don’t even know where she is just in case. My bro told me what’s up, and I remember you two were close. So… Yeah.*

*Rebecca… Thank you. Really, I really… I’m really glad you told me she’s okay. I would have absolutely freaked otherwise.* Not true. I would have continued to worry about what would happen to her. Whether she would live, but… I had done.

What little I had done had enough knock on effects. That night. Let Me Down, wouldn’t happen. I had changed it.

*Hey, yeah sure choom.* The line kind of went silent for a moment as we both awkwardly didn’t talk about anything.

I was about to thank her again and say goodbye, when I realized what Rebecca had actually said.

Maine and the group were in hiding. Rebecca wasn’t.

*Hey Becca? You ever thought about that offer I made last time? To do a gig?*

*Uh.. Yeah, I’ve thought about it.*

*Well me and my chooms were literally prepping for a raid… You want to come over? Take a look. No pressure if you don’t want to take part, but I mean… I wouldn’t mind an extra shooter.*

The line went quiet and I looked to my chooms who had thankfully stopped focusing on me, and were instead being led by Malcolm into prepping a plan of attack.

Good job Malcolm.

*What’s the pay?*

*We split everything equally.*

*What? Seriously? No 10% share and all that shit?*

*I don’t even know what that is… No, everything gets split, we only make so much on our gigs because we all work together, and then try to get everything out. If someone isn’t going to get more for working harder… Why would they?*

*Fuck it. I’m in choom.*

*Alright I’ll send you the address!* I cheered, we hung up just after and I turned to my chooms.

“I got us another solo! Rebecca is going to join us and see if she likes working with Section 9! I’m trying to recruit her, so please be nice.” I begged my friends.

“Sure.” Malcolm offered shrugging, and Ichi just nodded, but Hiromi was giving me a puffy cheeked glare.

“Whose Rebecca?” Hiromi demanded, eyes narrowed.

“She’s a member of this Edgerunner crew I met at the Afterlife. She’s very small, but pretty fierce, and she’s cool.” I looked over at the pictures that Malcolm had been pointing to. “So what did you come up with?”
“Well first we all realized we were being stupid. So we are going to bring the Minotaur.”

“Absolutely not. We don’t even know how to use that thing!” I interrupted instantly, besides the Minotaur was mine! My cute little stompy bot!

“Well that isn’t exactly the truth.” Ichi answered back a little awkwardly.

I stilled and then I felt myself glaring at the boy.

“What did you do?” I demanded my own eyes narrowed as I glared into the increasingly nervous boy.

“I might have been practicing with it… Malcolm too!” He said throwing his friend under the rampaging bus without hesitation or shame.

I glared at Malcolm who just coughed fakely. “We might have pulled it out of storage and been learning how to use it… For Section 9 of course. It’s an important skill to have. Hiromi knew!” Malcolm continued the process throwing Hiromi under the bus now.

“What!? Don’t tell her that!” Hiromi snapped and then looked shy as I turned my glare on her. “Th-they asked me for fuel money! To be on Section 9’s eddie since it was practice for the future. I accepted! You were too busy to learn how to use it, and having a Minotaur isn’t something we could just ignore!”

“Huh. Can I get a turn with it?” I immediately whipped over to glare at Jun who had just said something absolutely ridiculous! If anyone else got a turn it was going to be me!

“Of course Jun!” Hiromi chirped and that was when I could take no more.

“This isn’t fair! It’s supposed to be mine!”

—---

We were mostly prepped with a new idea for our tactical assault when the doorbell rang.

“That must be Becca!” I whooped happily leaping over the couch, for a second I was tempted to open the door with the barrel of my Burya in her face, but while it had been funny she had done that to David, it had also been a bit mean.

I did check the camera before opening the door. Seeing her outside I quickly pulled it open.

“Becca!”

“Uh. Hey. Sup choom.” She greeted, and I smiled at her awkwardness as I reached out and tugged on her hand pulling her in.

“Everyone! This is Rebecca, she’s going to join us on our raid today!” I called out, and I noticed all of my chooms heads looking over the back of the couch to see.

Rebecca was very small so everyone had to sort of tilt their head downward.

Jun especially.

“Rebecca, this is my team, Malcolm, Ichi, Hiromi, and my brother Jun.” I introduced all of them as I pointed out all of them, each of them greeting her back with a wave or something until Jun who smiled at her from how he was looking over the back of the couch.

“Any choom of my sister is welcome. Feel free to come and take a seat.” He offered and I looked down towards Rebecca only to see her disappearing as she sauntered over to the couch and took a seat rather close to Jun.

“Hey Tats. Call me Becca okayyy?” She trailed off with a teasing trill to her voice.

Oh no.

“U-uh. Sure?”

“Nova.” She offered back with a smirk on her face that I recognized.

I screamed internally. No! Jun! Not another one! Not Becca! This couldn’t be happening!

This couldn’t stand! I couldn’t allow this! I had to distract!
“Okay! So the gig we are doing we already scouted the place, and we are putting together the attack plan, Rebecca, so let me fill you in!” I said hurrying back to the living room table and popping a shard out of my neck and handing it to her.

She took it after a moment of smiling up at Jun and then slotted it. Then she blinked.

“So, the first thing you’ll notice is the target information. Not sure if it’s in there, but we are hunting a group of Scavs that attacked Hiromi’s XBD pushers.” I explained waving at Hiromi who smiled proudly at the acknowledgement.

“Scavs? Doesn’t seem… Whoa.” She muttered as she continued to look through the pics of where this was taking place.

“Scavs aren’t really a threat, but we still treat everything seriously.” My voice was completely serious as I said this.

“Well no shit, you guys have a Minotaur!? How!?”

Oh, she had skipped ahead bypassing the pics of the location. Not very Edgerunner of you… Or maybe very Edgerunner of her? Hard to say with that group. I wanted to sigh, but instead I stayed focused!

“We captured it during a gig we did. Ichi is currently the pilot as he has some hours in its use.” I explained then glared at Ichi again for good measure.

Unfortunately his smugness at me acknowledging him being the pilot ruined the effect of my glare.

“Shit. Can I use it? I’ve always wanted to pilot a Minotaur.” Rebecca asked and I sighed, shoulders slumped.

“Yes, but after.” I agreed then shook myself. “Okay, so here is what we are going to do. The outside and ground floor of the plant will probably be staffed by a few Scavs.” I pulled up the images myself. “Image Four is a good one to see the whole grounds.”

I waited until everyone was nodding along before continuing.

“Jun and I will clean up as quietly as possible and then everyone will move in. The people who built the plant weren’t expecting it to need to be defensible. The top floor of the elevator is actually the floor below. So Ichi and everyone will move in afterwards and basically secure the place. No Scav will be able to leave without getting past a heavily armed walker.”

“Motoko, I don’t like this plan. I want to test out the Minotaur in combat. This is basically me just walking in after to secure the exits.” Ichi argued, and I turned to my choom, only for another voice to call out.

“What about me? I want to kill some Scavs as well.” Malcolm added, and as I turned to him another voice added.

“I’m not really interested in just being on guard duty.” Rebecca added and I slumped as everyone went against me!

“Yeah we should have them come with.” Jun added and I was outvoted by everyone. Except Hiromi who was just watching.

“Guys, I-”

“No. Motoko… You’ve always been in front of us so far, but… Section 9 can’t help you if we don’t get some experience.” Malcolm added. “You set us up with armor and weapons. Let us use them.”

I slumped realizing I was defeated.

“Okay Ichi will need someone to watch his back while using the Minotaur. Hiromi?”

“Yep! I’ll be suited up of course.”

“Alright. In that case, we’ll use plan B. We attack loud. We’ll spit into two groups, and hit each side of the compound at the same time. We can set it up so the gates will be open beforehand. Jun Rebecca and I will take the North side, Hiromi, Ichi and Malcolm will take the other. We hit at the same time. I’ll overwatch with Netrunning and should be able to disable all the weapons at once. Then we move in. Ichi on Minotaur and Malcolm will join up with us as we clear the inside of the plant.”

“Hmm. Could work.” Rebecca said sounding interested, but not really impressed.

“It’ll be the four of us that head down into the basement.” I told her calmly. “I don’t have a complete map of the place, but we should have little problems mowing through what’s down there. Jun will be the frontman. Then Malcolm and I. Then Rebecca. Unless you have some armor already Becca?” I asked, looking at her current outfit which was the opposite of protective.

“Ah… Just my Skinweave.” She offered and I nodded.

“Then you are backline until we can get you some gear… If you want to keep coming out with us I mean.” I added not wanting to assume.

She just nodded, not agreeing and I moved on.

“In that case weapons… I was planning on going silent, but if we are going loud… Well that changes things.” I added. And Jun looked pleased. He wasn’t much of a stealth guy. “Well I guess… Go wild, bring whatever you want? Rebecca if you want to borrow something feel free.”I offered as well with a thumbs up. “Suit up!” I told my chooms who all sighed and nodded.

“Suit up?” Rebecca asked and I nodded.

“I made some custom adjustments to some armor for everyone! So everyone needs to go put it on and then we can go.” I said pointing to the bathroom and my room which Hiromi had disappeared into, while Malcolm and Ichi were taking turns.

Rebecca nodded before doing the one thing I didn’t want.

She turned her eyes on Jun.

“So Tats, helping out your little sister? That’s pretty nova.” She offered and Jun just smiled a little.

“I always worry about her, but Motoko has most things under control. I’m really just coming for fun. She doesn’t need my help.” He explained the last part looking at me proudly, making me flush.

Stupid Jun! Don’t say nice things about me while I’m right here!

Or do! But not around other people!

“That’s… Heh well Kitten, I look forward to seeing what kind of claws you’ve got.” Rebecca said, looking to me. I scoffed at the nickname, but then Jun chuckled at it, and I glared at both of them.

“That nickname isn’t a thing!” I denied firmly. I already had a cool nickname!

“Kitten.” Jun said then laughed and I glared, but he just turned to Rebecca. “You call her Kitten?”

“Heh, well I met her through a choom of mine Sasha who I call Whiskers, and Sasha was acting all proud about having a kohai, and there is Motoko. I mean.. Look at her. Total cat energy.”

“Heh.” Jun chuckled shoulders shaking as he kept looking at me his eye practically twinkling in amusement.

I was gonna kick him.

“Bringing you both along was a mistake.” I grumbled, and then Hiromi came walking out of my room suited up. Helmet under one arm.

“Room is clear Motoko.” She said even as she rested against the doorway.

“Whoa.” Rebecca called out as she took in Hiromi’s appearance. “That’s… What is that?”

“Formerly a set of Arasaka guard armor, but I made some modifications!” I said happily as I rushed over and grabbed Hiromi who yelped as I manhandled her closer.

“See! I added in an ECM system, and modified the armor to fit my chooms. Although they keep wanting to wear pants instead of a Netrunner suit.”

“I don’t wear skin tight outfits Motoko. Not all of us walk around with a six pack.” Hiromi grumbled and I scoffed.

“It’s just a little workout! Do you want to try to exercise more? I could be your personal trainer!” I offered and Hiromi made a keening noise as she shook her head. “Oh. Never mind then?” I guess Hiromi really was a couch potato. That’s alright, she was the desk jockey anyways!

“Jeeze choom you got it bad fo-Mrble!” Hiromi leaped away from me to press her gloved hand against Rebecca’s mouth.

“Shhhh!” She demanded and I just quirked an eyebrow at the weirdness.

“Guys?”

“It’s nothing Motoko! Why don’t you get suited up and you can show Rebecca your armor!” Hiromi added even as Rebecca was glaring at her, but… Okay sure. I wasn’t going to interfere with whatever Hiromi was up to.

“Jun! You too!” I demanded and he looked up and blinked.

“Motoko I don’t have any-Hey! Don’t throw stuff!” He snapped, but I ignored him.

The original set of armor I had pulled off the Kang Tao way back was more than capable of stretching to fit Jun.

“Wear that!” I demanded and he looked at it like I just handed him something foul.

“Motoko this ruins my style.”

“You don’t have a style! Moron! Idiot! Gonk! Put on the armor or stay home!” I ordered as I turned around to get suited up myself.

—--

Rebecca

“So don’t tell her that!” Hiromi? Pretty sure that was her name. Becca was tempted just to call her Crush and see how that worked out. The girl was a little high strung, but the way Kitten had her own little follower was cute.

Really though Becca wished the girl would chill so she could get back to eyeing up the candy machine that was sitting next to her.

He had a real cute smile despite being a Tyger gonk. But the fact he was good with his little sister, something she could attest told a lot about an older brother, meant he was probably safe enough to flirt with…

And she didn’t mind the way his fiery hair swept down over his eyes… Yummy. The fact he was easily twice her size wasn’t a bad little addition eith- “Are you even listening?” Hiromi interrupted Rebecca’s fuck me eyes at the ganger.

“Not really, but relax choom. I’m not gonna blow your crush into the open.” She offered. The girl reacted in an interesting way, because where before she was dealing with a frantic teenager, the next moment she was dealing with someone that had a rather cold look in her eye.

“Motoko vouched for you to come in. That’s good. I trust Motoko’s instincts… Most of the time. But if you cause us any trouble, it won’t be up to her. I’ll just have you disappeared. Don’t forget that.” Hiromi said with all the sinister casualness as any of the corpo’s Becca had met.

“Scary.” She mocked, but acknowledged the risk as well. Seems this entire group was at least semi more interesting than expected.

“Alright all done.” One of the boys called out, and Becca turned and… Hmm. If he was a little older she might consider it.

The whole armor set was sleek. Sleeker than anything she had seen the Corp’s use. But it turned the casual, almost rumpled teenager, into someone that looks dangerous.

Damn her attraction to dangerous cuties.

“Nice armor choom.” She offered, and he smiled bashfully.

“Thanks!” He offered and then walked over and opened a case that had been pushed into the corner and started loading up on a small armory.

Becca blinked as the boy grabbed a smart SMG that she knew were pricey for any merc to casually pull out, and then grenades as well. Loading up his armor with only a bit of hesitation.

Idly Becca noticed that Hiromi also had an expensive Smart pistol on her hip.

“Okay back!” Kitten herself re-apperaed, and Becca was a little taken aback.

That was a lot of guns.

“Got enough weapons there Motoko?” Jun called out and Motoko stuck her tongue out at him as she took a second to pose, helmet under her arm and showing off. “We aren’t going quiet this time! So I can finally go all out!” She said and HIromi wondered what she was going all out against, an entire Corp hit squad?

On each thigh was a Unity pistol, slotted into holsters tied into the armor. Along with a few reloads for each stuck in the webbing. On her left hip was a Katana, not something you usually see with groups wearing armor like that unless you were in Arasaka.

Then there was the right hip where a Burya was holstered.

Against her chest was a Copperhead despite the fact this was supposed to be a loud and proud gig it had a silencer on it.

Then on her back was a Carnage…

“You can never have enough guns!” She chirped happily practically bouncing on her toes, a habit Rebecca had noticed the girl tended to do a lot.

“Motoko. Put the shotgun away.” Jun tried to argue, but Motoko just ignored him with a roll of her eyes.

“Having a backup shotgun is very useful Jun!” Then her hands blurred, and she wasn’t holding the Copperhead which had just fallen to her chest, its straps keeping it close.

But in her hands was the carnage which had a moment before been over her shoulder. That had been fast.

“See?” She offered a chilling smile.

“That… Was fast. What chipset you got for that?” Rebecca asked and Motoko just sort of blinked guilelessly at her.

“I don’t use skill chips.” She answered in response, and Rebecca barely kept herself from scoffing. That sort of move wasn’t something a teenager just pulled off.

“Bullshit.” Rebecca decided to say instead seriously, she kinda wanted whatever Skill Chip had given her hands that fast. Motoko just continued to look at her without really saying anything. “Prove it! Let me see!” She demanded.

At Motoko’s shrug, Rebecca climbed over the back of the couch, and then made grabby hands at the girl.

Motoko relented surprisingly easily. She kneeled down letting Rebecca see her neck. Rebecca looked over the Neural Link, and the Chip Slots.

There were a few shards in there, and car keys but… Nothing. Definitely not a skill Chip. You couldn’t really confuse the two.

“How did you do that then!?” She asked half outraged and more just shocked.

“Practice! You have to train really hard to be a solo you know? I practiced quick drawing weapons a whole bunch until I got the hang of it.” Motoko said with a bright smile even making a little motion with her hands as if quick drawing a pistol.

Even that was kinda stupidly fast.

“Fuck.” Rebecca cursed and stomped a few steps away. She had agreed to this because she thought it would be just a bunch of kids fucking around, even if Motoko had been surprisingly skilled she hadn’t…

Rebecca hadn’t expected to be this outclassed. Her shoulders slumped. No wonder Maine always hesitated to bring her into an actual gun fight. If Motoko was what she should be… She felt her spine straighten.

No, if that was her real skill, then Motoko was scary good. Not the norm at all. Her chooms didn’t have her chops, even if they had better equipment than any teenage gangoon squad should have. “No wonder you got Rogues attention. You aren’t just some gangoon.” She called out to the girl who smiled happily at the compliment.

“Thanks!” She chirped out as happy seeming as always, although Rebecca noticed her chooms perked up at the mention of Rogue.

“Show me what you got then. I want to see this.” Rebecca offered staring at the taller girl seriously, the girl whose eyes widened at her words before smiling brightly and nodding.

“Well I’ll be right in front of you, so look all you like!” She replied, only for her choom to instantly react. Hiromi jumped off the couch where she had settled in looking outraged at her chooms words.

Heh, Crush was certainly crushing hard.

“But not too close! You have to shoot and stuff first! Yeah! Keep an eye on the gig and not on Motoko! Far away from Motoko!”

“Hiromi? I mean, she’s going to be watching my six though?” Motoko said guilessly, the kid was… Fuck the kid was a natural heartbreaker wasn’t she? That look on her face, of open honesty would be pretty attractive to any gonk that made friends with her.

Not too many people in Night City that were just completely open books.

But there was no way Rebecca would leave such an opening.

“Yeah Hiromi. Don’t worry. I’ll be watching her six alright.” Rebecca threw Hiromi a wink that made her choke and sputter.

Motoko just looked confused as her head went from one to the other.

“Anyway!” Malcolm called out seemingly heading off a disaster as Hiromi had been growing redder and redder. “Looks like Ichi is done. So let’s head out.” He interrupted and Rebecca turned to see Ichi also coming out of the bathroom wearing his suit and looking all fearsome.

Damn. These kids cleaned up nice.

“We can’t leave yet! Everyone huddle in!” Motoko called out earnestly and Rebecca just wondered what was going on, but her chooms seemed to know.

“Oh c’mon Motoko.” Ichi whinged, but she ignored him instead, waving for Jun to join too. Rebecca watched on, confused as Motoko helped arrange everyone into a circle, even grabbing her hand and pulling her in too so she was part of it.

The others besides Jun seemed to know what to do. Even if they all sighed and looked embarrassed about it, they did it anyway. Motoko stretched her hand into the middle, and then her chooms did the same.

Then the girl made eager little motions with her head, and Rebecca decided to hell with it, and threw her hand on top. Jun’s warm hand landing on top of her own caused Rebecca a moment's distraction.

“Section Nine!” Motoko cried out and threw her hand into the air. Her chooms joined in, and Rebecca was just left wondering what the hell she had gotten into.

Rebecca

That was pretty much it. Right after the weird hand thing, which the gonk was smiling like crazy over, they all left the apartment and slipped into an array of vehicles down in the garage. Motoko even invited Rebecca to ride with her, which was nice, as she didn’t have a car. Just taking N-Cart to get there.

It was actually kind of surprising the array of vehicles the teenagers all had.

Malcolm rode around in a Badlands Thornton Colby. The truck was rough and tumble and armored to hell.

And Motoko drove around in a Quadra Type-66. Also a nomad variant. The thing was a beast, and Rebecca was more than a little interested in getting a ride.

The big truck Ichi drove was interesting, but sort of normal. Hiromi joined Ichi, while Motoko yelled at Jun to get into Malcolm's car instead of taking his Kusanagi.

She looked it over and nodded. Preem ride. She wouldn’t mind letting him drive her around on it sometime.

“Oh before we jump in.” Motoko said as she turned from the driver's door to the trunk and then opened it up.

“Whoa.”

“Do you want something with a bit more kick?” The girl asked, and Rebecca had a moment where she wondered what the fuck Maine had been doing all this time.

Maine didn’t have a Rocket Launcher.

“Wha-Is that a Rocket Launcher?”

“My Uragan? Yep! I picked it up off some Nomads. You'd be surprised how often shooting something with heavy ordinance makes things on a gig go smoother.” She offered and no Rebecca would not be surprised, because she now knew what she wanted in her life.

A Rocket Launcher.

It was the only thing that would make her complete. She reached for it, and Motoko’s chrome hands wrapped around her wrist.

“Sorry. Not this gig.”

“Fuuuck.” She cursed because… It was right there.

“Hey if you want one, I can put you in touch with my contact. Get some eddies together and buy one.” She offered as if getting a Rocket Launcher was just… That easy… Well Rebecca realized that it kinda was.

“So want something else? I got an Ajax over there. Or a Carnage around here somewhere, if you want one. I think I got some-”

“I’ll take the Ajax. Sure.” She agreed. She had shot one before, the recoil wouldn’t send her flying. Good enough.

Rebecca cursed herself a bit. She really needed the arm upgrades she had been planning. But Eddies had been tight, and Pilar had been a tightwad. Needing all the eddies for his projects and shit.

Even if Becca knew he was blowing most of it on frivolous shit. The dumbass.

She grabbed the Ajax out of the panel it had been inserted into, hefted it and checked it. Yep, already loaded.

“Here, a few extra mags.” Motoko offered, and Rebecca nodded, stuffing them clumsily into her pockets on her jacket.

“We’ll need to get you some rigging or something for next time.” Motoko said suddenly, before nodding and heading back to the car.

Rebecca though was a little surprised.

For next time? Rebecca wasn’t even sure if she wanted to work with the kids… But at the same time, it was kind of flattering to have Motoko already assume Rebecca wouldn’t embarrass herself today and want them all to kick her out… And now she was feeling under qualified while hanging around a bunch of teenagers.

“Fuuuuuck.” She took a deep breath and headed to the passenger door.

With Maine it always felt like she was just an add on from Pilar. Her brother's tech skills made him useful.

Rebecca though? Was the exact opposite of what Maine liked. Big, strong, brutal power.

Even Sasha represented what Maine liked in a netrunner. Massive powerful hacks. It was just how the big guy thought.

Rebecca was usually only given shit jobs. Overwatch, distraction, shit like that.

But Motoko had invited her right into the strike squad… Before she had walked into the apartment, she had thought the kids wanted another Solo a bit older than them to help out. To handle the dangerous bits, but seeing everything now?

No, it was Rebecca that was the amateur here. She took a breath and accepted that. Even as it pissed her off and embarrassed her, but that was just the truth.

She slipped into the Quadra’s passenger seat, and they all started driving out of the garage towards Arroyo.

Towards a massive Scav den. She could feel herself getting excited. She was ready for this.

“You want any grenades?” The question interrupted her thoughts and she looked over.

Was the kid wearing her seat belt? Why? That’s so weird.

“Uh… Yeah choom?” What kind of gonk said no to grenades?

“Preem. Got a box under your seat. Take whatever you like. Red Caps are frags, Blue are EMP. Probably don’t take any of those. Not sure how much of the equipment in the power plant is still active.”

Rebecca very carefully moved her feet and bent down. There under her seat was a box, and inside slotted into little indents to hold them was a bunch of grenades.

Okay sure.

She reached down and carefully grabbed two of the red caps, and after a moment stuffed them into a still empty pocket on her jacket.

She was going to need to get some actual rig if this is how Motoko rolled.

It was kind of embarrassing to pass on her style, but… Well… having spots to hold grenades did sound pretty nova.

Cause grenades.

“This is going to be so fun!” The girl chirped, happily smiling while her eyes were locked on the road.

For someone with such a high end car…

She kinda drove like some ancient old lady. Weird.

The ride over was pretty quiet. Motoko chattered a bit here and there, mostly about odd topics. What kind of weapons she liked, did she mod her own stuff. What sort of chrome she wanted to get.

Rebecca spent most of the ride mentally preparing herself for the battle to come and didn’t really give good answers.

Then they were there.

Everyone was already there except for Ichi in the truck. He had split off from the group to go get his toy Minotaur. Which Rebecca was still jealous that they had. She wouldn’t mind piloting a Minotaur.

They parked on the side of the road a block down from their target and the kid sat back, eyes closed. “What’s up?” Rebecca asked and the kid smiled.

“I set up some cameras last time I was here. I’m accessing them and slipping into the Scavs network again. Just to make sure nothing has changed or they found us out.”

“Did they?”
“No.” She said while smiling. A smile that was much more bloodthirsty than the girl had shown up until now. “I’ll be pinging their system once we move in. Watch the golden lines, it’ll tell you where they are hiding. I’ll send some hacks through as well right after.”

“Preem. Gonna nuke them or something?”

“Huh? Oh you work with Sasha, right I forgot.” Motoko said, starting amused and then going quiet. “I hope she’s okay. But no. I don’t really use offensive hacks much. I prefer CC. Wipe their eyes. Disarm their guns. Makes shooting them a lot easier.”

“Well shit, that’s what I like to hear.” Rebecca agreed, not having Sasha kill steal everything would be kinda nice. Not that Rebecca had really gotten a chance to do much killing with Maines team.

They still treated her like a kid. She was eighteen! Sure she looked more like she was fourteen, but that’s just how she was. Scopshit. It’s fine. She’ll get some chrome and then Maine will stop babying her. The man always was quick to accept chrome as a solution to any problem.

They waited for a while. Motoko mentioned a few things off hand from time to time.

“Three are outside, but they move around. Two of them are moving boxes outside to a truck. Don’t worry they aren’t moving very fast. The truck won’t be ready to leave before we hit them.”

And Rebecca just listened. Unused to the chatter, but used to a Netrunner overwatching. In fact the constant updates was kinda nice. Sasha was usually more quiet, or just teasing as she worked.

Finally a familiar big truck pulled up behind them all. Ichi had arrived.

Motoko nodded, having noticed them despite focusing on the cameras.

“Okay the gates are both unlocked. Let’s get the channel started.” Then a moment later Rebecca got a call.

*Here.* Rebecca said as soon as the call connected, and Motoko nodded.

*I’m in.* Hiromi responded.

*Me too.* Jun was in.

*Locked and loaded!* Malcolm.

*Just say the word, I want to give this thing a test drive.* Ichi.

*Alright everyone. Gates are unlocked. Jun, Malcolm follow me. Ichi, once the shooting starts that’s your cue!* And then the car rumbled pulling away from the curb and driving down the street past the power plant, and around so they could get into the alley behind it leading around to the second gate.

Rebecca was ready. Ajax held in her lap.

“When you pull in, just give me an angle, I’ll drive by.” She told the kid verbally so as not to disturb everyone.

“Preem! The car is armored so that’s actually a great idea!” Motoko said happily, and Rebecca sort of huffed.

She wasn’t complete ganic. She could take a round from some scav 9… Mostly.

*Okay. I’m going.*

And then The Quadra roared, shifting from a quiet driver to someone that happily pushed the pedal to the metal the Quadra roared, and the gate ahead of them was already opening.

Netrunners were preem like that. The Quadra suddenly shifted and Rebecca yelped, kicking out with her legs to hold her against the dashboard and grabbing the center console to hold her steady as it started drifting sideways.

A moment later the car stopped and she realized the kid had actually set her up perfectly with the passenger door facing the insides of the power plant entry lot.

Rebecca righted herself and pushed the Ajax out the now open door.

They weren’t ready. Already lines filled her vision showing where all the Scavs were at.

That… That was useful. Sasha didn’t usually ping for the team like that.

Then all hell broke loose as Rebecca opened fire.

Above them some scav hiding in a burned out building across from the plant itself started firing.

Across the way Ichi’s truck finished backing in, and suddenly the rear door opened. Revealing A Minotaur that stepped out and slammed into the dirt lot.

The noise was already attracting attention. The front of the plant opened up, and Scavs popped out, hiding behind whatever cover they could find and firing. And Rebecca could see the lines of light shifting as more Scavs were coming.

Then they started screaming, not because of the Minotaur, but because suddenly they were stumbling around, dropping behind whatever cover they could find.

*I plucked their eyes. Go.* And the rest arrived. Jun was suddenly leaping over the Quadra barely wearing the armored plate vest that Motoko had given him, but indeed wearing it even if she was pretty sure he hadn’t bothered to actually zip it up.

He reached the first Scav hiding behind some concrete and just ripped the fucker apart. Grabbing an arm and a leg and just pulling.

Fuck. She had seen Maine do something like that, the big fuck, but he had been bitched out by Dorio for it.

A little too Cyberpsycho.

Rebecca thought it was pretty nova though.

Then a scream echoed out and a Scav slammed into the ground, twitched and went still. Rebecca peaked up and out and nearly flinched. She looked behind her and noticed that Motoko was gone.

She hadn’t heard the girl even leave the car.

Now she was two floors above her, having just thrown a Scav off a building and was overwatching with that Copperhead, silent rounds firing constantly as she started shooting at scavs from behind their cover.

That… That was nova. Rebecca focused up and started firing as well. Popping a Scav inside the plant, and then focusing on another firing into his cover as he trembled and couldn’t move to save himself.

Malcolm ended up taking that kill, a smart round shot close to her, and then sped around the cover slamming into the body.

She looked and Malcolm was using the front of the Quadra as cover and firing his very preem Shingen. Damn, that was a quality piece.

The sudden loud roar of HMG’s filled the lot as the Minotaur stepped into play. Simply moving slowly step by step towards the entrance of the plant, and firing at anything that moved.

A surge above her and she gasped.

Motoko had just leapt off the building, traveling all the way across the lot, to land behind the Minotaur and then she popped up from a roll and landed on its back. Her Copperhead aimed past it, as she held onto its ass and started firing.

*Motoko! You are unbalancing me!* Ichi’s voice called out with some staring through the channel.

*Be a good weapons platform and just stay still.* She retorted back without a hint of stress in her mental voice as she just fired into the dark power plant.

Rebecca decided that she had the right idea. She leapt out of the Quadra, rushing up to the side of the power plant and posting up on the outside quickly seeing some gonk on the second floor catwalk and shooting him full of holes.

This! This was it! This was what Rebecca fucking lived for.

“HAHAHAHA! GET FUCKED!” She roared out in delight as she opened up with her assault rifle.

—---

I felt my own smile stretch across my face in time with Rebecca finally losing her shit and going full berserk.

This assault was going incredibly well. The Scavs that were checking the cameras right now wondering what the fuck was happening must be shitting their pants.

I almost wondered what they were thinking was happening? Did anyone expect a response like Section 9?

I dropped a mag and reloaded which was difficult while staying on the back of the Minotaur, *Jun! Up front, we are moving in. Malcolm move it!* I demanded over the line, as I jumped off the Minotaur and landed behind Jun. To his surprise I posted up behind him. Hand on his back letting him know where I was, as I basically used him as cover.

The gonk wanted to be the big target, then that’s what he would be.

*Here.* Malcolm confirmed posting up behind me and I nodded.

*Rebecca! We are moving in. Ichi hold the lot down. Hiromi keep an eye on Ichi and run if you have to. No risks. Let’s move.* I said as I pushed Jun forward which he audibly grumbled at, but then we moved. Jun leading the way into the Power Plant, and the three Solo’s backing him up.

The fact I had disabled the Scav’s weapons was doing a lot to ensure our charge was uninterrupted.

While Jun slammed into a guy on the ground floor. The three of us twisted around. Firing into the scaffolding, or in Malcolms case firing and then having the Smart rounds twist around and land on top of the hiding Scavs.

We slaughtered them. Moving constantly, in a barrage of bullets. Ping meaning even amateurs like us could act like a unified team. Rebeccca quickly matched our pace despite having to move a bit more with her shorter legs, but she was keeping up perfectly, twisting and firing, as she followed the flashes of light from a fresh Ping.

Of course as easy as it was to slaughter these fucks there were problems.

Teething issues.

Malcolm tripped, nearly knocking me off my feet, and forcing me to struggle and lift him back up. Rebecca got a little trigger happy and nearly shot Jun, who was rushing around.

Jun was running off on his own, and not staying together so we could support him, ending up with him getting stabbed by a very very brave but stupid scav that managed to surprise him.

Yet we kept moving. Malcolm slowed his twisting pace, and kept his feet better after his fuckup.

Rebecca stopped to aim before firing, ensuring no friendly fire. And Jun grumbled and mostly ignored the fact he got stabbed and just kept doing what he was doing…

The after action report would be filled with me kicking him in the head to get it through his denseness. But that’s fine.

We moved on. Having cleared the entrance to the plant, we ended up not immediately hitting the downstairs. Instead we broke through a door in the rear of the factory where a clump of scavs had been hiding behind to enter into a sort of warehouse and main plant.

I actually almost stopped as I entered, because this whole section of the power plant didn’t exist in the game. It was just one of those doors that was door shaped, but was actually a wall.

But inside was a storage area. Obviously the stuff too heavy to take down into the underground. Boxes of what I instantly registered as loot, but that wasn’t all, tables next to chemical equipment…

A drug lab?

I shrugged it off and opened fire along with everyone besides Jun who was going full Oni mode and either cutting people down with his Katana that he had drawn, or just battering Scavs into paste.

Both were pretty effective honestly.

“Motoko?” Malcolm called out, but I shook my head immediately.

“Ignore it! This side is clear we move down now!” I called out even if Malcolm was looking shocked at everything we had found.

Scav business, XBD business, and a drug lab? These scavs sured liked to dip their toes into everything.

Whatever was going on here, was something for later.

We turned after clearing out the area that the Scavs were using and instead rushed towards the undergroundstairs. This time Jun was slower and I was in the lead. I noticed two lines shifting as I got close to the stairs, two gonks, very close, probably hiding in a corner.

So I popped a grenade off my rig.

*Hold! Frag out* I called out over the line, and Jun actually stopped for once. I popped the pin and chucked it down the stairs hard enough it would bounce down and into the bottom of the steps.

A few seconds later the noise buffeted us and I almost giggled as the lights leading to the two winked out.

*Let’s go!* I called out and Jun raced ahead which I realized was him being protective again. I rolled my eyes and moved, sticking together with Malcolm with Rebecca following us. *Good job Malcolm, Rebecca!*

*Course!*

*Easy shit.* Rebecca agreed, sounding almost calm, but when I turned to look her face was locked into a full on rictus grin.

Heh. We moved on, Jun rushing again again like a dummy. We walked through a no entry door and then past the hallway that led to the elevator, but while I could hack the thing, it would take time, and it wasn’t like they were going anywhere. Not with the Minotaur already moving into the Plant to watch the stairs.

Then we moved through a trash area, covered in old clothes and garbage. Every piece of clothing told the story of another death at the hands of these Scavs.

But Jun didn’t care, he moved right through opening doors and rushing through, and so we followed. The next area was a ripper room. The plastic sheeting scavs were so proud of, along with three beams of light leading to Scavs.

Jun of course followed straight towards them, but instantly they opened fire. My hack didn’t work? I slammed another Optic Reboot at them, But felt the hands of another runner. Someone was plugged into the network, fighting me off.

Jun hadn’t stopped at the gun fire, just charging through it and slamming into a ripper chair knocking it over and onto a Scav firing at him. He screamed as it pinned him to the ground and then the screaming stopped as Jun slammed a boot down onto him. Malcolm and I focused on the others. Far more accurate fire than the Scavs were putting out thanks to the Ping meant they were scattering for cover but that didn’t save them from Malcolm.

*They have a netrunner! My hacks won’t be as effective. Destroy any cameras as soon as you see them.* I called out, doing just that as I swung around and fired a round into a camera that was watching the ripper room.

*Got it!* Rebecca confirmed, while Malcolm just nodded.

*Jun? You alright?*

*Just some scratches.* He actually said standing up and showing it was a bit more than that. He was definitely bleeding a bit.

*You are on the backline now, pick up a gun. No more rushing forward or I’ll leave you blind and go on without you.* I said completely calm, cool keeping me from absolutely ranting at him for being an idiot.

He looked like he was going to argue, but I didn’t give him a chance. I popped my Carnage off my back and tossed it at him.

There see? It was totally worth bringing it along.

I reloaded again and nodded as Malcolm did the same and then we moved on to the next room.