Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 68 (Patreon)

Hiromi had taken over then, to my surprise as I was still processing the fact I now had a new place. A new home if I wanted.

I didn’t want a new place! I liked the old place! Just because it was a little small was no reason to get something new!

But Hiromi overrode my concerns entirely as she tugged me along and we went up to the first floor to get everyone.

To my surprise though, Nox was there hanging out around Ichi and Malcolm,

“Hey Motoko. Motoko’s choom.” He greeted Hiromi and I. Funnily enough Ichi and Malcolm were side-eyeing him like he was a threat.

“Hey Nox. Thanks again for helping me out. You good?” I asked, confused about why he was still here.

“Yeah I just wanted to see this through. Not everyday you get to see something this crazy.” He offered with a shrug and a smirk.

I almost matched his shrug but thought better of it as my rib twinged. “That’s fine. We are going to head up and chat with the kids. Might end up in a firefight.” I warned and he nodded, reaching into his backpack and pulling out a Mox painted Unity.

“I want to see this through… If I can?”

I flashed him a thumbs up and nodded my head towards the elevator and we all clambered inside.

This was the important part.

Would we be able to do this without killing anyone else? I looked to Hiromi, who was honestly the one leading us at this point.

Hiromi was eager to get to the roof, but I could tell she was a little nervous as she played with the Katana on her hip.

Malcolm had a massive grin on his face.

He was carrying my HMG.

Bastard was giving that back just as soon as I could carry her again.

And Ichi just hefted his shotgun and was holding it ready to use.

The elevator binged open to a roar of voices, but all of them were clear.

“Morgan! This crazy gonk!”

“Finally! Did you have to-”

“Ugh why did it take so long to kill one-”

Of course the voices went silent when they realized it wasn’t their previous boss stepping out of the elevator.

“Hello hello! I’m Hiromi!” Hiromi called out as she stepped out like… Well like she was the boss. Her nervous fidgeting from just before gone. “Sorry about the trouble, but it’s over now! The old man and the Netrunner that previously helped you out are zeroed! Sorry about that!” She chirped out all the while smiling.

I wasn’t sure what her crazy plan was, but I was carrying a gun in both hands, everything reloaded and ready to fire if any of the kids took a shot.

“Fuck.” A voice echoed out and it was Richard. “You fucked us.” He said, sounding absolutely infuriated as he stomped through the crowd towards Hiromi, which stilled when I got between him and suddenly he was staring down my Burya.

Some of the kids around him also raised their guns, but he would be dead before they fired.

Before I could talk Hiromi did. “Now now! No need to bring this to violence. The fights already over you know? So let’s all have a talk about what the new situation is.” She said as she walked forward brazenly and settled into one of the seats and grabbed a beer. Seemingly waiting for Richard to join her.

Hiromi? What the hell were you plotting?

—---

An hour later I knew. Hiromi had… Made a deal.

I no longer had any idea of what was happening.

She had sat down Richard and basically talked him into a peaceful arrangement with Section 9.

Hiromi literally called us Section 9. If not for Cold Blood keeping me calm I knew my head would have exploded.

It had just been a joke! No one could know!

We were a poser gang now!

But in the end none of the kids had died. The killing was over, and they wouldn’t get much out of attacking us. Hiromi had convinced them that allowing us to borrow the basement, and having a netrunner working out of the apartment complex it would mean they could rely on my work making sure the security system continued working, and maybe be willing to accept some work from them from time to time.

In exchange Section 9 would also have access to a horde of teenaged gang bangers ready to work as muscle if we ever needed.

I had given up on being involved in the agreement at this point. I was tired, still angry at myself for getting shot and ready to head to Viks for a nap.

And I was just nodding along as Hiromi took over the details I didn’t want to deal with.

But in the end to my surprise it worked.

The kids seemed happy enough to be in charge of themselves, at least for now, Hiromi would be their contact with Section 9. Which meant they would thankfully leave me alone, and I had a place to do my netrunning from and some security while doing it.

Thankfully with the process finishing Hiromi pulled us out, wishing Richard a good night, and with the elevator operational again, the party was now over.

My group took the elevator down first to the ground floor and to Ichi’s truck.

“I can’t believe that worked.” I muttered looking over at Hiromi who had been absolutely preening for the last hour as she ran the kids around into a deal.

“You should just trust me! It was easy enough for someone like me.” She said primping her hair with a hand.

“Well I’m just glad I don’t have to deal with this.” Ichi said with a smile then instantly pointing a finger at Hiromi and I. “This is all your trouble.”

“Don’t be silly Ichi! If we need a truck of course we will call you, and with the SLS, Section 9 affiliation, we may be doing more big work.” Hiromi offered, raising a hand up to her mouth and laughing…

“A princess laugh? Really?” I asked in between chuckles at Hiromi's actions.

“Of course! I just did something amazing! Do you know how good having groomed a gang will look to my rep?” She asked, looking proud of herself. “Why did no one ever tell me how fun this whole Fixer thing could be!?”

“Ah of course the Corpobrat found her true calling.” Malcolm teased, but the bite in his words were thankfully softened by the way he nudged her after. “Just remember us street kids when you are at the top of Arasaka tower.”

“Who are you again? The chauffeur?” She instantly retorted, earning a squawk of outrage from Malcolm and giggles from Ichi and I.

I winced a bit at the end though.

Stupid rib.

“Alright Chooms. Thanks… For everything. I wouldn’t have been able to do this without you.” I told them.

“Don’t worry about it Motoko! We are chooms! Considering how much you pull us along, it felt good to be able to actually help out.” Hiromi said with a shrug. “Besides, we’ve been getting a lot out of this for a while. Eddies, rep, chrome.” She muttered counting off her fingers.

“Eh. The pay is good.” Malcolm said teasing and that was that from him.

“Hey it was… Preem. I’ve never been this close to something this crazy before.” Nox offered, the boy had been quietly following behind us the whole time not really taking part.

“Hey you were instrumental. Thanks Nox. Is the pay enough?” I asked and he snorted.

“Don’t be silly, I still have a ton from all the eddies I’ve made from the BD’s that I haven’t handed over to you yet.”

“Oh? That’s right, you are the one selling my Motoko’s XBD’s… I think we should talk!” Hiromi offered with a shark like grin as she started stalking towards Nox.

Well that wasn’t something I was going to get in the middle of.

“Well… I kinda need a visit to Viks. So I’m gonna get out of here. Malcolm… Put my HMG back in my trunk please.” I glared at the boy who had been sneakily walking off towards Ichi’s truck.

—--

“It’s not that bad Vik.” I muttered, but the look he gave me kept me silent.

“Alright all of you, head on out. Motoko, will be fine, but we are going to need some privacy.” He ordered shooing Hiromi and Nox out of the clinic with his dad energy. Both had followed me to Vik’s Hiromi dragging Nox around to talk more about his work.

I continued to ignore Hiromi getting involved in that.

I was more focused on Vik, because I was feeling like I was about to get yelled at.

“Mind explaining why you have bullet holes through your leotard?”

“I got shot… A lot. Fucker had a Smart SMG… Well now I have a Smart SMG.” I admitted with a sigh.

“How are you still alive? You told me your healing takes eight hours.” He demanded rolling in next to me. “I get if can’t tell me, if someone is keeping you from talking about it, but-”

“No it’s not that. Honest. No one but you knows about it Vik… If I take a Max Doc it sorta supercharges the healing for a bit… I guess I just didn’t share that bit. Sorry.” I offered actually wincing. I probably should have told Vik that last time.

“That makes even less sense.” He muttered rubbing his nose under his glasses. “The only thing in a MaxDoc is… Well nothing that would cause rapid onset healing. Those things are just adrenaline, and some-Nevermind. It doesn’t matter. It causes you to heal?”

“Yeah, pretty quickly, just about everything but broken bones. I-”

“Okay you are staying the night. We are going to test just what a MaxDoc actually does to you. Jesus Motoko, Kid. Rapid healing could have millions of side effects!” Vik sighed, seemingly trying hard to resist ranting at me.

It was sweet. If it made me a little ashamed. I knew it was safe because Gamer… But I couldn’t exactly explain that to him.

“Sorry Vik. I’m fairly certain it’s safe?”

“Testing.” He decided nodding firmly patting me on the shoulder as he actually went to close off the clinic doors so no one could come in.

“Now. Kid lose the Leotard it’s a loss anyways, I have a medical gown here somewhere you can we- Jesus kid!” He grumbled as he jerked his head away from where I was already peeling down my leotard.

“What?”

“Just put this on.” He rumbled at me as he tossed one of those backless medical gowns a patient might wear.

“Okay. I don’t know why you are being weird, you are like three times my age.” I snarked at him, only to earn a choked back laugh.

“Motoko, you're fourteen. I’m about six times your age.”

“Wait what?!”

“I’m 74 kid.” He said as he wheeled back around on his chair to start strapping sensors to me.

Wait.

Was the reason Vik’s dad energy was so intense because it was actually grandpa energy!?

—--

Vik ended up holding me the entire rest of the night running tests on my healing and trying to figure out why a Maxdoc causes a healing effect.

In the end he had discovered a lot, and had more questions than he had before.

But I had escaped. A quick call to my Quadra had it drive over so I could head home and I was gone.

The apartment was quiet as I entered and I immediately went into my room thankful that Jun wasn’t here as I peeled my ruined leotard off and threw it into the bag I kept all of my damaged clothes.

I would need to make sure Jun didn’t find that until I fixed them or scrapped them.

I took a quick shower to finish cleaning up and then once more suited up I was in the living room with just the barest hints of sunlight starting to filter in through the armored blinds.

What do I do now?

I sighed, as I flopped onto the couch. I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the situation with the kids, I really didn’t want to deal with having any affiliation with some random street gang.

Especially one that had been one step away from being wiped out for being too greedy.

The kids were going to be a massive pain in the ass. I just knew it.

And I didn’t want to see them die.

It was bound to happen. Night City wasn’t kind to anyone.

I shook it off. I could only be responsible for the people close to me. That’s all. Just that. If the SLS get themselves killed hopefully I won’t ever know.

I stood up. Grabbing a bunch of my net gear from around the apartment and headed out. There was one more thing I needed, and then I would go back to my new Netrunning Den.

—--

Purchasing a full Netrunner suit with the cooling system still active had taken a hit to my funds, but it was too important not to have.

I didn’t want to melt my brain like I almost had before.

The old seamstress lady that I had bought all my Leotards from was more than willing to make the sale, especially since I ordered a few more of my Leotards as well.

I kept getting bullet holes in the damn things after all.

I drove my Quadra over to the apartment complex.

“Straight Lane Apartments.” I muttered to myself, forced to shake my head that the kids had literally named themselves after the complex itself. This complex was old, and it was rundown. I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone here was literally just squatting in a semi-abandoned building.

Then again. Lights were on, and the water still ran, so someone must own the building and keep things running.

It didn’t even have a garage attached to it, instead I had been forced to park the Quadra in a space a block down the street and walk the rest of the way.

I noticed pretty quickly that I was getting attention.

Kids were staring at me.

Some I recognized from the gang, and some I didn’t. I had no doubt that something as big as the SLS losing their netrunner, and losing their big league gigs was spreading around.

And that they now had a new leader. All the while some teenager with purple hair had flatlined their old boss…

Or they might even have put a hit out on me, telling the kids to try and flatline me the moment I walked back into the building. Just to save Richard the hassle of dealing with us…

But that was just my paranoia. Richard had more use of me alive, or rather he needed a netrunner to keep his stuff running, and maybe pass on intel to point his kids at gigs that they could do and make eddies.

Morgan and V3L0CITY had targeted weapon shipments, or netrunning supplies with his horde of kids. The SLS didn’t exist before that. I doubted Richard had suddenly gained all the knowledge needed to run a gang.

As I entered the complex I wasn’t surprised that a pair of kids were hanging out in front of the elevator, and both stood up as I approached.

Both girls had shotguns.

“Richard wants to talk to you, or the other one.” The smaller of the two girls said she reminded me of Hiromi before. All neon and flair barking away to get attention, and to avoid anyone realizing she felt nervous.

The other was quiet, a more firm grip on the Tactician Shotgun she was carrying. She at least carried herself like she knew how to shoot it, but from experience, that gun was too big for the girl, especially as it didn't have a stock.

“Tell him to come down to the basement then. I have some work I need to do.” I told them, waving the bag in my left hand that had my suit and a spare laptop.

Not that they knew that.

They both scowled, but it was the taller girl that spoke up first. “Richard wasn’t asking.” She started to demand, but she had let me get too close, and half a second later I jerked the shotgun straight out of her hands, and grabbed the barrel of the shorter girls shotgun in the same moment.

I just had to drop my bag to do it.

I winced a bit as the Laptop hit the floor. Hopefully it wasn’t damaged.

“Don’t.” I told them simply letting them understand that I had control of both of their weapons. “I’m not a member of your gang. But we are working together now. If Richard needs something, he’s welcome to come chat with me.” I informed her, and noticed that despite everything the smaller girl was still trying to jerk the shotgun out of my grip.

Unfortunately she was a teenage girl without any chrome, and I was a chromed out Gamer. Her attempts weren’t able to even budge my arm.

“Fine.” The taller girl ground out seemingly realizing the situation was more dangerous than she expected.

I nodded and only after I was sure I had everything sorted did I let go of the barrel of the shotgun and offer to hand back the Tactician to the tall girl.

She didn’t hesitate in snatching it back with a glare.

“I’m Motoko by the way. Since we will be sharing a building together in the future, I figured you should know.” I offered and the short girl scowled, looking like she wanted to raise the shotgun back up, but realizing it was dangerous as the taller girl settled her shotgun back in her hands with a nod.

“Mary.” She offered and then headed towards the elevator. The shorter girl followed after only a few seconds as she looked confused about why I wasn’t being shot.

I watched as they both headed up to the fifth floor. The floor the gang now controlled.

I went ahead and accessed the elevator system through a scan and ordered it to come down. There literally wasn’t a button to go to the basement so only someone who had some netrunning skill could actually get down there.

After a minute of me standing there waiting since the old elevator had to go up, let the girls off and then come down. I finally reached my basement.

It still seemed weird to consider it mine, but it really was.

I looked over the array of equipment and had to shake my head. Some of this stuff was super high end. I mean just the fact he had server racks meant V3L the previous owner had been a damned good Netrunner. There was that tier system with Netrunners on where they were.

I didn’t think about it much, but it went like this.

Tier 0. Using old old systems, like a Cybermodem to access the net. No one really used this anymore except people just looking up info online. Usually if they were over 60.

Tier 1. Which is what I had done for the most part. Just using my link cord into systems.

Tier 2. Is what is considered real Netrunning. Cybergoggles and other systems let someone view the net in actual dimensions, rather than just a flat screen. Of course this is when people start overheating, so Ice Baths were this tier.

If you weren’t rich enough to buy a netrunner suit, you were tier 2.

Tier 3. Is professional stuff. Netrunner suits were considered part of this tier. Usually adding in Net chairs and biomonitors, that was all in this tier.

Tier 4 was elite level… Server banks, potentially Cryostasis chambers, and even direct blood cooling was all part of this tier, and was usually as high as someone could go without being a corpo.

V3L Had been around this level. The equipment he had left behind was expensive elite level stuff…

And I wasn’t about to stick my head into any of it, without doing a full check up and wiping of basically everything. I would download all the data to drives for later look over, but no way was I connecting to his private server.

He would definitely have some Daemon or Black ICE in there ready to kill.

But there was another tier. Tier 5 gear was the crazy Netwatch stuff. Things like a full chrome installation that basically adds everything the previous tiers had but into mobile cyberware letting someone netrun anywhere, and with better speeds and power.

So I had a bunch of high end stuff to start checking out. Thankfully all of my Netrunning skills meant I could actually do this.

So I got to work, I connected my laptop into the server, instantly it got attacked, and I sighed as it basically fizzled shutting down.

Yep. Expected.

After a quick reinstall of the laptop making sure it was back up and running. I started breaching the server like I would any other system. But since I knew how dangerous it was, I was using the skill from Ghost Touch to do it. Slowly sending bytes of data through side access ports until the small bytes would grow into an actual program that would give me access.

Of course I was interrupted long before I was finished. There was a beep going through the basement and it took me a moment to check on the monitors along the wall that were connected to the security system that had been put into the complex.

Richard was requesting access to the basement. Apparently there was a way to request access.

He was standing in the elevator, an agent in his hand and he was obviously waiting.

I approved the request, sent the signal, and the elevator came down.

Other than looking behind me at the monitors, I hadn’t turned away from the server I was breaking into.

Richard stepped out of the elevator into my basement with a certain confident stride as he walked over and stopped beside me.

“Richard. What’s up? Mary said you wanted to talk?” I asked, still distracted, there was a bit of data that I needed to send in through a infrared sensor that could take a few bytes and it was a bit difficult to process the data right.

“I wanted to talk. To get to know my new choom.” He skewed the way he said choom obviously unhappy with the idea.

“I’m not your choom. Nor will I be. I don’t have time or interest in joining your gang. I’m just someone who shares a building with you, and is more than willing to give you info from time to time on some good scores.” I replied.

“We both know that isn’t all you will do. SLS will crumble apart in weeks without income. I can’t have my friends go and try to get protection money, this whole area is technically Valentino. But they don’t care about small fry like us as long as we don’t mess with their business. Can’t do drugs, can’t do a lot of theft in the area. Makes it hard to earn eddies.”

“Well talk to Hiromi then, she is the fixer type.” I looked away from the server to meet his eyes. “I’m… No hold on.” I muttered pulling away from the server it would hold for a while.

As I did so Richard watched looking irritated and anxious.

“I can talk to her, the terms we worked out are fine I guess. But she said you’re the boss.”

“Yeah I mean. I’m sorta the leader of my chooms, but I’m not your boss.” I rubbed the back of my head “Here take a seat we should really clear the air, this whole thing was a mess to begin with.” I pointed him at a swivel chair beside the security monitors, probably Morgan's old seat, as I took the Net chair sitting on it sideways to face him.

“Listen. I took a job from Wakako. Your group's thefts obviously pissed some powerful people off. Wakako almost didn’t take the gig, you were still small time. Small enough she wasn’t even interested in offering it to people, but I needed Netrunning equipment. So she gave me this gig. I could have just killed all of you.” I told him bluntly. My chrome finger pointing straight at his heart. “It wouldn’t have been tough. Silent, loud, whichever. You are lucky that I don’t like killing kids. So I found a way to get the gig done without flatlining any of the kids Morgan had wrapped up in this shit.”

“We could have taken you. We have good gear! Good security!” He argued instantly, trying to regain some confidence from my own seeming threat.

“I could have started throwing grenades during that party last night.” I told him bluntly, making him wince. “By the time any of you would have even realized what was happening… Listen you guys got really super lucky, and I’m not here to rule you as a street kid empress or something. But I’m also not enough of a bleeding heart to be your choom.” I  admitted trying to convey my annoyance through my hands.

“You come in, ruin the first good thing that ever happened to us? Destroy us without even killing us, which… Okay yeah I appreciate we didn’t have to call up any meat wagons, but still. You ruined what we were becoming, and now you want to just make friends? What do you want?”

“I want this Netrunning gear, and I want to be left alone. Hiromi saved me from having to haul this shit out of here so that’s great, but it makes us neighbors now. Which isn’t something I was planning. Listen Richard. I think you did a good thing helping out your chooms yeah? I’ll do my best to keep the security of this place top notch. I’ll even back you up if the apartments are ever attacked, I live here too now after all, but helping your gang isn’t my priority you know?”

“Yeah. I know.” He said sound tired. “We’re street kids. We are never the priority, you probably don’t get that though.”

“What? Why wouldn’t I? I’m a street kid too!” I said… Even if it was only partially true.

“You’re some Corpo kids aren’t you?”

“Nah. Just Hiromi. My family were all Tyger Claws, although I’m not really into the gang thing. I’m just a merc. Hiromi’s parents are Arasaka though.”

“Yeah I figured. It’s why we weren’t gonna cause any problems… You really a street kid?  You don’t really act like one.”

“I’m just weird!” I told him with a thumbs up. “But yeah I live in a small apartment with my brother Jun who is a TC Enforcer. So listen, we get it. Even Hiromi. I don’t want to mess with you, or your chooms. I’m not like Morgan, who is going to use you and eventually make you take the fall for it.” I told him and he winced.

“Even if you were, we would still do the gigs. Morgan didn’t need to convince us to take the gigs. We were willing. More eddies than any of us had ever seen just for a few gigs?” He sighed.

“Even if it will all come crashing down on you?”

“Of course! Even if we all die it was worth it. We got to be something! Made this city know that we existed!” He said hotly as if caring about your own life was… Wrong.

Fucking Night City.

“Fuck that I’m gonna live to a hundred and eighty.” I told him with a shrug. “But listen. I’m not going to interfere with you and your chooms. I’ll help out with security, and maybe more if the pay is good, and in exchange, all I really ask is you keep anyone from trying to mess with my stuff.”

He nodded “Fine. I can accept that. Just maybe tell me if you see a good chance to make some eddies.” He asked, sounding kind of beaten.

I nodded and that was pretty much that.