Ghost in the City: Cyberpunk Gamer SI-Chapter 223

Judy Alvarez

“Alright time to do this.” She popped the can of Shock Volt, washed down three wake me ups, and sighed as the cool warmth of caffeine washed through her.

Her heart pounding in her chest was the best part.

Then she pulled on the wreath and started up the new BD.

Slipping into a new skin, especially from a raw Virtu was usually a bit rough, new emotions, feelings, thoughts and everything odd random twitches, the way people held themselves, it all felt so different.

But not with Motoko.

Oh it felt different, but there was none of that random irritation.

Cool surety washed through her, her arms would definitely be prickling. Judy-Motoko peaked around the edge of a container.

Scav. The target was already being attacked and he never even knew, she felt a rush when technology simply gave way to her, and a dozen golden lights shot from the man, filling her vision with every threat.

So many. Judy hesitated in shock, Motoko didn’t, washing away her surprise with cold sinister confidence.

Absolute surety of action.

Motoko sent a message informing a choom of the numbers, and then ran a chrome hand across her cheeks.

Judy was smiling.

Oh shit.

That wasn’t just eagerness but the cold delight of a murderer about to get her fix.

A new hack was sent up going by so fast Judy couldn’t even see the text scrawl across her own eyelids, but she knew it was functioning because there was no hesitation.

A moment later Motoko moved, and Judy once more learned what it felt like to not be a lazy bitch.

Leaping up onto the container and then across in a rolling move to keep her out of sight of the scav, leading to her sliding down into the container with an almost eerie lack of noise.

No scraping of chrome hands on the container, no echo when her boots hit the ground.

Silence.

It caused a shiver up Judy’s belly. As she realized what was about to happen.

A knife was pulled free from behind her back, her Kiroshi didn’t even glance at it, the cold surety that everything was exactly as planned as it plunged into flesh, and Motoko moved, hand over mouth muffling the faint gasp as the scav died.

Dragging him off the chair and hiding him didn’t even take a momentary thought, simply instinct confidence.

Then she peaked out, and something shifted.

A car, Quadra Type-66, but a Nomad style, rough and tumble… Motoko’s car? That’s right she had said someone-

Motoko moved, like some kind of beast down a fall that Judy would have refused to do without even slowing, without making a noise as she slipped into a crouch hiding herself behind the small walkway barrier and moving just as fast as Judy could standing upright.

"I said six kay, that's all I'll do."

"It's a fucking modded to fuck Quadra! She's worth more than that!"

"She's also klepped. Six Kay."

The Scavs were talking to a gonk. Street rat, the sort that klepped cars and sold them to any dealer that could get them. Judy knew the type.

Motoko apparently killed the type.

There was no hesitation. Motoko moved to follow the kid, and Judy felt a rage, but it wasn’t hot or bubbling, simply cold arithmetic.

The kid stole something important. Motoko would take something in return.

The kid died after a very short chase. Another sliced throat-

“Fuck!” Judy pulled off the wreath and slumped back, she was breathing heavily, and coated in sweat. She rose and nearly face planted. Fucking!

Fuck Motoko! Fuck that little teenager that makes Judy’s entire body feel like something disgusting and rotting.

The Virtu was intense, and already Judy knew that she’d not even touched a tenth of it. She wrapped her arms around herself and just let the shakes dissipate, even though it annoyed her how her normal flesh and blood hands felt so wrong after the surety of Motoko’s chrome arms.

“Jude?”

“Aaaeeee!” She shrieked at the sudden words and felt herself move.

Or try to.

She’d felt the instinct to move like Motoko, to shift herself and ready to attack, but she wasn’t Motoko, just Judy.

“Ow.”

“You alright?”

“I’m fine Carmen. Just fine.” She grumbled, as she pulled herself from the floor. The wreath on the floor made Judy stop and pick it up and put it back on the chair. She’d get back to that.

Later.

—--

“Seriously though, that’s crazy.” Malcolm said as I once more deflected a bullet.

“It’s… I’ll be honest, I was hoping I’d be a bit better at it.” I had a definite limit to the amount of bullets I could parry even with the Sandy.

“You seem pretty fucking good at it already, choom.” Malcolm offered but I shrugged.

Could deflecting a bullet save my life? Definitely! But could someone with a rifle, or an SMG still riddle me with bullets? Yeah that was a problem too.

Also I had some worries about certain kinds of weapons. I was fairly confident I could do it for most tech weapons, but what if they were overcharged? What if it was a sniper?

As awesome as it was, and it was.

Deflecting a bullet with a sword was the most weeb shit of all time, and I loved it, but there was still a worry about how useful it was.

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At least that’s what was running through my head, before I remembered that having the ability to block a couple bullets, even if not everything was already better than 99% of people. Sure there were edgerunners that could do it, but not many, and not many would have the confidence that I did.

So, it was an additional layer of protection in some circumstances.

It was awesome, and more importantly.

I nodded and Rebecca cackled as she pulled the trigger and once more a shriek and burst of sparks later the bullet hit the wall behind me.

“Fuck yeah!” Rebecca cried out along with the gasps of delight from everyone else.

It was a great party trick.

I flourished my blade before doing a quick check over it, but it was fine. I’d angled the blade correctly to deflect the bullets and not just let them destroy the edge. Then I sheathed my sword.

“Okay I think that’s enough for now.”

“Duuuude! You have to make a BD of that.” Malcolm called out waving at me, and I grinned.

“That’d be cool.” I agreed and walked over to plop down on the van. Fujimura’s men had come and gone, and cleared out a good chunk of our stock.

We’d grabbed a lot of random stuff from the scavs, medical beds, and surgery equipment, and Fujimura had been interested, unfortunately there hadn’t been a lot of completed chrome crates. They must have already transported most of their goods.

It didn’t matter. I was just happy to make some eddies, everyone was happy and I had gotten to show off my cool new trick.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked, and Hiromi just continued to kick her legs happily. She’d relaxed after I’d proven I wasn’t crazy for having my choom shoot at me.

“Well that’s most of it. There isn’t too much left, we can put it in storage and piecemeal it out, so we don’t have to push for big sales right now.” Hiromi explained looking behind us into Ichi’s truck.

Honestly I wish we could have grabbed everything, there was a lot of useful bits in that skyscraper, but Barghest had been very interested in us even after we had the guys come and check us out.

We’d had Barghest trucks pull into the skyscraper the moment we drove out.

It was rather telling that they acted pretty aggressive. I think they only let us leave because we only had so much stuff we could take. If Ichi had brought the Behemoth, we might not have been allowed to leave.

Stupid Barghest.

Stupid Scavs.

“Alice has been mentioning she wanted to set up another practice session. She’s eager to set up a gig.”

“Ugh.” Right. Alice, and the band. I huffed and kicked my legs. Stupid responsibilities. I just wanted to do what I wanted, whenever I wanted!

Malcolm tapped his fist into my shoulder. “C’mon choom don’t pout.”

“I’m just busy. I have the netrunner thing with Sasha too.”

“Oh yeah, how’s the chrome?”

“It’s alright.” I confirmed running a hand over the back of my neck and smiling at the feeling. The weird hitch in my neck was annoying, but honestly, I was fine. “No issues really. I’m probably ready to give it a real test.”

“Heh. That’ll be interesting to see. You need me?” He asked and I nodded. “If you have the time?”

“Sure choom.”

“Aww.” Hiromi whined. “I have class.”

“Aww, is Crush disappointed she won-”

“Don’t start with me Rebecca.” Hiromi hissed, and Rebecca just cackled.

I smiled just happy my chooms were getting along.

“How about we all get out of here, and sort out the loot so we can grab a meal?”

“If it’s on you. I’m in.” Rebecca offered with a teasing smile.

—--

Nox

There was something freeing about knowing without any doubt that the men trying to kill you were incapable of it. The Ghost. The Onryo was untouchable, and the havoc it was causing was insane.

Nox, had never seen anything like it. And yet, there was a cold confidence that nothing these Scavs did would be able to stop her.

He’d only seen the Onryo a few times, always out of the corner of his eye as he rushed through the shadows hunting another stupid Scav gonk.

And each time he’d wanted to still and watch.

She looked so real. The ghost of Motoko, white hair and red eyes, clinging to Scvas backs, and scratching along their face, or covering their eyes, whispering in their ear or worse.

His attention was dragged along with Motoko, who never lost sight of her goal.

She delighted in the Scavs terror, and that sweet feeling flooded through his mind, but he never let it stop him from doing what he needed.

She heard it. The elevator, and her head jerked, already registering it all. Then she moved, sliding and dashing around this construction yard unseen before leaping up and into a vent above the entrance the Scavs had been coming from, and then slipping forward.

His belly on the cool metal was stark against the sheer silence of his movement. Her movement.

Motoko never made a sound, every movement made, was done in the perfect way to hide the noise. Her chrome fingers spread out and secured her body as she shifted, never even slipped along the metal venting.

Then he could see inside, see an HMG turret, and he rode along as she hacked into it. Letting his eye fill with a new screen and he could see what the turret saw.

Terrified scavs. The cold surety that they were dead men filled him.

The elevator finished but he could only just hear it, the turret facing away before a squad of terrifying scavs stepped into site. Big.

That was his first impression, lots and lots of chrome, and massive guys. The sort that Nox would run in terror from.

Motoko though? His thoughts shifted, Old chrome, big but poor quality. Made the guy strong, but weak.

So very very weak.

He felt her slip onto her back as if this was all not worth even stressing about as her hacks started running through the squad.

“Well Where is this Runner fuck? Why isn’t he dead yet!”

“It’s like a ghost Dmitri! Nothing we do works!”

“A fucking ghost! Fuck off! Well! Runner come out so I can murder you already!”

Nox heard the cry, but Motoko just felt a sinister elation.

Oh she was coming alright.

“What do you mean I’ve been here the whole time?” The voice came out as a whisper, not even words, but Motoko lipped the words, and he heard it through her agent.

She’d… She’d hacked the scavs, and made their agents speak for her? That’s crazy!

And then all hell broke loose. Screen after screen popped across his vision as Motoko hacked, and hacked and hacked.

Nox could feel the way the system RAM of the Cyberdeck was whining, keeping up with all the uploads.

Nox rode along, shocked at what happened next. At the stream of data, that was slowed down just enough, probably thanks to Judy that he could register that Motoko was actively messing with the big Scavs Biomon. Adrenaline spike?

And the freakout that followed was intense. He ripped his own people apart, seen through Motoko’s eyes as she lay back and watched it all happen from a vent.

Then her eyes blinked, and Nox watched as an image of her, as a ghost, a Onryo a monster lured the literal Cyberpsycho away from his group he’d just massacred and then up into the elevator.

It was… Terrible, a horrible thing to do, and yet…

Fuck them. Fucking Scavs. Cathartic, that was the word Nox was thinking as Motoko’s emotions bubbled up in his chest, the delight of what had just happened. She slipped out of the large vent and then stood up tall, looking over the massacre. Two dozen at least dead bodies lay around, each of them killed by Motoko in stark relief, or from that Cyberpsycho, and then Motoko drew his attention, everything else seemed to dim as she brought up her hands.

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A rectangle was built with her fingers and she looked right at her car, which was a bit blurred out, but Nox recognized it, and then the whisper of his own lips reached his ear. “Don’t steal my car.” And a sinister promise flowed through him.

She’d kill him. Him and him alone if he ever stole her car. He knew, with absolute surety, that if he was ever stupid enough to try she’d hunt him down.

He wanted to swallow, but Motoko’s body gave him no relief, instead she shifted her eyes looking up into the skyscraper, and the golden lights that still showed leading up there. Her ears caught gun fire, and then one of the lights, the Cyberpsycho went out.

Deadly intent filled him, and Nox relaxed into his body. That feeling racing through her, the way her body shifted, the surety of intent, was… Intoxicating.

He rode along as she sauntered down the path and up to the elevator and stepped inside.

His hand slipped down and ran across the hilt of a Katana. The feeling was so different from his own flesh and blood hand, but not discomfort reached him.

It wasn’t the first time he’d scrolled someone with a cyberlimb.

But this was different.

She shifted, her body altering the way she stood minutely as she prepared for what was to come.

“The perfect cut.” And Nox felt his breath catch as she realized this BD wasn’t even over!

Holy shit.

—--

“You’re up early.” I couldn’t help but admit as Alice walked into my apartment.

“Haven’t been running off to work late gigs.” She offered and then sort of hesitated. “I wouldn’t mind a few more jobs. Has the kid talked to you about doing a gig?”

“Yeah, she mentioned that you wanted to do that. Do you think we’re ready? We’ve only really played together a few times.” I asked, as I led her back to the couch where I had been camping out this morning.

I’d already put in another skill point into Quick Hacks, and was now up to Quick Hack 12. The flush of new knowledge had left me tinkering with my slotted program order, and Cyberdeck management system.

Lower tier hacks were better if I put them on the side Main RAM, while bigger hacks should be run through side systems, as they would regenerate better than the main Cyberdeck as the RAM usage would cycle.

If I pulled everything from my Ex-Disk, then I’d be pulling from the main Cyberdeck and whatever other system I drew resources from.

Basically everything ran through the Cyberdeck, but not all of my other hardware would be used up at the same rate.

I blinked it all away as Alice took a seat and she laughed a bit at my question.

“We’ve already done a live gig together, and multiple practice sessions. That’s pretty normal for a new group. We don’t need to be perfect… Well I guess I should say. It’s not unusual to not have everything perfect at the start. But we have new songs.”

“That’s not everything, playing them well is the most important.”

“Then let’s do some more practice sessions. We can do it… But we do need eddies. We’re not all rolling in cash. Jared has rent.”

“Okay. Right. You’re right.” I pushed my normal mentality to the side. I had a band, and they had needs, and… If I let my own feelings control this I would never end up back on stage again. No, we had some work to do. “Alright let’s do another practice session, and set up a gig in the next few days.”

“Perfect!” Alice cheered and her voice modulated a bit as she cried out in delight making it sort of staticy.

“Mind if I ask?”

“Hmm?”

“Your voice, the chrome and stuff?”

“Oh that.” She muttered looking away. “I can’t… I’m not really a singer naturally, so I got the chrome to try and cover for it. It worked okay. Kept Violent Hemorrhage going.”

I didn’t argue. She was wrong, but that was… Covering a weakness with chrome was pretty much a Night City thing. Fine. We’d figure something out later if we needed additional singers.

I sighed. So much for my evening. I had a meeting planned with Sasha first, and then Rockerboy stuff…

Why was I so busy?