NT Runner 3 - Yeong - Help Kai's Mama (Patreon)

Visiting Orr's primary red light district left Yeong to remark that there were a number of ways up in the city. Despite seeming to have very little in the way of assets, Kai's mother lived and worked out of a mid-level district and lived in a relatively nice apartment in said district. It was a noticeable change from the lower levels. Things were cleaner, more sleek. If Yeong looked up he could see the sky, even if the lights of the city solidified it as an empty, dull blue canvas at night. In lieu of stars, once night fell the air was lit up with holographic trailers for movies, posters for clubs or various other adds. More technologically phenomenal versions of the advertisements shown in the lower level. Lifting a phone to the sky and highlighting one of the holograms would immediately take one to a website or a navigation app to reach the advertised location. Fortunately Yeong already knew where he was going.

Den was a prominent night club where the hostesses were encouraged to 'upsell' constantly for tips, favors and sometimes information. Most of the girls were from outside Orr and Cheshire, so despite making a good living, many of them were tied to the owner as their only lifeline. Kai's Mom included. Though Kai was vague about what tied her mother to the club, there was apparently very little hope of her being allowed to leave, or even wanting to leave. There was even the suggestion that it might not be a good idea unless she was truly in danger as, Kai seemed to believe. The exterior of the building stretched up into the higher levels, showing it's connection to the high-rise society up top. The level at which Yeong was entering was open to the paying public, however. It was for salary men and anyone from the lower levels able to save up enough for a good time. The facade surrounding the building was lit up with holographic, moving and posing images of popular girls or featured performers. Notably, among them, featured prominently was a tall, extremely well-endowed fox woman that he recognized to be Lacie, Kai's 'mama.'

Approaching the entrance there was a crowd held up by men in Jackets that read OPD. Despite his size he was strong enough to push his way through the crowd just in time to see a stretcher with a body veiled in white cloth being wheeled out in front of a few others. Notably the one in front showed that the woman underneath was well endowed, a Beastwoman. There were hints of red peeking out from underneath. A more wet red could be seen bleeding through the veil near the head. Yeong gulped and risked the consequences to lean into the path of the cleanup crew to pull the veil at the face just so he could be sure. Yeong managed to drag it off just enough that he could see the lifeless, pale face of Lacie. One more hole than anyone needed was present on her forehead. Just as soon as he gathered that info he was shoved back abruptly by an OPD officer escorting the cleanup crew out.

“Back off! Get your kicks somewhere else, freak.” The man spat at Yeong harshly.

“It's not that. I know her.”

The officer rolled his eyes. “Take it up with corpse collection, not me.”

Yeong stepped back into the crowd and called Kai. “Hey.”

She sounded hopeful. “I-I've been watching the news. Dead worker and some security at Den, but-”

Yeong cut her off and dashed her hopes. “I've confirmed that someone killed your mother.” He flinched as sobs immediately rung out on the other end of the line. His shoulders slumped. Yeong felt the pain but he wasn't sure what to say, if anything.

“Oh god... No no no...” He let her go for a little while longer. Luckily the sound was drowned out by the sounds of the angry crowd jeering all around him. Surprisingly none of them seemed to care about the attack. They just wanted to get in. There was a collective huff of relief as the whole group started moving in. Yeong stood up on his toes to see that the OPD were clearing out, having done their due diligence of showing up and standing around for long enough to qualify as having answered a call. Regardless of what he wanted, Yeong was being pulled into the wide, open mouth that was Den's entrance. His senses were assaulted the moment he passed through by lights and loud music but he still heard Kai sniffle and speak up desperately.
“You can go back, right? If you touch your phone? You can save my Mamma?”

“I don't know.” Yeong offered truthfully.

Kai became angered at that response. “What do you mean you DON'T KNOW? You told me you did it! You touched your phone and you went back, right?”

“That just happened by chance the last time. I'm not seeing the same thing now that I did before. I don't know how to trigger it.”

“W-well figure it out!” Kai shouted into the receiver, the sound of her voice almost dominating the sounds of Yeong's surroundings but still no heads were turned by something as insignificant as a phone call. Not in the environment that was Den. It was a domed ceiling packed with lights and electronics. Patrons were immediately funneled in all different directions once they were through the entrance. The show room, the dance floor and the bar area were main attractions. Yeong also saw girls leading men away into booths.

“Haaay.” A woman approached yeong and tried to hang off of his arm. She was in a black halter top and skirt with platform shoes, though she was already quite tall. All of the women were. Some were dancing and some were on the floor. It seemed unlikely, even in a large establishment, that all the women looked so physically alike, despite their minor aesthetic differences like hair, dress and makeup. There was a tinge of artificiality to it.

“Not now.” he brushed her off, causing her to wave dismissively at him.

“What do you mean not now!?” Kai cried.

“Not you.” He groaned, glancing up and around the club. Camera coverage appeared to be one-hundred percent based on the number of little black balls hanging from the high ceilings. Yeong wondered about sound.
“I don't want to end up somewhere random again. Get me security footage

“I can't 'get' you security footage without an uplink.” She sniffled, calming down once she knew Yeong was seemingly looking for a way to make it work. If he could get footage, even if he could not enter it like he had before he would have an idea of what happened exactly.
“You'd need to get to the security room. Once you're there your phone should be able to plug into their system and connect me.”

“Alright. Just have to reach the security room...”

“They use Garde.” Kai warns.

“They weren't much help...”

“That's because they don't guard people. They guard assets.” Kai uttered disdainfully.
“So long as they're just low level Ops you should be fine with the skills you showed back at the bikers. How's your shoulder?”

“Gotta watch out for heavy lifting. A human-size person is fine...”

Yeong looked around for any sign of a back door. “Can you help me find the room? Or do you need an uplink for that, too?”

“Uplink. The days of public blueprints are over. You're gonna have to get caught.”

Yeong stopped in front of a man getting a lap dance by one of the girls. She had shed her top so that her breasts were bouncing and swaying freely. As she turned to shake her tits in the man's face Yeong pulled her thong back and let it snap. She gasped and felt her rear. The moment she did not feel any bills lining her strap she became angry and glared at him.

“Hey!”

“I offended one of the workers. Think that'll do it.”

“No! They'll just kick you out. Remember what I said?”

“Assets...” Yeong looked around as the girl was waving over security. He approached a nearby glass table that a few patrons were sharing a meal over. Yeong looked at them.
“Sorry.” As they looked up at him curiously, with some hesitance he slammed his fist down on the glass, cracking it. The vibrations caused the mugs on the table to bounce, then fizz over and spill but the table refused to break.

“H-hey!” One of the Patrons shouted, getting up. The other got up as well and moved to confront Yeong for ruining their drinks. Yeong shoved the man away effortlessly.

“It must be tempered...” He remarked, opening his fist to wave it a few times before balling it again.
“One more should do it.”

“Just do it fast...” Kai ordered.
“Wait, did you say Tempered? That's-”

Yeong slammed his fist down on the crack and finished the process of shattering the table.

* *

Just as Kai had said, breaking the club's assets lead to him being taken to the back instead of being kicked out. Security roughed him up a bit first, of course. The Garde Security personnel at the club were lightly equipped but eager to cause harm. They battered him unsuccessful with sticks before taking Yeong in. He had the sense to pretend he was getting injured but he was fully capable of taking in the backrooms layout as he was dragged through the guts of the club. It was not a maze, it was a normal building, so Yeong reasoned that the layout should be fairly intuitive. He was dragged into a blank white waiting room.

“Get his ID off his phone.” One ordered.

“We need to discuss your payment plan. Furniture ain't cheap, you know? Those are shipped in.”

“How much would you say it costs?” The other guard asked curiously.

“Gotta be around 100K.” He chuckled.

Yeong rolled his eyes at how easy it must be to extort an average person in the city. The moment the guard began to reach for his phone Yeong leaned forward, rolling the man unceremoniously over his shoulder before the guard knew what was happening. He landed harmlessly on one of the waiting room couches and was too stunned to speak. He was even still holding Yeong's wrist.

“Huh?”

It was so fast that the other one did not know what to do, either. “Did you trip? What the hell?”

“I-I dunno.” His eyes widened conveniently as Yeong reached into his pocket and pulled out his secret, most valued instrument. A small can of pepper spray available for less than a credit at any local market in the east. He crossed the Guard's face with it. The man released Yeong's wrist and began screaming and rubbing his eyes. Yeong turned to address the other problem.

The Garde Security at the club were lightly armored in their typical blue and gray with ballistic vests but they still had side arms. As the man reached for his gun Yeong placed his hand firmly over the holster, blocking it. The guard pulled a few times in desperation but Yeong's hand would not budge. He squeezed the holster, crushing the latch shut with just his grip. Yeong went to use the spray again and instead of the satisfying mist it only elicited a faint spurt that made the Garde's eyes water a little but otherwise had no effect. Yeong gritted his teeth, tossed the canister and quickly switched his grip to the man's hip and collar. Yeong's body turned at the hip, bent over and easily flipped the man over onto his back, knocking the air from his lungs. As he was gasping, Yeong left. All he needed to do was find the security room.

Conveniently there was a door labeled security right next to the white waiting room. Yeong opened it and immediately closed it after seeing dozens of faces of Garde Security Personnel looking up at him from lunch tables. Yeong clicked his tongue and began running down the hall, trying any doors he could as the pepper-sprayed man ran out of the waiting room screaming. Gunshots soon followed as he rounded a corner.
“Things have gotten a bit complicated. Is there anything you can do for me, Kai?”

“Oh for- I'm not a true hacker. I don't have a setup. I need to be close or have some direct link to-”

“Hold up.” Yeong saw a particular kind of tell as, at a dead end, a Garde Op emerged from a door beside him. There were guards behind him as well, so not much time. The man emerging from the door was expecting a fight. They were ready for it. The moment Yeong saw computer screens through the door however he simply pulled the man out and switched places inside the door before abruptly locking himself inside. There was and immediate banging as Yeong approached the terminal and placed his phone down. He pulled a connector cord and plugged it into the terminal.

“Finally!” Kai shouted. She was still sniffly, but seemed focused for the time being.
“Can you-”

“One second.” Yeong heard beeping from the pinpad on the other side. He slid over to the door and punched it with his good arm, warping the thin metal door near the handle in such a way that it was jammed, even if they managed to unlock it.
“Alright. We got a minute. Hope this works.”

“Hope what works!? I don't know what the fuck I'm doing!” Kai exclaimed.

“You're the one who did it, YOU have to do something! I'm opening up the archive and searching for the point of the-” She paused.

“It might be bad. Just find a point before the attack? Maybe that'll do something?”

“M-maybe?” He could hear by her change in tone that she was witnessing the point on the tapes where her mother died.
“How... How much time do you need?” She asked breathlessly.

“Before.” Yeong offered unhelpfully. He watched the screens moving back through events as the door began to slowly unjam under the weight of several large men hitting it and swearing obscenities at it. He presumed the obscenities had less of an effect.

“Got it!” The video paused on a point but Yeong still had no idea what he was going to do. He remembered the feeling from before. The desire to change things. He focused on the image, then touched the screen of his phone as the screen became engulfed in static.

* *

Yeong landed in a jarringly mute scene within the club. The bodies were moving all the same and the color was about as good as it was in real life, but everything was perfectly silent. Curiously he looked up above the cameras and saw a dome of void where the cameras were not looking, as well as a big green time-stamp that was present on most security footage. He shook his head, setting aside the novelty in favor of the task at hand. He saw a Garde Op drop in front of him slowly from a gunshot wound, then recognized the statuesque figure of Lacie beside him. She was an exquisite example of her kind, and of a woman in general but he had no time to admire her. As he saw the barrel of the gunman peek out once another guard fell he thought quickly enough to flip one of the tempered glass tables and pull Lacie behind it. Something that confused him was that even with no sound he could tell that Lacie was not screaming. Even as bullets cracked the glass and threatened to break it with each shot she seemed unaffected. Not in a way that showed shock, either. She did not care where she was or what was happening. She was staring  at Yeong and dutifully offering him her attention, since his arm was around her waist. He would not have likened her demeanor to a deer in headlights but instead a rabbit eagerly staring up at her predator while he bared teeth, as though it was her duty to be eaten.

Yeong grunted, his wound screaming at him as he lifted the table with his bad arm and began moving with it towards the gunman. Because the surface was clear Yeong could tell that the hitman was surprised by his intrusion. Too surprised to react when one last shot shattered the glass, prompting Yeong to use the stand as a mace to whack the gunman in the head. Yeong paid very little attention to who or what the gunman was. It was more important that they were no longer a problem. Since Lacie was slowing him Down Yeong lifted her in a princess carry and ran her out of the club. Thankfully the security was far too preoccupied with the dead guards and the staggered Jobber to notice or stop Yeong.

Yeong reached the void. The end of the security cameras. It was like looking out into space. The club was a platform, an oasis in the empty green and black grid that made up the nothingness that stretched out before him. Patrons materialized out of it and disappeared into it all around it. He could travel out into it, he thought, but he did not know what awaited him if he did. Thankfully, after less than a minute the space lit up around an orange flying cab. The doors swung open. Not one to look providence in the mouth, Yeong got and and set Lacie down beside him. As he was wondering how he could see that cab and how it reached him a voice spoke through one of the screens on the back seat.

“I ordered you a Fast-Vac cab with what little money I had on me the moment I felt your signature elsewhere on the net. Just like we talked about.” Yeong breathed a sigh of relief. It was a clunky system, but he was lucky to have Kai to make it work. They discussed what to do if he disappeared from reality suddenly. It meant to Kai that he was doing something important, something that probably required backup. She came through.
“Your phone's in the safety box.”

Yeong reached in and the moment he touched it the world filled with sound once again, not that there was much sound in the cab to begin with. It was like his ears were unplugged. The city around him was no longer a black void and the cab was weaving in between skyscrapers to reach Kai's location. Yeong heard Lacie gasp.
“Is that Kai? Hiiii baby.”

“Hi Mama.” Kai said with genuine sweetness.

“Thanks for calling, but I need to get back to work. They're going to start asking after me.”

“I know, Mama. Listen, for now Yeong is your client. He's paying big bucks. We already organized it with the owner  of the club.”

“Okay.” Lacie said easily, moving to lean seductively on Yeong. He grew uncomfortable and a little jittery as one of her hands slid over his crotch. He jumped as his phone began to ring. It was Kai.

“Listen. Don't do any weird shit with my mom, okay? She's totally fucked in the head and this is the only way we'll get her out without triggering her... For now. I'll work on it.”

“Kinda...” Yeong gulped as Lacie's hand fully slid into his pants and circled his member. Her lips touched his ear, then trailed down his cheek expertly with a  series of kisses. Her large breasts were pressed comfortably around Yeong's arm.
“Kinda hard to... Keep her off me. Lacie?”

“She's a woman! Just keep her... Busy. But don't do anything weird.”

“Yeah, yeah... Where is this thing taking us?”

“It's a bit of a ride...”

* *

The Cab touched down outside a small abandoned warehouse on the edge of the water, beneath one of Orr's mega-struts that held up the expanded city. The floor of Orr, the part of Orr that stretched out over the water, formed a ceiling a few stories up. It was dotted with wires and walkways and a few hanging, crude structures. The moment the cab confirmed both Lacie and Yeong were out it took off. Kai was waiting.

“Long ride?”

“You know it was long...” Yeong argued nervously.

“You didn't do anything weird, right?” She glared. Lacie was still hanging off of Yeong but that much was an acceptable compromise.

Yeong didn't answer. Instead he asked. “What's going on with her?”

Kai's expression softened. “It's the Tek. Big fake tits, a skeleton to make her taller and a bunch of miscellaneous shit that basically turned her into a sex bot. She was 'gone' before it happened but now she can barely hold it together at all. Honestly... With the way she was before I dunno if this is better or worse. At least now she 'seems' happy.” Kai said flippantly, turning to walk towards the warehouse.

Yeong knew the effects that too much integrated Tek could have on the body. At a point it ate into memory and affected the psyche in weird ways. At best they would be like Lacie. Harmless and placid. At worst they could get violent or wild.

“Is this where we're staying?”
“This is where we're squatting. It's all low tech down here. Previous gen. That means it's hard for me, but doubly hard for them.” She turned back and glanced at Yeong over her shoulder.
“I was right, huh?”

“Seems to be the case for now... Ready to explain why ChesAn is after you and her?”

Kai stopped before the opening to the warehouse. “Yeah. ChesAn... No, Chesharidge Analytics was basically founded by my mom, Lacie, and one other person.” She said through gritted teeth.