How can she be Deus Ex anything without a trench coat of her own?
Ghost in the City Cyberpunk Gamer SI
- Thread starter Seras
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- cyberpunk gamer self-insert
Seras
Well-known member
Shit he got me there.
Carrot of Truth
War is Peace
I can't explain why but this is the mental image I keep getting for what Motoko looks like.
Re-L rather than the Major.
Re-L rather than the Major.
xachariahxx
Well-known member
Her name is Re-L, as in "Real"? Shiiiiiit.
Back in the 2000s I watched that show from a sketchy DVD with bootleg subs that called her Re-i. "Real" makes way more sense.
Blasterbot
Well-known member
Karmic Acumen
Well-known member
As funny as this meme is, capes are only dangerous if they don't come off easily. Which has always been the case. Edna is revealing some big inadequacies as a tailor here, for not being able to do something that literally everyone else has had zero issue doing since the stone age.
xachariahxx
Well-known member
The real reason ofc is because the writers wanted to foreshadow and set up a way that the badguy gets killed while it being his own fault. So they just did a hatchet job against capes.
Chapter 133
Seras
Well-known member
We hadn’t actually gone to a bar this time. Instead all of us had crashed into my apartment, and we had just brought home a ton of food, having hit a few different restaurants in the area.
The entertainment system was set to some terrible movies and we all just ate and drank ourselves sick while laughing and sometimes throwing shit at the TV.
Sorry Jun, I’ll clean that up after I promise.
We had all gotten comfortable, and I had started working on Short Circuit again while we all vegged out and ragged on the terrible movie. Some action flick about a guy on a train or something?
I wasn’t really paying attention because it was really just that bad.
“Hey, bored?” Ichi asked from beside me. He had been sipping at a Broseph of all things.
“Not really, this is actually pretty fun, I just want to get this program done asap. I know this netrunner, and she is going on a crazy gig. I’m worried she is going to end up over her head, so I want to make sure I give her something to help keep her alive.”
“Huh. I guess that is a worry isn’t it.” He muttered, and the way he spoke. I paused the programming to look at him.
“Ichi?”
“It’s kinda stupid… But now that I’ve said that you aren’t going to let it go anyways. I thought you died there for a while, fighting that Cyberpunk. I mean… When you didn’t pick up.”
“Yeah… Sorry for not responding right away I-”
“You don’t have to apologize Motoko, you were fighting for your life… He actually beat you.” He said with a hint of frustration in his tone.
“I’ll kill him next time. Gonna get some more chrome soon from Vik and we won’t be able to overpower me as easily.” I assured him. Still a little salty at the whole getting kicked out the window thing.
I hadn’t and wasn’t going to consider how close to dying I had come. If I hadn’t managed to grab that pipe, I would have been a Motoko splatter on the ground.
“It just… I wish I could have helped. I mean, yeah I’m not like Jun or anything. Not a front liner, but I should have been able to do something.”
“Ichi, that guy was a pro. Like the sort of guy that kills high level people for a living. Don’t be stressed at not being at the same level. I’m not at the same level.” I reminded him.
“Yeah.” He agreed with a small snort, showing that it was a bitter laugh.
“Well if you want to do more Ichi, then… Let’s get you set up to do more. You already upgraded your van for better defense. We should all probably get better armor and gear.” I said, calling out over the group. Malcolm looked up from his chinese food Lo Mein hanging from his mouth as he perked up.
“Hmm. We can definitely figure out a budget and start doing some upgrades.” Hiromi offered.
I looked to Ichi and he slowly just shook his head, as his face shifted into a smile. “Alright. You won. I’ll stop moping. Better armor and weapons will help. What else could we do?”
“Honestly? We really need a few other things. I was thinking… Some trackers, and mobile cameras? If we are going to make this Section 9 thing work we need more tools.” I offered and I could see Hiromi’s eyes get sharp as she considered it.
“It would open up a lot of gigs we could do. Those kinds of tools are expensive though.”
“I was actually thinking of trying to make some myself. I’ve been working on a few things already… Did I show you guys my silencer I made? I know I showed Hiromi.” I said, pulling free my Lexingtons silencer to show it off.
“Preem!” Malcolm called out climbing over the table, knocking over a few cartons of food as he reached for it. I just rolled my eyes and let him have it.
“I want a silencer!”
“I’ll make you one. But you need to actually get an iron worthy of it. Your Unity is kinda…” I trailed off as I realized.
My chooms really did have shitty gear.
Sure Malcolm and Ichi both had some shotguns and other weapons they would bring along from time to time, but like…
That was baby shit.
We needed real iron especially for my chooms.
“We are going to get some assault rifles, and body armor for all of you.” I decided right then.
“Expensive.” Hiromi reminded me, but I just scoffed.
“Hiromi. Those are free. We just need to find someone who already has them.” I reminded her back and that caused her bright optics to go nice and wide as I reminded her we were loot goblins.
“Heh! Yeah! We need a new gig, clear out some gonks and steal everything!” Malcolm called out cheerfully waving my silencer around in the air.
“Be careful with that!”
“I am!” He said but eventually huffed and handed it back.
“So new gear huh?” Ichi asked, and I nodded.
“We are still young. We should keep working on improving! Skills, gear! We need to keep moving forward so we can be safe doing more and more!” I called out fist raised and a moment later Malcolm joined me arm up in the air while Ichi and Hiromi looked on as if wondering why they were chooms with us.
Of course I reached out and grabbed Ichi’s arm to force his arm up as well, and Malcolm catching on quickly did the same for Hiromi.
“Section 9!” I called out happy. The others had diminished levels of engagement, but that’s fine!
“Oh!” Hiromi jerked back suddenly as she reached into her jacket and started fumbling around, pulling at an inner pocket until she pulled out what looked like a deck of playing cards at first, but as she flashed them to the rest of us I understood.
“Oh! You made more business cards!”
“I did! I finished the design during business engagement and advertising class!” She said looking happy. As she tore a chunk off the deck and handed them to each of us.
I looked it over and whistled. They weren’t made of paper or something, but were thin plastic, indented in them was a silver filigree, but the letters were printed.
Section 9. Investigation. Protection. Bounty Hunting.
And of course a phone number, but also an email, which was obviously one Hiromi made.
“That’s so cool!” I whispered, flashing the card in the light letting the silver letters flash in the light.
“Nova Hiromi.” Ichi said as he nudged her shoulder and I could see the corpo girl preen under the attention.
—--
“Vik.”
“Motoko, hey kid.”
“It’s time for me to chrome the fuck up.” I said, deepening my voice to sound all sinister and then I smiled brightly. “I’m so excited.”
Vik just looked at me for a moment before chuckling and shaking his head. “Is that from some show?”
“Yes, but also no.” I answered, because explaining what Edgerunners was isn’t something I was going to do. “You have it?”
“Yeah. I found what you wanted. You sure about this kid? You wanted to take it slow, but this is a big change.”
“I am. Not just because that Edgerunner, Cyberpunk, trenchcoat wearing gonk beat the shit out of me even!” I explained as I settled into the chair. I tapped my shoulders. “I’ve had my shoulders stretched out, or dislocated a few times now, and it’s getting old.”
“Yeah, This will definitely fix that.” Vik agreed and then he wheeled it up.
It would look pretty sinister if not for where I was. A plastic bag with metal bones. Human bones, rested on the table.
“Titanium Bones, MoorE Tech make. I had these whipped up using your measurements. You sure kid? This kind of stuff will definitely ruin your natural growth.”
“I’m already asian Vik, probably only got a couple inches left in me anyways… Besides, I have my special healing. I’m not sure what the combination of the two will be like. And I have the best ripper in Night City watching over me in case I need to be let out a bit.”
My absolute buttering up of Vik only partially worked as the older man scoffed but was still smiling at me, as he rolled over.
“Well I’ll do what I can to keep you healthy of course, but I’m not a miracle worker.”
Which was a lie and the big smile I was shooting at him, was my answer to that.
“Alright kid, lose the leotard, put this on, now lay back. Now I told you this is going to be a while.”
“I know. I’m all yours doc.” I assured him as I shucked out of my clothes and threw on the little almost paper like gown he handed to me. Vik even did the cute turn around not to look thing. Adorable.
Once I was ‘clothed’ and settled in he turned back around.
“Alright.” He grumbled, as he hooked a few cords into my neuralports, and then hooked a few IV’s into my body. “Let’s disconnect these arms of yours. I’m going to prompt your cyberware for the disconnect.” He said and a moment later I got a notification asking if I wanted to release the connections to my chrome arms.
I accepted, and a sense of coolness went up from my fingers to my shoulders as the nerves disengaged and then there was a quiet noise as the locking system turned off.
Vik pulled away with my arm, and then went and did the same thing for the other.
“Alright kid, that’s everything. Sleepy time Motoko. Just relax, I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Course you will doc.” I agreed, as my eyes grew heavy.
—--
I came too groggily. Blinking my eyes slowly as everything kind of blurred. I honestly didn't feel too good. I was face down now, my face in a hole in the ripper chair and I felt just numb.
“Vaaa.” I tried to speak but my tongue felt kinda numb. So my attempt at calling out for Vik didn’t work.
“Hey Kid. Welcome back. You’re okay. Everything is all in order.” Viks face leaned over and despite being all wooshy I could still tell it was him. “You're on the good drugs kid, I brought you out so you can heal yourself up. Go ahead and go to sleep for eight hours. You can do that can’t you?” He prompted and I could feel my brain sort of slowly shift into understanding.
Gotta sleep so I can heal.
Sleeeeep.
I blinked through my menu and found the right stuff although it wasn’t working and I realized I was trying to push the buttons with my fingers which wasn’t exactly working.
Then I pressed the right button mentally and instantly everything went dark.
Then I blinked.
“I’m awake.” I called out blinking away a bit of gunk, but I couldn’t get up as I tried to rise up.
“Easy kid, I have you strapped down. Let me check you over, this is the first time we’ve done such an invasive surgery. I want to see how your healing handled it.”
“Yeah, okay.” I mumbled around the plastic fluff that was cradling my face.
I almost shivered as cold hands went over my shoulders. The weirdest part was just how normal it felt.
I just had massive surgery. The sort of stuff that would have likely killed anyone attempting it back in my previous life.
“Alright, well let’s get your chrome reattached. Everything looks good, amazing even. Damn kid. That healing of yours is unreal.” Vik muttered, then a few moments later I felt something press against my shoulder
Then with a quiet whirr the locks hooked back in, and a tingling ran down my arm.
He rolled around and did the same to the next one. Leaving me with two arms that felt like I had just fallen asleep on them.
“So, it worked?”
“Course it did, c’mon kid this is baby stuff, any back alley ripper could do this… Not well mind you.” He said with a joke as he finally popped the straps holding me down and I rose up.
Like usual I felt perfectly fine after eight hours of sleep, as I sat up I noticed that Vik had thrown up a opaque plastic sheet to block me off from view of the entrance.
“Had some customers come in, privacy is important.” He told me as he noticed me looking at it.
“Thanks Vik.” I accepted. It was nice of him, most rippers wouldn’t have even cared.
But I turned my focus back on my body. I was still in the medical gown he had given me, but that just made it easier to reach behind me and start poking and prodding at my back.
Not a stitch, or a scar from what I could see.
“Here kid.” Vik brought up a set of mirrors letting me see that my back was as pristine as always.
Despite the fact that he had basically ripped out every bone between my shoulders and replaced them with a titanium replacement.
“I don’t feel any different.”
“I made sure they would weigh the same.” Vik answered, and then he settled the mirrors down and looked into my eyes.
“I’m curious Motoko, so I have some questions. Normally the recovery period would give someone the sense something is wrong, but you bypassed that, so I want you to do some stretches and things. I want to make sure everything is how it should be. Both physically…” And then he poked my forehead. “And mentally.”
“Sure Vik. Whatever you think is best.” I agreed without any fight.
“Alright, go ahead and do some stretches, tell me if you feel anything different. Anything off. No matter how minor.”
I shrugged, and that felt the same so I started stretching. As I ran my arms through different positions I did feel a difference.
“It feels like my arms are more… Attached? Does that make sense?” I muttered as I pressed my palms together and pushed. Normally this would reach a point pretty quickly where my shoulders would hurt, because my arms could put out more force… Or maybe just had less restrictions than my old ones did.
But now? I felt the pressure build up in my shoulder blades but no pain, no sense of tearing or difficulty.
“Well everything in between is a whole lot stronger.” Vik agreed, making some notes.
“Yeah.” I said a little breathless. I really wanted to do some punches or something to see how they would feel.
“I did some muscle and bone lacing as well just to reinforce everything.” He mentioned off hand and I jerked up a bit at that.
“Wait what?” I looked over my shoulders and I didn’t see anything off.
“It’s normal for doing replacements like that. The Lace helps keep everything together, strengthens things, so you are far less likely to pull a muscle. Did you not know?” Vik asked, looking at me curiously, as I shook my head.
“No. I wasn’t really planning on getting any bioware.”
“Ah well. Just think of it as some extra glue holding your stuff together. You aren’t getting Synth muscles, so I wanted to make sure you wouldn’t accidentally pull something.”
With that it reminded me about my system.
What did my system have to say about my current upgrades?
I quickly pulled it open and instantly noticed some changes.
MoorE Titanium Bones (Shoulders, back, and ribs.) *Adaptation Titanium Bones 0/1*
Biotechnica Muscle and Bone Lace *Adaptation Muscle and Bone Lace 0/0*
The bioware cost me nothing, and my new bones were only one adaptation?
Why was that? I mean, sure I wasn’t looking at it all the time like my arms, and I really couldn’t feel much of a difference, but you would think changing out your bones would cause some problems.
Guess not though.
“Kid?”
“Sorry just checking some things. I’m actually feeling pretty good Vik.” I said, even as I returned to poking and prodding my shoulders and back.
“Well let’s go through a few checks and then I guess I’ll send you off. Still amazing to see how quickly you healed up.” He muttered, shaking his head as he rolled around.
Yeah. That healing power was pretty amazing for recovering after an upgrade.
I punched my fist into the palm of my other hand, sending out a metallic noise.
Yeah. That felt pretty good. Certainly better than it had before. I hadn’t even noticed how much I had to hold back to keep myself from pulling my arms out of my own socket or something.
I don’t think I was quite ready for a rematch with Thomas yet, but this was just part one of my plan.
Give it a week or so, gathering up more stat points, and then maybe I would be ready for another upgrade.
With that thought I looked at my character sheet. There were definitely some changes and… Wait! Did I forgot to use my Annihilation perk point this whole time!?
“Fuck!”
“Kid?”
“Oh nothing! Bad news, but nothing serious!” I called over to Vik who was preparing more gadgets to check on me with.
Ugh. Okay that perk needed to be picked. Soon.
Level 15
Body 8(16) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 8.
-Athletics 7
-Street Brawler 8
-Annihilation 5
Reflex 8
-Blades 7
-Handguns 7
-Assault 7
-Driving 7
Intelligence 10 (14) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.
-Breach Protocol 9
-Quick Hacks 7
-Programming 10
Cool 9
-Ninjutsu 8
-Cold Blood 8
-Rockerboy 8
Technical Ability 4 (8) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.
-Crafting 4
-Engineering 4
1 Stat point.
5 Skill point.
Perks.
Ambidextrous Blades 2
Quickdraw Handguns 2
Gun Nut Assault 2
Parkour Athletics 2
Grappling Street Brawler 2
Drive By Driving 2
Cat-like Athletics 5
Cool Nerves Cold Blood 2
Danger Sense Ninjutsu 2
Wall Breaking Breach Protocol 2
Cyber Security Quick Hack 2
Recoil Reduction. Annihilation 2
Cyber Ninja Ninjutsu 5
Fearless Chill. Cold Blood 5.
Improvised Weapons Street Brawler 5
Parry Blades 5
Robotics wizard Crafting 2
Drifting Driving 5
Rapid Reload Handguns 5
Design Wizard Engineering 2
Rifle Ace Assault 5
Ghost touch Breach 5
Perfect Musical Memory Rockerboy 2.
Debug Programming 2
Siren Song Rockerboy 5
Hacking Wizard Quick Hacks 5
Inspired Programmer Programming 5
A.I. Whisperer: Programming 10
Annihilation 5 *Unused*
Cyberware:
Seacho Electronics Mk.2 *Adaptation Seacho Mk.2 0/0*
Kiroshi Mk1 *Adaptation Kiroshi Mk1 1/2*
Militech Condor *Adaptation Militech Condor 5/7*
Arasaka Smart Link System. *Adaptation Smart Link 0/0*
Arasaka Ex-Disk *Adatapation Ex-Disk 0/0*
Militech-Armalite Ballistic Guard *Adaptation Ballistic Guard 1/2*
Serano Air-Groove Ankles *Adaptation Serano Air 1/1*
MoorE Titanium Bones (Shoulders, back, and ribs.) *Adaptation Titanium Bones 0/1*
Biotechnica Muscle and Bone Lace *Adaptation Muscle and Bone Lace 0/0*
Everything looked pretty good! It was only as I was browsing that I noticed another change.
My Condors! Last time they had been 5/8 adaptation! Now they were 5/7! They had lowered again!
I looked down at my chrome arms and smiled, bringing them up in front of me and waving my fingers.
These were my arms! These were my fingers, and the nicks and dings on my hands were mine as well. Like scars tracing back.
Yeah. I decided. I had definitely mentally recovered from the damage that had been done to me. Which only firmed up my decision to chrome the fuck up even more.
Motoko Kusanagi. Cyborg!
“Hey kid, plug this in, I want to do a sensitivity test.”
“Sure Vik!” I answered, grabbing the plug he handed to me, and refocusing on the checkup I was getting.
The entertainment system was set to some terrible movies and we all just ate and drank ourselves sick while laughing and sometimes throwing shit at the TV.
Sorry Jun, I’ll clean that up after I promise.
We had all gotten comfortable, and I had started working on Short Circuit again while we all vegged out and ragged on the terrible movie. Some action flick about a guy on a train or something?
I wasn’t really paying attention because it was really just that bad.
“Hey, bored?” Ichi asked from beside me. He had been sipping at a Broseph of all things.
“Not really, this is actually pretty fun, I just want to get this program done asap. I know this netrunner, and she is going on a crazy gig. I’m worried she is going to end up over her head, so I want to make sure I give her something to help keep her alive.”
“Huh. I guess that is a worry isn’t it.” He muttered, and the way he spoke. I paused the programming to look at him.
“Ichi?”
“It’s kinda stupid… But now that I’ve said that you aren’t going to let it go anyways. I thought you died there for a while, fighting that Cyberpunk. I mean… When you didn’t pick up.”
“Yeah… Sorry for not responding right away I-”
“You don’t have to apologize Motoko, you were fighting for your life… He actually beat you.” He said with a hint of frustration in his tone.
“I’ll kill him next time. Gonna get some more chrome soon from Vik and we won’t be able to overpower me as easily.” I assured him. Still a little salty at the whole getting kicked out the window thing.
I hadn’t and wasn’t going to consider how close to dying I had come. If I hadn’t managed to grab that pipe, I would have been a Motoko splatter on the ground.
“It just… I wish I could have helped. I mean, yeah I’m not like Jun or anything. Not a front liner, but I should have been able to do something.”
“Ichi, that guy was a pro. Like the sort of guy that kills high level people for a living. Don’t be stressed at not being at the same level. I’m not at the same level.” I reminded him.
“Yeah.” He agreed with a small snort, showing that it was a bitter laugh.
“Well if you want to do more Ichi, then… Let’s get you set up to do more. You already upgraded your van for better defense. We should all probably get better armor and gear.” I said, calling out over the group. Malcolm looked up from his chinese food Lo Mein hanging from his mouth as he perked up.
“Hmm. We can definitely figure out a budget and start doing some upgrades.” Hiromi offered.
I looked to Ichi and he slowly just shook his head, as his face shifted into a smile. “Alright. You won. I’ll stop moping. Better armor and weapons will help. What else could we do?”
“Honestly? We really need a few other things. I was thinking… Some trackers, and mobile cameras? If we are going to make this Section 9 thing work we need more tools.” I offered and I could see Hiromi’s eyes get sharp as she considered it.
“It would open up a lot of gigs we could do. Those kinds of tools are expensive though.”
“I was actually thinking of trying to make some myself. I’ve been working on a few things already… Did I show you guys my silencer I made? I know I showed Hiromi.” I said, pulling free my Lexingtons silencer to show it off.
“Preem!” Malcolm called out climbing over the table, knocking over a few cartons of food as he reached for it. I just rolled my eyes and let him have it.
“I want a silencer!”
“I’ll make you one. But you need to actually get an iron worthy of it. Your Unity is kinda…” I trailed off as I realized.
My chooms really did have shitty gear.
Sure Malcolm and Ichi both had some shotguns and other weapons they would bring along from time to time, but like…
That was baby shit.
We needed real iron especially for my chooms.
“We are going to get some assault rifles, and body armor for all of you.” I decided right then.
“Expensive.” Hiromi reminded me, but I just scoffed.
“Hiromi. Those are free. We just need to find someone who already has them.” I reminded her back and that caused her bright optics to go nice and wide as I reminded her we were loot goblins.
“Heh! Yeah! We need a new gig, clear out some gonks and steal everything!” Malcolm called out cheerfully waving my silencer around in the air.
“Be careful with that!”
“I am!” He said but eventually huffed and handed it back.
“So new gear huh?” Ichi asked, and I nodded.
“We are still young. We should keep working on improving! Skills, gear! We need to keep moving forward so we can be safe doing more and more!” I called out fist raised and a moment later Malcolm joined me arm up in the air while Ichi and Hiromi looked on as if wondering why they were chooms with us.
Of course I reached out and grabbed Ichi’s arm to force his arm up as well, and Malcolm catching on quickly did the same for Hiromi.
“Section 9!” I called out happy. The others had diminished levels of engagement, but that’s fine!
“Oh!” Hiromi jerked back suddenly as she reached into her jacket and started fumbling around, pulling at an inner pocket until she pulled out what looked like a deck of playing cards at first, but as she flashed them to the rest of us I understood.
“Oh! You made more business cards!”
“I did! I finished the design during business engagement and advertising class!” She said looking happy. As she tore a chunk off the deck and handed them to each of us.
I looked it over and whistled. They weren’t made of paper or something, but were thin plastic, indented in them was a silver filigree, but the letters were printed.
Section 9. Investigation. Protection. Bounty Hunting.
And of course a phone number, but also an email, which was obviously one Hiromi made.
“That’s so cool!” I whispered, flashing the card in the light letting the silver letters flash in the light.
“Nova Hiromi.” Ichi said as he nudged her shoulder and I could see the corpo girl preen under the attention.
—--
“Vik.”
“Motoko, hey kid.”
“It’s time for me to chrome the fuck up.” I said, deepening my voice to sound all sinister and then I smiled brightly. “I’m so excited.”
Vik just looked at me for a moment before chuckling and shaking his head. “Is that from some show?”
“Yes, but also no.” I answered, because explaining what Edgerunners was isn’t something I was going to do. “You have it?”
“Yeah. I found what you wanted. You sure about this kid? You wanted to take it slow, but this is a big change.”
“I am. Not just because that Edgerunner, Cyberpunk, trenchcoat wearing gonk beat the shit out of me even!” I explained as I settled into the chair. I tapped my shoulders. “I’ve had my shoulders stretched out, or dislocated a few times now, and it’s getting old.”
“Yeah, This will definitely fix that.” Vik agreed and then he wheeled it up.
It would look pretty sinister if not for where I was. A plastic bag with metal bones. Human bones, rested on the table.
“Titanium Bones, MoorE Tech make. I had these whipped up using your measurements. You sure kid? This kind of stuff will definitely ruin your natural growth.”
“I’m already asian Vik, probably only got a couple inches left in me anyways… Besides, I have my special healing. I’m not sure what the combination of the two will be like. And I have the best ripper in Night City watching over me in case I need to be let out a bit.”
My absolute buttering up of Vik only partially worked as the older man scoffed but was still smiling at me, as he rolled over.
“Well I’ll do what I can to keep you healthy of course, but I’m not a miracle worker.”
Which was a lie and the big smile I was shooting at him, was my answer to that.
“Alright kid, lose the leotard, put this on, now lay back. Now I told you this is going to be a while.”
“I know. I’m all yours doc.” I assured him as I shucked out of my clothes and threw on the little almost paper like gown he handed to me. Vik even did the cute turn around not to look thing. Adorable.
Once I was ‘clothed’ and settled in he turned back around.
“Alright.” He grumbled, as he hooked a few cords into my neuralports, and then hooked a few IV’s into my body. “Let’s disconnect these arms of yours. I’m going to prompt your cyberware for the disconnect.” He said and a moment later I got a notification asking if I wanted to release the connections to my chrome arms.
I accepted, and a sense of coolness went up from my fingers to my shoulders as the nerves disengaged and then there was a quiet noise as the locking system turned off.
Vik pulled away with my arm, and then went and did the same thing for the other.
“Alright kid, that’s everything. Sleepy time Motoko. Just relax, I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Course you will doc.” I agreed, as my eyes grew heavy.
—--
I came too groggily. Blinking my eyes slowly as everything kind of blurred. I honestly didn't feel too good. I was face down now, my face in a hole in the ripper chair and I felt just numb.
“Vaaa.” I tried to speak but my tongue felt kinda numb. So my attempt at calling out for Vik didn’t work.
“Hey Kid. Welcome back. You’re okay. Everything is all in order.” Viks face leaned over and despite being all wooshy I could still tell it was him. “You're on the good drugs kid, I brought you out so you can heal yourself up. Go ahead and go to sleep for eight hours. You can do that can’t you?” He prompted and I could feel my brain sort of slowly shift into understanding.
Gotta sleep so I can heal.
Sleeeeep.
I blinked through my menu and found the right stuff although it wasn’t working and I realized I was trying to push the buttons with my fingers which wasn’t exactly working.
Then I pressed the right button mentally and instantly everything went dark.
Then I blinked.
“I’m awake.” I called out blinking away a bit of gunk, but I couldn’t get up as I tried to rise up.
“Easy kid, I have you strapped down. Let me check you over, this is the first time we’ve done such an invasive surgery. I want to see how your healing handled it.”
“Yeah, okay.” I mumbled around the plastic fluff that was cradling my face.
I almost shivered as cold hands went over my shoulders. The weirdest part was just how normal it felt.
I just had massive surgery. The sort of stuff that would have likely killed anyone attempting it back in my previous life.
“Alright, well let’s get your chrome reattached. Everything looks good, amazing even. Damn kid. That healing of yours is unreal.” Vik muttered, then a few moments later I felt something press against my shoulder
Then with a quiet whirr the locks hooked back in, and a tingling ran down my arm.
He rolled around and did the same to the next one. Leaving me with two arms that felt like I had just fallen asleep on them.
“So, it worked?”
“Course it did, c’mon kid this is baby stuff, any back alley ripper could do this… Not well mind you.” He said with a joke as he finally popped the straps holding me down and I rose up.
Like usual I felt perfectly fine after eight hours of sleep, as I sat up I noticed that Vik had thrown up a opaque plastic sheet to block me off from view of the entrance.
“Had some customers come in, privacy is important.” He told me as he noticed me looking at it.
“Thanks Vik.” I accepted. It was nice of him, most rippers wouldn’t have even cared.
But I turned my focus back on my body. I was still in the medical gown he had given me, but that just made it easier to reach behind me and start poking and prodding at my back.
Not a stitch, or a scar from what I could see.
“Here kid.” Vik brought up a set of mirrors letting me see that my back was as pristine as always.
Despite the fact that he had basically ripped out every bone between my shoulders and replaced them with a titanium replacement.
“I don’t feel any different.”
“I made sure they would weigh the same.” Vik answered, and then he settled the mirrors down and looked into my eyes.
“I’m curious Motoko, so I have some questions. Normally the recovery period would give someone the sense something is wrong, but you bypassed that, so I want you to do some stretches and things. I want to make sure everything is how it should be. Both physically…” And then he poked my forehead. “And mentally.”
“Sure Vik. Whatever you think is best.” I agreed without any fight.
“Alright, go ahead and do some stretches, tell me if you feel anything different. Anything off. No matter how minor.”
I shrugged, and that felt the same so I started stretching. As I ran my arms through different positions I did feel a difference.
“It feels like my arms are more… Attached? Does that make sense?” I muttered as I pressed my palms together and pushed. Normally this would reach a point pretty quickly where my shoulders would hurt, because my arms could put out more force… Or maybe just had less restrictions than my old ones did.
But now? I felt the pressure build up in my shoulder blades but no pain, no sense of tearing or difficulty.
“Well everything in between is a whole lot stronger.” Vik agreed, making some notes.
“Yeah.” I said a little breathless. I really wanted to do some punches or something to see how they would feel.
“I did some muscle and bone lacing as well just to reinforce everything.” He mentioned off hand and I jerked up a bit at that.
“Wait what?” I looked over my shoulders and I didn’t see anything off.
“It’s normal for doing replacements like that. The Lace helps keep everything together, strengthens things, so you are far less likely to pull a muscle. Did you not know?” Vik asked, looking at me curiously, as I shook my head.
“No. I wasn’t really planning on getting any bioware.”
“Ah well. Just think of it as some extra glue holding your stuff together. You aren’t getting Synth muscles, so I wanted to make sure you wouldn’t accidentally pull something.”
With that it reminded me about my system.
What did my system have to say about my current upgrades?
I quickly pulled it open and instantly noticed some changes.
MoorE Titanium Bones (Shoulders, back, and ribs.) *Adaptation Titanium Bones 0/1*
Biotechnica Muscle and Bone Lace *Adaptation Muscle and Bone Lace 0/0*
The bioware cost me nothing, and my new bones were only one adaptation?
Why was that? I mean, sure I wasn’t looking at it all the time like my arms, and I really couldn’t feel much of a difference, but you would think changing out your bones would cause some problems.
Guess not though.
“Kid?”
“Sorry just checking some things. I’m actually feeling pretty good Vik.” I said, even as I returned to poking and prodding my shoulders and back.
“Well let’s go through a few checks and then I guess I’ll send you off. Still amazing to see how quickly you healed up.” He muttered, shaking his head as he rolled around.
Yeah. That healing power was pretty amazing for recovering after an upgrade.
I punched my fist into the palm of my other hand, sending out a metallic noise.
Yeah. That felt pretty good. Certainly better than it had before. I hadn’t even noticed how much I had to hold back to keep myself from pulling my arms out of my own socket or something.
I don’t think I was quite ready for a rematch with Thomas yet, but this was just part one of my plan.
Give it a week or so, gathering up more stat points, and then maybe I would be ready for another upgrade.
With that thought I looked at my character sheet. There were definitely some changes and… Wait! Did I forgot to use my Annihilation perk point this whole time!?
“Fuck!”
“Kid?”
“Oh nothing! Bad news, but nothing serious!” I called over to Vik who was preparing more gadgets to check on me with.
Ugh. Okay that perk needed to be picked. Soon.
Level 15
Body 8(16) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 8.
-Athletics 7
-Street Brawler 8
-Annihilation 5
Reflex 8
-Blades 7
-Handguns 7
-Assault 7
-Driving 7
Intelligence 10 (14) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.
-Breach Protocol 9
-Quick Hacks 7
-Programming 10
Cool 9
-Ninjutsu 8
-Cold Blood 8
-Rockerboy 8
Technical Ability 4 (8) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.
-Crafting 4
-Engineering 4
1 Stat point.
5 Skill point.
Perks.
Ambidextrous Blades 2
Quickdraw Handguns 2
Gun Nut Assault 2
Parkour Athletics 2
Grappling Street Brawler 2
Drive By Driving 2
Cat-like Athletics 5
Cool Nerves Cold Blood 2
Danger Sense Ninjutsu 2
Wall Breaking Breach Protocol 2
Cyber Security Quick Hack 2
Recoil Reduction. Annihilation 2
Cyber Ninja Ninjutsu 5
Fearless Chill. Cold Blood 5.
Improvised Weapons Street Brawler 5
Parry Blades 5
Robotics wizard Crafting 2
Drifting Driving 5
Rapid Reload Handguns 5
Design Wizard Engineering 2
Rifle Ace Assault 5
Ghost touch Breach 5
Perfect Musical Memory Rockerboy 2.
Debug Programming 2
Siren Song Rockerboy 5
Hacking Wizard Quick Hacks 5
Inspired Programmer Programming 5
A.I. Whisperer: Programming 10
Annihilation 5 *Unused*
Cyberware:
Seacho Electronics Mk.2 *Adaptation Seacho Mk.2 0/0*
Kiroshi Mk1 *Adaptation Kiroshi Mk1 1/2*
Militech Condor *Adaptation Militech Condor 5/7*
Arasaka Smart Link System. *Adaptation Smart Link 0/0*
Arasaka Ex-Disk *Adatapation Ex-Disk 0/0*
Militech-Armalite Ballistic Guard *Adaptation Ballistic Guard 1/2*
Serano Air-Groove Ankles *Adaptation Serano Air 1/1*
MoorE Titanium Bones (Shoulders, back, and ribs.) *Adaptation Titanium Bones 0/1*
Biotechnica Muscle and Bone Lace *Adaptation Muscle and Bone Lace 0/0*
Everything looked pretty good! It was only as I was browsing that I noticed another change.
My Condors! Last time they had been 5/8 adaptation! Now they were 5/7! They had lowered again!
I looked down at my chrome arms and smiled, bringing them up in front of me and waving my fingers.
These were my arms! These were my fingers, and the nicks and dings on my hands were mine as well. Like scars tracing back.
Yeah. I decided. I had definitely mentally recovered from the damage that had been done to me. Which only firmed up my decision to chrome the fuck up even more.
Motoko Kusanagi. Cyborg!
“Hey kid, plug this in, I want to do a sensitivity test.”
“Sure Vik!” I answered, grabbing the plug he handed to me, and refocusing on the checkup I was getting.
"The test is gonna go great, I can feel it in my bones"
*Vik groans*
"What was that groan? You've got a bone to pick with me? Or are you just bone tired now?"
"Please stop"
"You don't find me humerus?"
Karmic Acumen
Well-known member
Sans did it better.
Chapter 134
Seras
Well-known member
I sighed as I stretched my arms above my head, finally home. I still hadn’t really noticed any differences in weight or balance driving home, so I was very satisfied with Vik’s work.
That man deserved way more than the stack of eddies I had given him for his time and skill.
He deserved all the eddies!
“Hey, there you are!” Jun called out as I walked in the apartment. Jun was sitting on the couch, stupid ogre arms hanging over the top as he had obviously been staring blankly at whatever tv show he had been watching.
“Hey Jun-Nii!” I called out as I wandered over and flopped onto the couch beside him.
“Oh? What’s got you in such a good mood?” Jun asked, poking at me a little which I swiped away at him.
“I got some new chrome. Vik took great care of me.” I told him flexing my arms without going into detail.
Jun would know how long it would take to heal up from such an invasive surgery after all.
“Yeah?”
“Just Bone and Muscle Lace stuff.” I lied to him, before relaxing back and looking at the TV. “Anything good on?”
“Nothing you’d like.” He said laughing.
“Blegh.” I answered, sticking out my tongue. “I guess I’ll get back to work.”
“Work?”
“I’m trying to finish a new program, zappy zap.” I muttered, wiggling my fingers.
“I don’t even want to know.”
“It’s a Short Circuit hack!”
“Mhmm.” He agreed, but really he was just ignoring me.
“Well I know the first person I’m testing it on.” I muttered, and of course in response Jun reached over to grab me, and I kicked out and then we were wrestling, only now things were different!
Jun’s stupid ogre arm might be super strong, but now I could bring to bear all of the strength of my own chrome arms!
I reached out and grabbed his arm with both hands, and squeezed, actually forcing his arm to bend away from me.
“I’m strong!” I told him my face splitting into a big grin.
Which is when Jun huffed out a laugh and just jerked his arm forward.
I had about half a second to realize Jun was a fucking asshole before the movement flipped me entirely off of my butt and then off the couch, crashing into the floor with a loud thump.
“You are such a dick.”
“Can’t let you get too overconfident with those wet noodles you call arms.” He mocked, flexing his arms at me, as I just lay there on the floor for a minute stewing.
I was going to chrome up so much that I could throw him around, I decided. Right then and right there.
Was I going to chrome up because I wanted to be a Cyborg? Because I wanted to be strong enough to kill Scavs, or to go toe to toe with cyberpunks like Thomas?
No. I must defeat my brother.
I stood up and brushed myself off ignoring the mocking smile on Jun's face as I stalked away with all the dignity I had left to go find my laptop.
—---
I spent the rest of the night hammering away at Short Circuit.
Although I was making great progress. My version was already much smaller than the version I had originally picked up from Yoko. The problem was, I wasn’t really coming up with anything to make it special.
It would just be an efficient version of the hack, which wasn’t a bad thing, but if I was going to make something I wanted it to be more than just efficient.
Short Circuit at its most bare bones was a hack that attacked power systems for cyberware, convincing them they needed to do an emergency discharge to keep something from exploding.
That was actually why it was nonlethal. Sure an electronic jolt wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience, and it might knock you out, but it wouldn’t kill you.
The emergency discharge couldn’t release enough power to instantly stop someone's heart or anything.
But I wanted more than just that.
I wanted something that would make a netrunner do a double take when they saw it. Something that Sasha wouldn’t just blow off when I handed it to her. Something that might just save her life.
I had already added in the same multi hack functionality that I had developed for Reboot Optics, and Weapon Glitch.
This program would jump to anyone in the network and try to short them all. Of course it wouldn’t be as effective as someone with something like a Tetratronic Rippler Cyberdeck, which was designed to allow multi hack.
Anyone with some bare bones ICE would stop the jumping hacks cold, but not everyone had that.
Plus that was just a bonus. A basic design addition that barely added any RAM requirements to the hack.
I wanted this hack to be unique.
It had to do something that no other Short Circuit could do. I pulled away from the keyboard as I grumbled, flopping onto my bed and trying to figure it out.
I had considered trying to make it do more damage to Cyberware, but that was what Cyberware Malfunction was. That was a different hack entirely, meant to do something entirely different.
So what was Short Circuit meant to do?
Disable enemies for a short time.
I couldn’t really make it more disabling. The discharge function was surprisingly well protected against intrusion. I would have to make a variant against every cyberware I could come across… Which might explain why Cyberware Malfunction was a much more RAM intensive hack.
So… It was meant to disable someone. I couldn’t modify the base function, but what could I modify?
I went through the code of my own implants, searching through information in my own system.
When it struck me.
Each piece of cyberware had its own battery. Small bits of flash cyberware might have tiny batteries, but the bigger pieces?
So if each cyberware had their own battery…
That means each piece of chrome had its own discharge function.
Short Circuit normally caused everything to discharge. Which yeah I could see how that would be useful, but what if instead of one big burst, I made it last longer.
Each battery could be discharged in a sequence, starting with the biggest battery to still have that massive shock.
It would make the discharge last longer for sure.
I started fiddling with the code. I would have to make it larger, to fit in the discharge sequence in the hack, but it wouldn’t even need a full Daemon to control it since that information was already stored in everyone's agent. I mean, there was already a function in the agent that kept track of battery power of Cyberware.
That little program would be the first thing attacked and it would discharge each battery in a row.
I cackled evilly as I imagined some gonk with more chrome than brains stuck spazzing out on the ground as every piece of chrome he had electrocuted him one after another.
Heh, defeated by your own Mr. Studd.
Also, and more importantly! It would be exceptionally strong against drone and robots. They had multiple battery systems, and each one discharging would be a massive problem for a full mechanical body.
I hummed pleased as the inspiration hit and I felt my hands blurring across the keyboard as the code came together.
—--
I stayed hiding in my bedroom for the rest of the night, and late into the afternoon the next day before finally I finished bug checking the code, and I finalized it.
I flopped back, letting the laptop finish turning the code into a working hack and just considered what to do next.
First I had to meet Sasha.
Then… Profit?
I blinked at the joke and snorted. Yeah that sounded good. No, I thought as I rose up and stretched deciding to get changed and clean up before heading out.
What I needed was some XP.
I needed to kill a bunch of gonks so I could get more stat points for adaptation.
Decision made I hurried over out of the room to the bathroom to jump into a quick shower.
While I did that I made a few calls. Pretty amused that I could make a business call while shampooing my hair without a struggle.
Of course the very first call I made I got yelled at.
*Ah so you finally come crawling back to me? Do I even know a merc by this name? Certainly not one who has done any work for me recently…*
*Wakakooooooo!* I whined into the line, purposefully being as annoying as possible. Two could play at that game old lady!
“Ah, she hung up… Well played.” I muttered as I instantly called back again.
*As I was saying.* She continued without missing a beat.
*Wakako. I’ve been busy, not just with personal stuff, but with like crazy stuff in general. But I’m back on the merc grind. You need anything done, I’m free to handle it.*
*Perhaps, I will offer another olive branch to a difficult to work with mercenary…* She trailed off and I rolled my eyes.
*No discounts.*
*I don’t see any gigs I need for such an expensive merc then.* She shot back instantly.
*Heh! Does that mean I finally have a rep? Is it a good one? Do you fixers say good things about me?*
*I find this call less and less interesting by the moment.* She drawled out and I could tell she was having fun.
Even if she absolutely would hang up on me again if I didn’t do something.
*Alright I’ll stop. Seriously though, Wakako. What do you need doing? I’ve got a lot of time on my hands at the moment.*
*Perhaps, I have a few gigs that need skills such as yours. I’ll send you the details. You are well enough? I was considering dropping you entirely due to worries about Cyberpsychosis.*
*Ah… Yeah I’m much better, but I wasn’t… Okay the whole Scav thing probably looked pretty bad and stuff, but I’m doing much better. I promise.*
*Good. I will send you some work, complete it and stop by when you are finished. I will decide if you are doing better myself.*
The desire to ask if she was that worried about me was on the tip of my tongue, but I know she wouldn’t want to hear it.
*You got-*
She hung up again. “Bitch!” I laughed as I finished my wash.
—--
I got the gig details and rolled my eyes as Wakako was definitely fucking with me again.
There was a guy that hadn’t paid Wakako after a gig. Which just as a baseline? That was fucking dumb.
So Wakako wanted to remind him that he was well within her reach.
So she sent me out, not to kill him. Not to kidnap him.
No. She wanted me to steal his car. A pretty nice Quadra Turbo-R. She sent me a picture and I sighed because it was covered in TC colors.
Fuck.
But I shrugged, stealing a car wasn’t a difficult gig, and if I could do it without anyone noticing, then I wouldn’t have to worry about anyone getting pissed at me for stealing from the TC.
So I drove over to where the gonk lived, and checked the parking garage. Driving through slowly confirmed his car wasn’t here.
Irritating. I drove out and instead headed to where Wakako’s information told me was his day job.
Unsurprisingly the gonk that owed Wakako was muscle for a local drug dealer. I drove past on the road once, and it wasn’t hard to see his car. What was irritating was the fact his car was surrounded by gonks.
Apparently the guy was involved in a party at the moment.
I drove past, finding a spot down the street well out of sight that I could park and step out. Adjusting my favorite jacket as I rose out of the car I considered what to do. I could just wait. Let the gonk drive home and then klep it then.
Or I could just klep it right out from under his nose.
I know which one I wanted.
To wait, because why make a gig that was meant to be annoying harder than it had to be?
On the other hand, I had other things I wanted to do today, and waiting around for this gonk to go home while he was in the middle of a TC block party didn’t sound super fun.
So I sighed and found an alleyway, giving me enough cover from most eyes that I could quickly take four hops jumping up onto AC units, or apartment balconies to end up on the roof of the block.
Hurrying across I made it to just above the party to scope it out.
It took me a moment to find a good shaded spot that still let me look over the party while keeping me hidden from any casual look, as I started getting an idea of the party.
Sure a couple people were hanging out around the cars, but no one was directly on the Turbo-R I was here to grab.
I tilted my head as I started hacking.
The car's security wasn’t bad, but we aren’t talking about Malcolms Caliburn. This was just a normal car's security and I broke in within a few moments. Once I was in, I tricked the security system into thinking I had the key and that was a big chunk of the gig done.
Now I just had to find my moment.
So I settled in, watching the movements of all the gonks. I just needed a moment where my target… Joji? Koji? I don’t even remember his name, it was in the data Wakako sent, but I had an eye on him now, and his name wasn’t important.
Ah.
He was distracted by a girl.
No one was sitting on the Turbo-R.
I found my landing zone, and Parkour guided me on a path.
I started the BD, then I leapt.
Off the building, my feet barely made a noise as I landed first on an AC unit, and then across an alleyway to hit the opposite brick wall and then used that to bounce back, and then again. Down the entire building bouncing across the ten foot alley until I landed in a quiet crouch on the other side of a pile of trash.
No one had seen me.
I moved crouched low and fast, until I passed the trash, then I stood up and sauntered as casually as I could through the crowd.
I might not have the colors, but I was still an asian girl. Just to fit in, I added a shake to my hips.
Sexy Motoko walk engage!
I slipped through the crowd with a little smirk on my face, and looked like I had something planned on my face. I wasn’t bothered.
Walking right past a girl making out with a guy on a Shion right next to the Turbo-R, I ignored them. The driver door opened, and I slipped in, the door shut, and after checking to make sure no one was behind me, I started it up and throttled quietly out of the spot onto the street, and then started driving off.
BD over.
Gig complete.
—---
Dropping off the Quadra Turbo-R into the garage Wakako wanted it placed in, I headed out and waited for my own Quadra Type-66 to catch up.
While I waited, it was time.
I called Sasha.
*Ringing*
*Ringing*
*Ringing*
*Heeh! What’s going on kiddy cat?* Sasha picked up with all the excitement and energy I was coming to expect from the woman.
*Sasha, I finished that Quick Hack I was telling you about. The Short Circuit one. Want to take a look?*
*Hmm, I don’t know Toko, it’s not really my style, you know?*
*Trust me, this one is good at disabling someone, especially someone chromed up for a much longer period of time than the off the shelf program. If someone with a bunch of chrome annoys you, you can hack them out, and leave them getting zapped on the floor for a good long while. It’s preem.*
The line was quiet for a moment and then all I heard was a burst of giggles.
*Okay, okay that does sound like something I want to try on Maine some day. I’m currently at the Turbo’s on Longshore, the one near the riverfront. We’re hosting a party right now. You should come!”
I blinked.
Wait. Turbo’s… That was where Maines crew always hosted their parties and stuff… But that was in Westbrook!? Are you telling me I lived like a block from where Maine’s crew had their parties!?
I was struck speechless for a long moment as the realization hit that I could have met Sasha and the crew so much easier!
*Toko you there?*
*Wha? Oh yeah. I was just surprised I used to live over there. I’ll head over. I can’t wait for you to see this hack Sasha, you’re going to love it.”
“Eeeeh! You’re making me blush kid! Heh! I’ve never had a little Kohai before! Eee! It’s so cute I totally get it now! C’mon hurry up! I need to show off my little programmer to everyone!”
“Wha… I’m not a Kohai.” I mumbled petulantly. But Sasha was ignoring me and all I could do was grumble and agree that I was on my way.
I mean… I guess I wasn’t at Sasha’s level with the netrunning stuff, I was definitely better at programming, but… I guess I was a Kohai. Fine!
I grumbled as my Quadra finally pulled up.
Sliding in I started driving, finally getting my update from Wakako.
*Wakako: I confirmed the vehicle was secured, and reached out to the target. Turns out he hadn’t noticed his car disappearing on him. I received quite the satisfaction in hearing his discomfort at that. Excellent work. I will have another gig for you soon. Payment and bonus has been sent.*
I blinked at the message, and checked the actual update, and whistled a little. She had given me a nice little bonus. Heh, I guess ghosting the car out from under his nose pleased Wakako.
Well. I guess it was a good thing I was going to a party. Time to celebrate another gig completed!
That man deserved way more than the stack of eddies I had given him for his time and skill.
He deserved all the eddies!
“Hey, there you are!” Jun called out as I walked in the apartment. Jun was sitting on the couch, stupid ogre arms hanging over the top as he had obviously been staring blankly at whatever tv show he had been watching.
“Hey Jun-Nii!” I called out as I wandered over and flopped onto the couch beside him.
“Oh? What’s got you in such a good mood?” Jun asked, poking at me a little which I swiped away at him.
“I got some new chrome. Vik took great care of me.” I told him flexing my arms without going into detail.
Jun would know how long it would take to heal up from such an invasive surgery after all.
“Yeah?”
“Just Bone and Muscle Lace stuff.” I lied to him, before relaxing back and looking at the TV. “Anything good on?”
“Nothing you’d like.” He said laughing.
“Blegh.” I answered, sticking out my tongue. “I guess I’ll get back to work.”
“Work?”
“I’m trying to finish a new program, zappy zap.” I muttered, wiggling my fingers.
“I don’t even want to know.”
“It’s a Short Circuit hack!”
“Mhmm.” He agreed, but really he was just ignoring me.
“Well I know the first person I’m testing it on.” I muttered, and of course in response Jun reached over to grab me, and I kicked out and then we were wrestling, only now things were different!
Jun’s stupid ogre arm might be super strong, but now I could bring to bear all of the strength of my own chrome arms!
I reached out and grabbed his arm with both hands, and squeezed, actually forcing his arm to bend away from me.
“I’m strong!” I told him my face splitting into a big grin.
Which is when Jun huffed out a laugh and just jerked his arm forward.
I had about half a second to realize Jun was a fucking asshole before the movement flipped me entirely off of my butt and then off the couch, crashing into the floor with a loud thump.
“You are such a dick.”
“Can’t let you get too overconfident with those wet noodles you call arms.” He mocked, flexing his arms at me, as I just lay there on the floor for a minute stewing.
I was going to chrome up so much that I could throw him around, I decided. Right then and right there.
Was I going to chrome up because I wanted to be a Cyborg? Because I wanted to be strong enough to kill Scavs, or to go toe to toe with cyberpunks like Thomas?
No. I must defeat my brother.
I stood up and brushed myself off ignoring the mocking smile on Jun's face as I stalked away with all the dignity I had left to go find my laptop.
—---
I spent the rest of the night hammering away at Short Circuit.
Although I was making great progress. My version was already much smaller than the version I had originally picked up from Yoko. The problem was, I wasn’t really coming up with anything to make it special.
It would just be an efficient version of the hack, which wasn’t a bad thing, but if I was going to make something I wanted it to be more than just efficient.
Short Circuit at its most bare bones was a hack that attacked power systems for cyberware, convincing them they needed to do an emergency discharge to keep something from exploding.
That was actually why it was nonlethal. Sure an electronic jolt wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience, and it might knock you out, but it wouldn’t kill you.
The emergency discharge couldn’t release enough power to instantly stop someone's heart or anything.
But I wanted more than just that.
I wanted something that would make a netrunner do a double take when they saw it. Something that Sasha wouldn’t just blow off when I handed it to her. Something that might just save her life.
I had already added in the same multi hack functionality that I had developed for Reboot Optics, and Weapon Glitch.
This program would jump to anyone in the network and try to short them all. Of course it wouldn’t be as effective as someone with something like a Tetratronic Rippler Cyberdeck, which was designed to allow multi hack.
Anyone with some bare bones ICE would stop the jumping hacks cold, but not everyone had that.
Plus that was just a bonus. A basic design addition that barely added any RAM requirements to the hack.
I wanted this hack to be unique.
It had to do something that no other Short Circuit could do. I pulled away from the keyboard as I grumbled, flopping onto my bed and trying to figure it out.
I had considered trying to make it do more damage to Cyberware, but that was what Cyberware Malfunction was. That was a different hack entirely, meant to do something entirely different.
So what was Short Circuit meant to do?
Disable enemies for a short time.
I couldn’t really make it more disabling. The discharge function was surprisingly well protected against intrusion. I would have to make a variant against every cyberware I could come across… Which might explain why Cyberware Malfunction was a much more RAM intensive hack.
So… It was meant to disable someone. I couldn’t modify the base function, but what could I modify?
I went through the code of my own implants, searching through information in my own system.
When it struck me.
Each piece of cyberware had its own battery. Small bits of flash cyberware might have tiny batteries, but the bigger pieces?
So if each cyberware had their own battery…
That means each piece of chrome had its own discharge function.
Short Circuit normally caused everything to discharge. Which yeah I could see how that would be useful, but what if instead of one big burst, I made it last longer.
Each battery could be discharged in a sequence, starting with the biggest battery to still have that massive shock.
It would make the discharge last longer for sure.
I started fiddling with the code. I would have to make it larger, to fit in the discharge sequence in the hack, but it wouldn’t even need a full Daemon to control it since that information was already stored in everyone's agent. I mean, there was already a function in the agent that kept track of battery power of Cyberware.
That little program would be the first thing attacked and it would discharge each battery in a row.
I cackled evilly as I imagined some gonk with more chrome than brains stuck spazzing out on the ground as every piece of chrome he had electrocuted him one after another.
Heh, defeated by your own Mr. Studd.
Also, and more importantly! It would be exceptionally strong against drone and robots. They had multiple battery systems, and each one discharging would be a massive problem for a full mechanical body.
I hummed pleased as the inspiration hit and I felt my hands blurring across the keyboard as the code came together.
—--
I stayed hiding in my bedroom for the rest of the night, and late into the afternoon the next day before finally I finished bug checking the code, and I finalized it.
I flopped back, letting the laptop finish turning the code into a working hack and just considered what to do next.
First I had to meet Sasha.
Then… Profit?
I blinked at the joke and snorted. Yeah that sounded good. No, I thought as I rose up and stretched deciding to get changed and clean up before heading out.
What I needed was some XP.
I needed to kill a bunch of gonks so I could get more stat points for adaptation.
Decision made I hurried over out of the room to the bathroom to jump into a quick shower.
While I did that I made a few calls. Pretty amused that I could make a business call while shampooing my hair without a struggle.
Of course the very first call I made I got yelled at.
*Ah so you finally come crawling back to me? Do I even know a merc by this name? Certainly not one who has done any work for me recently…*
*Wakakooooooo!* I whined into the line, purposefully being as annoying as possible. Two could play at that game old lady!
“Ah, she hung up… Well played.” I muttered as I instantly called back again.
*As I was saying.* She continued without missing a beat.
*Wakako. I’ve been busy, not just with personal stuff, but with like crazy stuff in general. But I’m back on the merc grind. You need anything done, I’m free to handle it.*
*Perhaps, I will offer another olive branch to a difficult to work with mercenary…* She trailed off and I rolled my eyes.
*No discounts.*
*I don’t see any gigs I need for such an expensive merc then.* She shot back instantly.
*Heh! Does that mean I finally have a rep? Is it a good one? Do you fixers say good things about me?*
*I find this call less and less interesting by the moment.* She drawled out and I could tell she was having fun.
Even if she absolutely would hang up on me again if I didn’t do something.
*Alright I’ll stop. Seriously though, Wakako. What do you need doing? I’ve got a lot of time on my hands at the moment.*
*Perhaps, I have a few gigs that need skills such as yours. I’ll send you the details. You are well enough? I was considering dropping you entirely due to worries about Cyberpsychosis.*
*Ah… Yeah I’m much better, but I wasn’t… Okay the whole Scav thing probably looked pretty bad and stuff, but I’m doing much better. I promise.*
*Good. I will send you some work, complete it and stop by when you are finished. I will decide if you are doing better myself.*
The desire to ask if she was that worried about me was on the tip of my tongue, but I know she wouldn’t want to hear it.
*You got-*
She hung up again. “Bitch!” I laughed as I finished my wash.
—--
I got the gig details and rolled my eyes as Wakako was definitely fucking with me again.
There was a guy that hadn’t paid Wakako after a gig. Which just as a baseline? That was fucking dumb.
So Wakako wanted to remind him that he was well within her reach.
So she sent me out, not to kill him. Not to kidnap him.
No. She wanted me to steal his car. A pretty nice Quadra Turbo-R. She sent me a picture and I sighed because it was covered in TC colors.
Fuck.
But I shrugged, stealing a car wasn’t a difficult gig, and if I could do it without anyone noticing, then I wouldn’t have to worry about anyone getting pissed at me for stealing from the TC.
So I drove over to where the gonk lived, and checked the parking garage. Driving through slowly confirmed his car wasn’t here.
Irritating. I drove out and instead headed to where Wakako’s information told me was his day job.
Unsurprisingly the gonk that owed Wakako was muscle for a local drug dealer. I drove past on the road once, and it wasn’t hard to see his car. What was irritating was the fact his car was surrounded by gonks.
Apparently the guy was involved in a party at the moment.
I drove past, finding a spot down the street well out of sight that I could park and step out. Adjusting my favorite jacket as I rose out of the car I considered what to do. I could just wait. Let the gonk drive home and then klep it then.
Or I could just klep it right out from under his nose.
I know which one I wanted.
To wait, because why make a gig that was meant to be annoying harder than it had to be?
On the other hand, I had other things I wanted to do today, and waiting around for this gonk to go home while he was in the middle of a TC block party didn’t sound super fun.
So I sighed and found an alleyway, giving me enough cover from most eyes that I could quickly take four hops jumping up onto AC units, or apartment balconies to end up on the roof of the block.
Hurrying across I made it to just above the party to scope it out.
It took me a moment to find a good shaded spot that still let me look over the party while keeping me hidden from any casual look, as I started getting an idea of the party.
Sure a couple people were hanging out around the cars, but no one was directly on the Turbo-R I was here to grab.
I tilted my head as I started hacking.
The car's security wasn’t bad, but we aren’t talking about Malcolms Caliburn. This was just a normal car's security and I broke in within a few moments. Once I was in, I tricked the security system into thinking I had the key and that was a big chunk of the gig done.
Now I just had to find my moment.
So I settled in, watching the movements of all the gonks. I just needed a moment where my target… Joji? Koji? I don’t even remember his name, it was in the data Wakako sent, but I had an eye on him now, and his name wasn’t important.
Ah.
He was distracted by a girl.
No one was sitting on the Turbo-R.
I found my landing zone, and Parkour guided me on a path.
I started the BD, then I leapt.
Off the building, my feet barely made a noise as I landed first on an AC unit, and then across an alleyway to hit the opposite brick wall and then used that to bounce back, and then again. Down the entire building bouncing across the ten foot alley until I landed in a quiet crouch on the other side of a pile of trash.
No one had seen me.
I moved crouched low and fast, until I passed the trash, then I stood up and sauntered as casually as I could through the crowd.
I might not have the colors, but I was still an asian girl. Just to fit in, I added a shake to my hips.
Sexy Motoko walk engage!
I slipped through the crowd with a little smirk on my face, and looked like I had something planned on my face. I wasn’t bothered.
Walking right past a girl making out with a guy on a Shion right next to the Turbo-R, I ignored them. The driver door opened, and I slipped in, the door shut, and after checking to make sure no one was behind me, I started it up and throttled quietly out of the spot onto the street, and then started driving off.
BD over.
Gig complete.
—---
Dropping off the Quadra Turbo-R into the garage Wakako wanted it placed in, I headed out and waited for my own Quadra Type-66 to catch up.
While I waited, it was time.
I called Sasha.
*Ringing*
*Ringing*
*Ringing*
*Heeh! What’s going on kiddy cat?* Sasha picked up with all the excitement and energy I was coming to expect from the woman.
*Sasha, I finished that Quick Hack I was telling you about. The Short Circuit one. Want to take a look?*
*Hmm, I don’t know Toko, it’s not really my style, you know?*
*Trust me, this one is good at disabling someone, especially someone chromed up for a much longer period of time than the off the shelf program. If someone with a bunch of chrome annoys you, you can hack them out, and leave them getting zapped on the floor for a good long while. It’s preem.*
The line was quiet for a moment and then all I heard was a burst of giggles.
*Okay, okay that does sound like something I want to try on Maine some day. I’m currently at the Turbo’s on Longshore, the one near the riverfront. We’re hosting a party right now. You should come!”
I blinked.
Wait. Turbo’s… That was where Maines crew always hosted their parties and stuff… But that was in Westbrook!? Are you telling me I lived like a block from where Maine’s crew had their parties!?
I was struck speechless for a long moment as the realization hit that I could have met Sasha and the crew so much easier!
*Toko you there?*
*Wha? Oh yeah. I was just surprised I used to live over there. I’ll head over. I can’t wait for you to see this hack Sasha, you’re going to love it.”
“Eeeeh! You’re making me blush kid! Heh! I’ve never had a little Kohai before! Eee! It’s so cute I totally get it now! C’mon hurry up! I need to show off my little programmer to everyone!”
“Wha… I’m not a Kohai.” I mumbled petulantly. But Sasha was ignoring me and all I could do was grumble and agree that I was on my way.
I mean… I guess I wasn’t at Sasha’s level with the netrunning stuff, I was definitely better at programming, but… I guess I was a Kohai. Fine!
I grumbled as my Quadra finally pulled up.
Sliding in I started driving, finally getting my update from Wakako.
*Wakako: I confirmed the vehicle was secured, and reached out to the target. Turns out he hadn’t noticed his car disappearing on him. I received quite the satisfaction in hearing his discomfort at that. Excellent work. I will have another gig for you soon. Payment and bonus has been sent.*
I blinked at the message, and checked the actual update, and whistled a little. She had given me a nice little bonus. Heh, I guess ghosting the car out from under his nose pleased Wakako.
Well. I guess it was a good thing I was going to a party. Time to celebrate another gig completed!
Carrot of Truth
War is Peace
Gonna end up looking like Adam Smasher and when asked why Motoko will say "So I could defeat my brother"
Last edited:
Playing with the kid gloves Wakako?
Chapter 135
Seras
Well-known member
Turbo’s was definitely having a party. As I pulled in, the rumble of my Quadra earning me a spot as a few of the wandering crowd moved out of the way so I could slip into a parking spot. I took a moment to stop and just breathe.
I was so not ready to run into my favorite character right now.
No Motoko, you fucking gonk, she wasn’t a character. She was a person, and wouldn’t like me geeking the fuck out over her.
I opened my eyes and stepped out, Cool and Cold Blood working in tandem to keep me calm as I stepped towards where I had seen Sasha.
Where I saw Maine, Dorio, Pilar, and best girl Rebecca.
She was so tiny!
Eeeee!
I shook it off and kept calm, adding a bit of Sexy Motoko walk to my movement, so I would look a little less young as I approached the group.
I took them all in as I approached. Maine noticed me, but was basically ignoring me, focusing on Dorio in his lap, and the beer in his massive hand.
Pilar was currently drinking as well, and trying to flirt with a girl beside him. He was doing okay honestly, from the looks the girl was shooting at him. A mix of interest and exasperation.
Sasha wasn’t at the table. No, she was up and dancing to the music of the radio playing nearby. I did struggle to keep my eyes off her, because holy shit that girl was flexible.
Of course as I approached Maines little table of important people I was stopped.
By the smallest of the group.
Rebecca had been fucking around with a group of random gonks to the side, from the way she had been jerking her pistol she was telling them about what had happened on the gig, but as I walked over she caught site of me and stomped over.
“Hey! Who’re you!?” She demanded stomping right up to me, and then looking up.
Which I thought was fucking adorable.
She was so smol!
Protect the loli!
“Hi! I’m Motoko! Nice to meet you!” I offered, throwing out a hand towards the girl, and I could feel my face shift into a happy smile.
Aaaaah! She was so cute!
Her strange colored eyes narrowed but she surprisingly reached out and accepted my handshake.
“Rebecca. I don’t recognize you.”
“I’m Chooms… Friends?... I know Sasha! She invited me, I’m a programmer so I have a new hack to try and sell her.” I explained not sure what to call my current relationship with the catgirl.
“Huh. Netrunning stuff huh? That’s preem and stuff. Not really my thing.” She replied looking up at me for a moment and then sort of snorting out a laugh. “So why do all netrunners wear leotards?”
“Comfy.” I explained without missing a beat, and that earned me an actually surprised look before Rebecca burst into cackles.
“You got me! C’mon then, Sasha! Your choom is here!”
The Catgirl perked up from her very… Flexible dance moves as she looked over and saw me, and then she… Well pranced is the best word I could think of over to me.
“My little Kohai!” She called out rushing over and throwing me into an overly affectionate hug. “See Dorio! I have a Kohai now!”
“I see.” The large woman replied flatly as she rolled her eyes at Sasha’s exuberance. “Nice to meet you.” She replied casually and mostly just ignored me, as she turned back to trying to find Maines tonsils.
“So Toko! Show me your new hack!” Sasha demands as she grabs a seat and sort of looks up at me eagerly, and I relaxed a bit.
It was hard to be tense around Sasha she was just so… Out there.
I popped a shard with the copy of my Short Circuit and offered it up.
“Let me know what you think. I promise it’ll impress.” I said feeling pretty proud.
I had pulled that program together in just a few days, while rushing around doing other things, but it was important.
It might just save this woman's life.
“Hmmm.” She drawled out after inserting the shard.
“Don’t mind her, she’s always like this.” Rebecca said on my right as we listened to Sasha just keep making questioning noises long after she should have stopped.
“This is interesting. I see what you based it off, and I can see the additional functionality. Are you sure it’s a good idea to spread it out?” Sasha suddenly mentioned cutting into the noises she had been making.
“The battery discharge already has a limiter built in that's part of the hardware, not software. So it’s not really hackable. Instead of having everything try to discharge at once, making it last longer actually improves the hack.” I said sitting up and feeling eager. “Depending on the target, and how much chrome they have, you could keep someone crippled for a good while.”
She nodded her head as her eyes finally lost the glow as she explored the shard.
“I don’t think I need it.” She answered suddenly and I felt my confidence pop like a soap bubble.
“Wha! You do! Gonk! It’s preem code!”
“It’s a good Short Circuit sure, but I don’t go for nonlethal stuff much.”
“It’s a cheap control hack! It even auto spreads! That’s my personal hack jumping trick there you know!” I squawked, offended at her disinterest.
“It’s cute, sure, but I go for stuff a bit bigger you know?” She said actually having the audacity to first put her hands close by, and then spreading them farther apart. Lewd!
“Oh god you're one of those. Probably burn your entire RAM on every hack too, don't you?” I mocked, earning a startled look from the woman at my sudden attack.
Then Dorio started snickering.
Becca cackled, not bothering to hide it like her choom, even Maine was chuckling.
Sasha actually flushed a little red as everyone was cackling at her. Pilar looked up from the girl he had been flirting with only then seeming to notice I was here. But tits and ass distracted him a moment after.
“Wha! That’s not what I do!”
“Didn’t you say, if the program doesn’t overheat your deck it’s babyware?” Rebecca cut in, suddenly and Sasha reached out to shut up best girl.
I felt smug as I had been right.
Sasha despite being a skilled Netrunner was one of ‘those.’
“Here.” I demanded, pushing the shard into her hand that she was trying to shut Rebecca up. “It’s a compact, low RAM, high performance hack. I’m sorry you’ve been stuck with grossly over-coded scop so far.”
“I have not! I have normal hacks too!”
“Hey Dorio, have you ever seen Whiskers use anything but her giga hacks?” Rebecca asked, and I made sure to note the cute nickname!
Whiskers! Super cute!
Sasha instantly whipped over to her choom and glared, and Dorio looked like she was considering not answering, but her shoulders were still shifting a little as she restrained her giggles.
“Never.”
“You are all traitors.” Sasha mumbled glaring at the group, and I felt my smile growing because this was actually really fun!
Maine’s crew was cute! Way better than they were in the future.
That reminded me of the tragedy of what was coming. That Sasha would soon sacrifice herself if nothing changed.
Had I done enough? Had I given her some better tools? Would that be enough? Could her fate be changed with just that? It had been a decision she made on the spot, a decision I think she knew would be her end, so was there anything I could actually do to change her mind?
“Hmph! I’ll take your hack!” Sasha pulled me back into the conversation as she swiped the shard and plugged it in, obviously installing it into her deck.
“Good. I hope it keeps you safe!” I chirped, smiling bright as I managed to fission mail successfully!
Sasha made a sound of denial as she scoffed a bit, but it was a cute flustered scoff, not a straight denial.
Dorio started laughing at Sasha’s flustered face. Which earned her a glare from the cat girl.
I stilled suddenly because I got a call from Wakako.
“Sorry everyone, one sec.” I said as my eyes blinked yellow.
*This is Motoko.*
*There is an issue. The vehicle you just collected? It was stolen out of my storage unit. Some fool is attempting to step on my toes, or they are so foolish they didn’t realize what they have done. I need the vehicle recollected. Now.*
*That’s… Someone really is dumb. What do we have?*
*I am sending you what I have so far. I am aware of your little group. You did an acceptable investigation for Fujimura. Complete a second one for me. Find the vehicle and return it to the storage unit. And send a message to whoever did this.*
I considered it for a moment. I had been wanting a gig with more killing for XP.
*Okay. I’ll take it. Send me the deets.*
The line hung up which I couldn’t help but smile and shake my head at. That’s Wakako alright. I thought with a laugh escaping me.
“Kid something good?” Sasha asked, noticing my amusement.
“Wakako hung up on me again.” I replied and laughed. “I have to go, surprise gig, you know how it is. It was nice to meet all of you!” I said as I stood up and hurried away.
I couldn’t do much else for Sasha. She was a grown woman and a professional. I had given her extra tools. Hopefully…
Hopefully it was enough to circumvent her tragedy, but if it wasn’t, then I would at least know that I had tried.
As I hurried to my Quadra I sent all of my chooms the call.
*Motoko: Section 9 Assemble!*
They would understand.
—--
They did not understand.
Three calls later, I was plugging into my net chair as I was readying for a dive, and waiting for my chooms to show up.
I had watched the surveillance video Wakako had sent, as well as what basic information she had.
Apparently about five minutes after I left, a group of three men, all wearing masks had shown up at the garage, broke in rather bluntly, and stole the Quadra-R.
There was a problem though. They were Tyger Claws.
The tattoos were a dead giveaway.
Some fucking TC gonks had stolen from the queen of Japantown.
They were already dead, they just didn’t know it yet. Even if I didn’t get involved.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have an ID for any of them. They all had spoofers that the cameras couldn’t break through.
So I was going to be chasing them through the city through cameras… Again.
I eased back and blinked. A moment later I was in the net. I quickly blurred across the digital city, riding on the back of search engines to end up across the virtual reality. I landed in front of a network that for once I didn’t need to break into.
I walked in and Wakako’s information gave me full access to the security of the site. I could see the marks showing that Wakako had a skilled netrunner run the security as well, but the password and access key Wakako had sent me with the video meant I walked in without issue.
Then I pulled up the security cameras.
Just as I had seen from what Wakako sent me, five minutes after I dropped off the car a couple of gonks walked in, broke the garage door, and then drove off with the car.
But, and this was something I had noticed when Wakako had first sent me the video.
There were three of them, but the Quadra was a two seater.
Two of them jumped in the Quadra-R, but the third had run off on foot.
So I jumped through all the different cameras of the lot area, but unfortunately the one camera that should have seen where they went, had been damaged.
Its recording was blank and had been for weeks. So either, this was a mastermind level plan, or the gonks just got lucky.
I perked up as I got a call from Ichi, asking to be let down to the basement.
A few moments of thought and I sent the signal to let him come down. Seems my chooms were finally showing up!
I quickly pulled open a connection to pull him into a group call.
*Ichi! Glad you made it! Can you jump on the computer, I’m going to be sending some camera data soon.*
*Yeah, I’m on it.* He assured me and that was that. Ichi was fully in work mode.
I jumped across the way from the storage lot that Wakako either owned, or had set up the security for and into the netscape for a mechanic shop.
Time to track them down.
—--
By the time Hiromi showed up, the last of the group to appear, we had made good progress. We knew they were still in Japantown, and had just narrowed the location down to a specific street. There were a few apartment complexes on the street, and I was assuming the car was somewhere in one of them, but there weren’t a lot of cameras aimed at the street in the area.
Confirming the general location I popped out of the net. Blinking my eyes to let the real world take over my vision, stretching and groaning as I pulled out the cords connecting me to the chair.
“Here, something warm.” Ichi offered, handing over a carton of chinese food. I didn’t even ask what it was, before digging in. The warm food restored some heat to my chest, as the coolant had kept me chilled while I was in the net.
I slurped up my first few bites before talking. “So Ichi, do you know anything about the area?”
“Nothing in particular. I can’t think of any specific TC business on the street. I think whoever these gonks are, they planned this themselves.”
“Ugh.” I groaned as I went back to eating.
We would have to investigate the old fashioned way. Getting out on foot, and checking all the locations trying to find where a car could have been hidden. One street wasn’t too bad, honestly. It would just take time.
“Uuuugh.” I groaned as I realized how long this was going to take.
—--
We split up while working. Just to make sure nothing slipped past us. Ichi and Hiromi both parked at either end of the street, and were keeping an eye out for our car. Malcolm and I working together were walking down one side of the road, stopping at every apartment complex, business location, and back alley we could find connected to the road that someone might stash a car.
Unfortunately, the amount of nooks and crannies in any city block only seemed to grow exponentially.
“This is another back alley garage area.” I grumbled, as we walked through an alley that had old roller doors attached to every building. Any one of them big enough to hide a car.
“Nah it’s none of these. Look, no ones opened any of these doors in years.” Malcolm pointed out to me walking up to one and showing me just how rusted the entire thing was.
No one was getting that open without a lot of effort, and noticeable markings.
“That still doesn’t narrow this down.” I hummed, trying to be positive, even if I was doing a job I didn’t really want. There was no murder here Wakako!
Maybe I shouldn’t have done investigative work with Section 9. Any gonk with a Unity can flatline someone, but it takes a whole other set of skills to be able to track someone down.
Of course Wakako would make use of that skill, and so would others.
“Something up?” Malcolm asked, as he noticed my worsening mood. Although I definitely wasn’t just pouting at nothing okay! I don’t pout!
“I just wanted a more exciting gig I guess? I want to fight some ninjas, or something. I did that once. That one borg was like a ninja.”
“I don’t think he counts Motoko, he was just a netrunner.”
“Netrunning is like magic, so I’m putting it in the counts column.” I informed him with a smile that earned me a scoff from Malcolm.
“Hey!” A voice called out pulling our attention away from the rusted out door we were looking at, towards the big guy that was looking at the two of us, with a hand reaching towards the unity on his hip. “You little, shits better not be thinking of breaking in!”
“Nope!” I called out, hands raised up a bit. “We were just noticing that no one had used this one in a while.”
“Bullshit. Clear off before I flatline you brats.”
“Sure sure.” I agreed, mostly because the guy was obviously just trying to keep a couple of teenagers from breaking into his stuff. “C’mon Malcolm.” I called as we moved past the guy.
“Hey old man. You see a couple gonk fucks driving around here in a suped up Quadra-R. Looks like this.” Malcolm surprised me by saying, as his eyes shifted blue as he sent what must be a picture of the Quadra. “Or maybe the gonks themselves?”
The man went silent for a minute, glaring, but eventually he answered in the most obvious way possible. “I didn’t see anything.”
“Listen old man, we aren’t here to steal scop, can you tell us where they went?”
“I don’t know anything. The Claws know I don’t narc.”
Malcolm shook his head, actually smiling. “Perfect, because these particular gonks pissed off the Queen of Japantown. Wakako is looking for them. So this is all square.”
The older man sort of worked his jaw, considering the question before he nodded real slow. “I never saw them before in my life.” He verbally said but a moment later his eyes flashed and Malcolm nodded smiling.
“Of course not. A respectable upstanding man like yourself wouldn’t ever bother with scop like this. You have yourself a nice day sir.” Malcolm offered, sounding every inch the respectable kid just trying to help out.
Of course I knew Malcolm, and that was not what he was.
A moment later the man walked away and Malcolm huddled closer. “He gave me the deets. C’mon.” He whispered to me, and he pulled me along back onto the street.
“Malcolm?”
“Apparently that guy is pissed that these guys have been fucking around, he caught them breaking into shit multiple times, but he doesn’t exactly want them to know he ratted on them.” He explained to me quickly as we hurried back to the street.
A few seconds later he sent me the message as well, and I looked towards the building just across the street.
Found them.
Now to find the car.
“Let’s go.” Malcolm hurried me on and rushed across the street. I couldn’t help but chuckle at how eager he sounded, but I couldn’t deny that this was definitely his win.
I crossed after him dodging a few cars and we walked into the complex. The lobby was covered in trash and stunk like someone pissed in a corner. But Malcolm didn’t slow. To my surprise he was like a bloodhound. Hurrying through he found the elevator and turned to me.
I laughed at the begging look as I walked over, and my eyes flashed as I started hacking. I barely needed to do anything. The ICE on the hardware was ancient, and didn’t even slow my Breach. The elevator came up and we walked in, and then a moment later Malcolm pushed the pad to send us down to the basement.
“You think it’s here?” He asked, and I shrugged.
“I hope so. It would certainly make this a lot easier. Wakako will be happy.”
“What about the gonks that stole it?”
“We hunt them down and flatline them?” I questioned back, wasn’t it obvious?
“They are Tyger Claws. Sure that's a good idea?”
“They stole from Wakako. If they wanted to survive, that is a quick way to do the opposite.” I shrugged. “If there is trouble we deal with it. But this is an official gig.”
“Yeah… Right. Official.” He muttered as the elevator opened to a truly dark parking garage, most of the lights flickering or out. Malcolm hesitated, but I could see just fine. So I stepped out leading the way. Looking for a particular Quadra-R.
“Gotta get better optics.” Malcolm mumbled from behind me, but I shrugged.
“Chip in at your own pace choom.” I called out behind me as I walked down the dark path, head darting this way and that.
“C’mon tell me it’s here.” I mumbled to myself, as I hurried around the garage space. Finally I ended up catching back up with Malcolm and shook my head. “Nothing.”
“Hmm.” He mumbled though looking around despite the darkness making it hard. “Motoko, scan around a bit? These buildings sometimes have private garages along the walls.”
I blinked, I hadn’t even considered that. My eyes flashed, into a scan mode, something that was completely natural at this point. I barely had to think about it before my Kiroshi responded to my needs. “There!”
Along one of the walls, was a small rolling door. Just big enough for a car to drive in. And there! Another one.
Looks like there were two to three of them on each wall of the garage.
We didn’t even need to speak. Both of us rushed for the first one, and after a few moments, I managed to breach into the door's security and it unlocked, rolling up into the ceiling.
The space inside had a vehicle, but not the one we were looking for.
“Fuck.” Malcolm cursed, but I just smiled, and signaled for the door to shut, and ran to the next one. Malcolm following after just a moment his own excitement returning with the reminder there were more doors.
Mystery doors! What is behind door number two? I thought as I poked the door, the same security as the first door gave way instantly and it rolled up.
Just some junk.
We rushed to the next after closing the second and as it rolled up, I couldn’t help but whoop and leap onto Malcolm to pull him into a hug.
There it was.
The Quadra-R I had literally already stolen today.
“C’mon!” I hurried over without hesitation. I already had the thing breached from before. I already had a key. The door popped open before I even touched it, and I slipped inside, Malcolm joining me a moment later.
“Let’s call Ichi and Hiromi and get this taken care of… Then we can talk to Wakako about what she wants done.” I told Malcolm, even if I would happily just kill the gonks, if my choom was worried about it, then there was no harm in asking.
----
A/N posting this one a little late. Somehow it didn't go through when I posted everywhere else.
I was so not ready to run into my favorite character right now.
No Motoko, you fucking gonk, she wasn’t a character. She was a person, and wouldn’t like me geeking the fuck out over her.
I opened my eyes and stepped out, Cool and Cold Blood working in tandem to keep me calm as I stepped towards where I had seen Sasha.
Where I saw Maine, Dorio, Pilar, and best girl Rebecca.
She was so tiny!
Eeeee!
I shook it off and kept calm, adding a bit of Sexy Motoko walk to my movement, so I would look a little less young as I approached the group.
I took them all in as I approached. Maine noticed me, but was basically ignoring me, focusing on Dorio in his lap, and the beer in his massive hand.
Pilar was currently drinking as well, and trying to flirt with a girl beside him. He was doing okay honestly, from the looks the girl was shooting at him. A mix of interest and exasperation.
Sasha wasn’t at the table. No, she was up and dancing to the music of the radio playing nearby. I did struggle to keep my eyes off her, because holy shit that girl was flexible.
Of course as I approached Maines little table of important people I was stopped.
By the smallest of the group.
Rebecca had been fucking around with a group of random gonks to the side, from the way she had been jerking her pistol she was telling them about what had happened on the gig, but as I walked over she caught site of me and stomped over.
“Hey! Who’re you!?” She demanded stomping right up to me, and then looking up.
Which I thought was fucking adorable.
She was so smol!
Protect the loli!
“Hi! I’m Motoko! Nice to meet you!” I offered, throwing out a hand towards the girl, and I could feel my face shift into a happy smile.
Aaaaah! She was so cute!
Her strange colored eyes narrowed but she surprisingly reached out and accepted my handshake.
“Rebecca. I don’t recognize you.”
“I’m Chooms… Friends?... I know Sasha! She invited me, I’m a programmer so I have a new hack to try and sell her.” I explained not sure what to call my current relationship with the catgirl.
“Huh. Netrunning stuff huh? That’s preem and stuff. Not really my thing.” She replied looking up at me for a moment and then sort of snorting out a laugh. “So why do all netrunners wear leotards?”
“Comfy.” I explained without missing a beat, and that earned me an actually surprised look before Rebecca burst into cackles.
“You got me! C’mon then, Sasha! Your choom is here!”
The Catgirl perked up from her very… Flexible dance moves as she looked over and saw me, and then she… Well pranced is the best word I could think of over to me.
“My little Kohai!” She called out rushing over and throwing me into an overly affectionate hug. “See Dorio! I have a Kohai now!”
“I see.” The large woman replied flatly as she rolled her eyes at Sasha’s exuberance. “Nice to meet you.” She replied casually and mostly just ignored me, as she turned back to trying to find Maines tonsils.
“So Toko! Show me your new hack!” Sasha demands as she grabs a seat and sort of looks up at me eagerly, and I relaxed a bit.
It was hard to be tense around Sasha she was just so… Out there.
I popped a shard with the copy of my Short Circuit and offered it up.
“Let me know what you think. I promise it’ll impress.” I said feeling pretty proud.
I had pulled that program together in just a few days, while rushing around doing other things, but it was important.
It might just save this woman's life.
“Hmmm.” She drawled out after inserting the shard.
“Don’t mind her, she’s always like this.” Rebecca said on my right as we listened to Sasha just keep making questioning noises long after she should have stopped.
“This is interesting. I see what you based it off, and I can see the additional functionality. Are you sure it’s a good idea to spread it out?” Sasha suddenly mentioned cutting into the noises she had been making.
“The battery discharge already has a limiter built in that's part of the hardware, not software. So it’s not really hackable. Instead of having everything try to discharge at once, making it last longer actually improves the hack.” I said sitting up and feeling eager. “Depending on the target, and how much chrome they have, you could keep someone crippled for a good while.”
She nodded her head as her eyes finally lost the glow as she explored the shard.
“I don’t think I need it.” She answered suddenly and I felt my confidence pop like a soap bubble.
“Wha! You do! Gonk! It’s preem code!”
“It’s a good Short Circuit sure, but I don’t go for nonlethal stuff much.”
“It’s a cheap control hack! It even auto spreads! That’s my personal hack jumping trick there you know!” I squawked, offended at her disinterest.
“It’s cute, sure, but I go for stuff a bit bigger you know?” She said actually having the audacity to first put her hands close by, and then spreading them farther apart. Lewd!
“Oh god you're one of those. Probably burn your entire RAM on every hack too, don't you?” I mocked, earning a startled look from the woman at my sudden attack.
Then Dorio started snickering.
Becca cackled, not bothering to hide it like her choom, even Maine was chuckling.
Sasha actually flushed a little red as everyone was cackling at her. Pilar looked up from the girl he had been flirting with only then seeming to notice I was here. But tits and ass distracted him a moment after.
“Wha! That’s not what I do!”
“Didn’t you say, if the program doesn’t overheat your deck it’s babyware?” Rebecca cut in, suddenly and Sasha reached out to shut up best girl.
I felt smug as I had been right.
Sasha despite being a skilled Netrunner was one of ‘those.’
“Here.” I demanded, pushing the shard into her hand that she was trying to shut Rebecca up. “It’s a compact, low RAM, high performance hack. I’m sorry you’ve been stuck with grossly over-coded scop so far.”
“I have not! I have normal hacks too!”
“Hey Dorio, have you ever seen Whiskers use anything but her giga hacks?” Rebecca asked, and I made sure to note the cute nickname!
Whiskers! Super cute!
Sasha instantly whipped over to her choom and glared, and Dorio looked like she was considering not answering, but her shoulders were still shifting a little as she restrained her giggles.
“Never.”
“You are all traitors.” Sasha mumbled glaring at the group, and I felt my smile growing because this was actually really fun!
Maine’s crew was cute! Way better than they were in the future.
That reminded me of the tragedy of what was coming. That Sasha would soon sacrifice herself if nothing changed.
Had I done enough? Had I given her some better tools? Would that be enough? Could her fate be changed with just that? It had been a decision she made on the spot, a decision I think she knew would be her end, so was there anything I could actually do to change her mind?
“Hmph! I’ll take your hack!” Sasha pulled me back into the conversation as she swiped the shard and plugged it in, obviously installing it into her deck.
“Good. I hope it keeps you safe!” I chirped, smiling bright as I managed to fission mail successfully!
Sasha made a sound of denial as she scoffed a bit, but it was a cute flustered scoff, not a straight denial.
Dorio started laughing at Sasha’s flustered face. Which earned her a glare from the cat girl.
I stilled suddenly because I got a call from Wakako.
“Sorry everyone, one sec.” I said as my eyes blinked yellow.
*This is Motoko.*
*There is an issue. The vehicle you just collected? It was stolen out of my storage unit. Some fool is attempting to step on my toes, or they are so foolish they didn’t realize what they have done. I need the vehicle recollected. Now.*
*That’s… Someone really is dumb. What do we have?*
*I am sending you what I have so far. I am aware of your little group. You did an acceptable investigation for Fujimura. Complete a second one for me. Find the vehicle and return it to the storage unit. And send a message to whoever did this.*
I considered it for a moment. I had been wanting a gig with more killing for XP.
*Okay. I’ll take it. Send me the deets.*
The line hung up which I couldn’t help but smile and shake my head at. That’s Wakako alright. I thought with a laugh escaping me.
“Kid something good?” Sasha asked, noticing my amusement.
“Wakako hung up on me again.” I replied and laughed. “I have to go, surprise gig, you know how it is. It was nice to meet all of you!” I said as I stood up and hurried away.
I couldn’t do much else for Sasha. She was a grown woman and a professional. I had given her extra tools. Hopefully…
Hopefully it was enough to circumvent her tragedy, but if it wasn’t, then I would at least know that I had tried.
As I hurried to my Quadra I sent all of my chooms the call.
*Motoko: Section 9 Assemble!*
They would understand.
—--
They did not understand.
Three calls later, I was plugging into my net chair as I was readying for a dive, and waiting for my chooms to show up.
I had watched the surveillance video Wakako had sent, as well as what basic information she had.
Apparently about five minutes after I left, a group of three men, all wearing masks had shown up at the garage, broke in rather bluntly, and stole the Quadra-R.
There was a problem though. They were Tyger Claws.
The tattoos were a dead giveaway.
Some fucking TC gonks had stolen from the queen of Japantown.
They were already dead, they just didn’t know it yet. Even if I didn’t get involved.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have an ID for any of them. They all had spoofers that the cameras couldn’t break through.
So I was going to be chasing them through the city through cameras… Again.
I eased back and blinked. A moment later I was in the net. I quickly blurred across the digital city, riding on the back of search engines to end up across the virtual reality. I landed in front of a network that for once I didn’t need to break into.
I walked in and Wakako’s information gave me full access to the security of the site. I could see the marks showing that Wakako had a skilled netrunner run the security as well, but the password and access key Wakako had sent me with the video meant I walked in without issue.
Then I pulled up the security cameras.
Just as I had seen from what Wakako sent me, five minutes after I dropped off the car a couple of gonks walked in, broke the garage door, and then drove off with the car.
But, and this was something I had noticed when Wakako had first sent me the video.
There were three of them, but the Quadra was a two seater.
Two of them jumped in the Quadra-R, but the third had run off on foot.
So I jumped through all the different cameras of the lot area, but unfortunately the one camera that should have seen where they went, had been damaged.
Its recording was blank and had been for weeks. So either, this was a mastermind level plan, or the gonks just got lucky.
I perked up as I got a call from Ichi, asking to be let down to the basement.
A few moments of thought and I sent the signal to let him come down. Seems my chooms were finally showing up!
I quickly pulled open a connection to pull him into a group call.
*Ichi! Glad you made it! Can you jump on the computer, I’m going to be sending some camera data soon.*
*Yeah, I’m on it.* He assured me and that was that. Ichi was fully in work mode.
I jumped across the way from the storage lot that Wakako either owned, or had set up the security for and into the netscape for a mechanic shop.
Time to track them down.
—--
By the time Hiromi showed up, the last of the group to appear, we had made good progress. We knew they were still in Japantown, and had just narrowed the location down to a specific street. There were a few apartment complexes on the street, and I was assuming the car was somewhere in one of them, but there weren’t a lot of cameras aimed at the street in the area.
Confirming the general location I popped out of the net. Blinking my eyes to let the real world take over my vision, stretching and groaning as I pulled out the cords connecting me to the chair.
“Here, something warm.” Ichi offered, handing over a carton of chinese food. I didn’t even ask what it was, before digging in. The warm food restored some heat to my chest, as the coolant had kept me chilled while I was in the net.
I slurped up my first few bites before talking. “So Ichi, do you know anything about the area?”
“Nothing in particular. I can’t think of any specific TC business on the street. I think whoever these gonks are, they planned this themselves.”
“Ugh.” I groaned as I went back to eating.
We would have to investigate the old fashioned way. Getting out on foot, and checking all the locations trying to find where a car could have been hidden. One street wasn’t too bad, honestly. It would just take time.
“Uuuugh.” I groaned as I realized how long this was going to take.
—--
We split up while working. Just to make sure nothing slipped past us. Ichi and Hiromi both parked at either end of the street, and were keeping an eye out for our car. Malcolm and I working together were walking down one side of the road, stopping at every apartment complex, business location, and back alley we could find connected to the road that someone might stash a car.
Unfortunately, the amount of nooks and crannies in any city block only seemed to grow exponentially.
“This is another back alley garage area.” I grumbled, as we walked through an alley that had old roller doors attached to every building. Any one of them big enough to hide a car.
“Nah it’s none of these. Look, no ones opened any of these doors in years.” Malcolm pointed out to me walking up to one and showing me just how rusted the entire thing was.
No one was getting that open without a lot of effort, and noticeable markings.
“That still doesn’t narrow this down.” I hummed, trying to be positive, even if I was doing a job I didn’t really want. There was no murder here Wakako!
Maybe I shouldn’t have done investigative work with Section 9. Any gonk with a Unity can flatline someone, but it takes a whole other set of skills to be able to track someone down.
Of course Wakako would make use of that skill, and so would others.
“Something up?” Malcolm asked, as he noticed my worsening mood. Although I definitely wasn’t just pouting at nothing okay! I don’t pout!
“I just wanted a more exciting gig I guess? I want to fight some ninjas, or something. I did that once. That one borg was like a ninja.”
“I don’t think he counts Motoko, he was just a netrunner.”
“Netrunning is like magic, so I’m putting it in the counts column.” I informed him with a smile that earned me a scoff from Malcolm.
“Hey!” A voice called out pulling our attention away from the rusted out door we were looking at, towards the big guy that was looking at the two of us, with a hand reaching towards the unity on his hip. “You little, shits better not be thinking of breaking in!”
“Nope!” I called out, hands raised up a bit. “We were just noticing that no one had used this one in a while.”
“Bullshit. Clear off before I flatline you brats.”
“Sure sure.” I agreed, mostly because the guy was obviously just trying to keep a couple of teenagers from breaking into his stuff. “C’mon Malcolm.” I called as we moved past the guy.
“Hey old man. You see a couple gonk fucks driving around here in a suped up Quadra-R. Looks like this.” Malcolm surprised me by saying, as his eyes shifted blue as he sent what must be a picture of the Quadra. “Or maybe the gonks themselves?”
The man went silent for a minute, glaring, but eventually he answered in the most obvious way possible. “I didn’t see anything.”
“Listen old man, we aren’t here to steal scop, can you tell us where they went?”
“I don’t know anything. The Claws know I don’t narc.”
Malcolm shook his head, actually smiling. “Perfect, because these particular gonks pissed off the Queen of Japantown. Wakako is looking for them. So this is all square.”
The older man sort of worked his jaw, considering the question before he nodded real slow. “I never saw them before in my life.” He verbally said but a moment later his eyes flashed and Malcolm nodded smiling.
“Of course not. A respectable upstanding man like yourself wouldn’t ever bother with scop like this. You have yourself a nice day sir.” Malcolm offered, sounding every inch the respectable kid just trying to help out.
Of course I knew Malcolm, and that was not what he was.
A moment later the man walked away and Malcolm huddled closer. “He gave me the deets. C’mon.” He whispered to me, and he pulled me along back onto the street.
“Malcolm?”
“Apparently that guy is pissed that these guys have been fucking around, he caught them breaking into shit multiple times, but he doesn’t exactly want them to know he ratted on them.” He explained to me quickly as we hurried back to the street.
A few seconds later he sent me the message as well, and I looked towards the building just across the street.
Found them.
Now to find the car.
“Let’s go.” Malcolm hurried me on and rushed across the street. I couldn’t help but chuckle at how eager he sounded, but I couldn’t deny that this was definitely his win.
I crossed after him dodging a few cars and we walked into the complex. The lobby was covered in trash and stunk like someone pissed in a corner. But Malcolm didn’t slow. To my surprise he was like a bloodhound. Hurrying through he found the elevator and turned to me.
I laughed at the begging look as I walked over, and my eyes flashed as I started hacking. I barely needed to do anything. The ICE on the hardware was ancient, and didn’t even slow my Breach. The elevator came up and we walked in, and then a moment later Malcolm pushed the pad to send us down to the basement.
“You think it’s here?” He asked, and I shrugged.
“I hope so. It would certainly make this a lot easier. Wakako will be happy.”
“What about the gonks that stole it?”
“We hunt them down and flatline them?” I questioned back, wasn’t it obvious?
“They are Tyger Claws. Sure that's a good idea?”
“They stole from Wakako. If they wanted to survive, that is a quick way to do the opposite.” I shrugged. “If there is trouble we deal with it. But this is an official gig.”
“Yeah… Right. Official.” He muttered as the elevator opened to a truly dark parking garage, most of the lights flickering or out. Malcolm hesitated, but I could see just fine. So I stepped out leading the way. Looking for a particular Quadra-R.
“Gotta get better optics.” Malcolm mumbled from behind me, but I shrugged.
“Chip in at your own pace choom.” I called out behind me as I walked down the dark path, head darting this way and that.
“C’mon tell me it’s here.” I mumbled to myself, as I hurried around the garage space. Finally I ended up catching back up with Malcolm and shook my head. “Nothing.”
“Hmm.” He mumbled though looking around despite the darkness making it hard. “Motoko, scan around a bit? These buildings sometimes have private garages along the walls.”
I blinked, I hadn’t even considered that. My eyes flashed, into a scan mode, something that was completely natural at this point. I barely had to think about it before my Kiroshi responded to my needs. “There!”
Along one of the walls, was a small rolling door. Just big enough for a car to drive in. And there! Another one.
Looks like there were two to three of them on each wall of the garage.
We didn’t even need to speak. Both of us rushed for the first one, and after a few moments, I managed to breach into the door's security and it unlocked, rolling up into the ceiling.
The space inside had a vehicle, but not the one we were looking for.
“Fuck.” Malcolm cursed, but I just smiled, and signaled for the door to shut, and ran to the next one. Malcolm following after just a moment his own excitement returning with the reminder there were more doors.
Mystery doors! What is behind door number two? I thought as I poked the door, the same security as the first door gave way instantly and it rolled up.
Just some junk.
We rushed to the next after closing the second and as it rolled up, I couldn’t help but whoop and leap onto Malcolm to pull him into a hug.
There it was.
The Quadra-R I had literally already stolen today.
“C’mon!” I hurried over without hesitation. I already had the thing breached from before. I already had a key. The door popped open before I even touched it, and I slipped inside, Malcolm joining me a moment later.
“Let’s call Ichi and Hiromi and get this taken care of… Then we can talk to Wakako about what she wants done.” I told Malcolm, even if I would happily just kill the gonks, if my choom was worried about it, then there was no harm in asking.
----
A/N posting this one a little late. Somehow it didn't go through when I posted everywhere else.
Does this count as assisted suicide?
Seras
Well-known member
Pretty much.
Carrot of Truth
War is Peace
I guess no one in Maines crew has seen "The only thing they fear is you" yet. Had they watched that bd I'd imagine they'd be wary around the aspiring cyberpsycho named Motoko.
It was done anonymously. If they have seen it, they may not be able to associate sweet lil' Motoko with it that butchery even if they might be seeing identifying features.
Carrot of Truth
War is Peace
Brick isn't exactly what I'd call a genius and he figured out it was her somehow.