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Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 232
🕑 Added 2025-06-14 17:01:11 +0000 UTC“Heard you got a new gig.”
“Juuun.” I whined from the couch. I sat up and glared at him.
“What?”
“Don’t what me. I can hear that smirk on every word. I’m not giving up my Merc job.”
“Sure.” He said very much not agreeing with me, as he said it. I sat up and glared at him.
“I’m too good of a merc to quit.”
“You say that because you aren’t making Rockerboy eddies yet.”
“I don’t care about eddies.”
“You don’t care about eddies… Yet.”
“Okay you want an ass beating?” I demanded waving a fist at him and he just sent me another smug look.
“You’d lose.”
“Fuck I would. I got secret ninja powers. Nin-Nin.”
“Pfft. I’m still stronger than you.”
“Only like a gorilla.”
“Hey! You’re the gorilla here.”
I considered leaping off the couch and bringing truth to my words but I considered it. I had band stuff last night. Band stuff tonight. No gigs to distract me. No grinds that I was doing right this minute…
I still needed a better server for the Tachikoma. I’d have to figure that out soon, been leaving it hanging for too long.
“Jun. You doing anything?”
“Hmm?” He asked from around a Burrito so I felt my nose scrunch up.
“Gross.”
“Is’ good!” He argued as always and I shook off the fact he’d spoken with his mouth full. I think XXL burritos actually looked better chewed up, which was a disturbing thought.
“I’ve been meaning to do more hand to hand. I could use someone to spar against… So you busy?”
“To throw my little brat of a sister around a mat for a while? Never.” He decided and I hissed at him for acting like it was going to be that easy.
“I’m gonna punch you in your stupid abs and break them.” I warned him, and he actually flinched a bit and put a hand on his stupid plastic abs.
“Motoko… Don’t.”
“Oh come on, they’re fake!”
“It’s expensive cyberware!”
“It’s a plastic body sculpt! There is no cyberware there Jun!”
“Says you!”
“Idiot!”
“Idiot!”
“No you!”
“You!”
—--
“Oh it’s on Onnnnniiiiii-chan.” I drawled out as I tapped my padded gloves together and bounced around.
“I’m gonna enjoy reminding you that I’m the big brother.” he said smiling as his own hands were wrapped in heavy pads.
Gomorroah was close enough that we just walked to the gym both of us throwing jabs and trying to mess with the other the entire way.
“Rules?”
“I won’t punch you in the dick. I want little nieces and nephews someday, and you need all the help you can get.”
“Look who’s talking. Idiot.”
“You’re the idiot!” I growled and he hunkered down into a brutal looking boxing stance and rushed in.
Fast.
Jun was a lot faster than I’d normally expect. I knew he’d been jacked in with all sorts of cyberware when he first joined the Kamikaze, but I’d never actually asked exactly what he had.
But as fast and strong as he was?
I was very good with Street Brawling, and fast enough his initial assault. Which I noticed he was holding back a good bit, wasn’t fast enough to strike me. I juked, falling into a boxing stance myself despite not really being a boxer.
His fists whiffed twice before I grabbed one that was overextended and I tried to hip check him, only for his stupid too heavy body to just lift me off my feet.
I was held there, his arm straight out my feet off the mats as I jerked a few times only for nothing to happen.
“This is bullshit.”
“You're way too small for that.”
“I could totally Judo throw you if you weren’t so fat!”
“Doubt.”
I activated my Sandy, even as his mouth continued to mouth the words, I dropped most of the way back to the mat, and bounced, using all the force of my stronk legs, to fly back up, calves wrapping around my idiot brothers too big head and then flinging sideways a bit.
The momentum this time was enough to throw him off his feet, and I landed in a cool three point landing a bit away before rising up and patting my hands together.
“Doubt that?”
“Cheating.” He grumbled, as he rose up checking himself over. “And it didn’t do shit. What was that, some stupid action movie move? You realize if you did that to someone they’ll just shoot you.”
“I’ll shoot them!”
“Then why do it in the first place? Just shoot them!?”
“To disable them in case they were about to shoot me!”
“THEY’LL JUST SHOOT YOU ANYWAYS!”
“I’LL SHOOT THEM FIRST!” Jun leapt at me, and I leapt in both of us brawling and hitting each other as we continued yelling, ignoring the normal gym goers who were all moving away.
“You fight like a moron!”
“YOU ARE A MORON!”
“AND YOU’RE A GORILLA!”
Eventually the two of us ended up on the mat. I had my arm around Jun’s stupid neck cause obviously he didn’t need oxygen for a brain that small, and he was crushing me with his stupid bulk while pummeling into my side to get me to let go.
“Hey!” We both looked up at the yell, as the Gym manager came out of his little office. “I don’t care what this is! Cut it out! Break it up!”
We instantly distangled, Jun taking a moment to catch a breath his head had been turning a bit purple, and I winced as I felt my side. Lucky he had been wearing gloves.
“Sorry about that.” I replied eventually and the owner threw up his hands and went back to the office. “You shouldn’t disturb people so much Jun-Nii.”
“Shut up.” He grumbled at me as he threw a towel at my head.
“I don’t think sparring is something we can really do.” I admitted and Jun looked at me and snorted.
“No, I don’t think so either.” We both smiled at each other and broke into chuckles as I walked over and nudged him. We ended up putting the pads away and getting breakfast, even though Jun just grabbed another ‘fresh’ Burrito XXL out of the vending machine, while I got some meat skewers from the guy surrounding the building.
—--
I took the rest of the morning to fuck around.
I flopped on my bed and checked in on my Tachikoma. Already I could see the motive programming was doing well. The Racing game that I’d set them up with whenever I remembered was doing a great job on filling in how to move around on wheels. I flicked the power on, and let the Tachikoma load up as I set it on my bedroom floor.
Soon the little drone was moving around on its wheels pretty good. Only….
“I probably should have considered that.” I muttered as it was happily doing laps around my room in a circle. Well, it had gained the ability to drive and turn, that was already a big step, I’d just remove the whole circle thing.
In fact, I pulled up my system, and checked my points.
Intelligence 16 (20) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 10.
-Breach Protocol 15
-Quick Hacks 13
-Programming 15
0 Stat point.
3 Skill point.
Yep, I really needed to spend some of those.
Programming instantly got another point. Bringing me up to a solid 16. I shivered as the knowledge flooded through me, as I processed and learned what it had to tell.
I was already starting to pull up the Tachikoma’s data as the knowledge flowed through me, and I went to work.
Clearing up the accidentally learning to always follow a track, or going in circles, I opened my Tachikoma to a whole new world.
Suddenly it stopped and just waited, making me realize once again that just because it could, didn’t mean the Tachikoma would without a bit of a push.
So I gave it a new task. Map out the entire room.
It stuttered to a start, stopping and going, and soon I was helping it develop a sort of digital mapping program to help it learn and design spaces.
I was humming and kicking my feet up as I just watched and helped my Tachikoma grow. It was like playing with a pet, almost. Especially since Programming was starting to come so naturally to me, the idea of using a physical keyboard to program felt slow and awkward.
There was no more hesitation. My code was born at the speed of my thought, and I felt like I’d been coding like this for decades.
Soon the Tachikoma had a mapping program that they could even create just through visuals. It’d be silly for them to need to run around like a roomba or something. Tachikoma had optics.
Soon in their digital database they had a representation of the room, and even me inside it.
I had a thought and shifted over rolling over so I was in a different spot.
The map program instantly seemed to notice the change and I could see where the Tachikoma came into conflict, as it tried to process the alteration.
Then….
Huh.
I think I’d just taught my Tachikoma object permanence.
The code had been altered slightly, to make adjustments for time. Literally letting the Tachikoma understand that things changed through time.
Neat!
I ran through the attempt to learn that, and made a few adjustments to clean up the code so the poor thing wouldn’t take literally millisecond snapshots of reality forever. That would cause a slow down to say the least.
But my Tachikoma would notice changes as they happened. It had the ability to register that the environment was not a permanent, but changing reality.
Eeee! I was so happy!
Only it really needed more processing power. Even with the hookup to the old laptop which was probably going to need to be wiped to just act as a secondary server for the Tachikoma. It really just didn’t have the processing power it needed.
Hiromi hadn’t managed to find any good info on a real server. But to be fair I’d put so much on her plate, I wasn’t surprised. I should reach out to Yoko. I know there were amazing drone systems out there, the Flathead was crazy, but they were still developing it, creating it. The hardware had to exist. A Flathead Hard Drive would be a big surge forward for my Tachikoma, even without the split server processing…
Was I thinking about robbing Militech? Maybe…. Yes.
Yes I was.
It wasn’t even that crazy of a thought. Maelstrom did it, and they got away with it. I should consider setting up a hardware raid. I’d just need to determine where some of their drone hard drives would be, and then just… Grab them.
Heck I could probably sneak in myself. Make it look like some stuff dropped off the back of a truck.
I’d need to get some data, break into the Militech shipping manifests, determine location and time, and sneak in…
It honestly sounded like a lot of fun.
I got up, leaving the Tachikoma to continue mapping out its space and playing around as it explored to head out. Grabbing my jacket and equipment, I headed down, I was going to talk to Yoko face to face.
—---
As usual, flesh-Yoko was a very different woman than she was online.
“Yoko.” I greeted her as I leaned over on the counter and she looked at me through those little dark sunglasses of hers.
“Motoko.”
“I was thinking of setting something up, and I wanted to run it past you.” I explained and she considered me for a bit before nodding.
“Come into the back. We will talk there.” She nodded at another of the people in her little shop, and they slipped behind her counter and I followed into a sort of workers break room in the back. Yoko sat down, but she was still almost stilted. Almost like the Yoko on the net was the real Yoko, and this was just a copy.
Considering how much attention she was probably giving the net at any one moment that might be fairly accurate.
“I need some drone hard drives, the top of the line ones, Militech. I got the idea of taking it directly so to speak. Either hitting a convoy, or just sneaking into a storage area and getting what I need. I figured if I was going to go against Militech I should get some advice.”
“Indeed. Dangerous. Very dangerous. Militech, aren’t like other minor corps. They will respond with overwhelming force.”
“Then I just won’t let them see me.”
“Hmm… A convoy would require work. A lot of work, but the value is there. Militech equipment is always in high demand. More risk, but you’d get more.”
“Right. A few hacks, disrupting communications, break in, steal the truck, or just empty it out right then before anyone can respond and disappear.”
“Simple in concept, but far more difficult to pull off than you expect. Millitech convoys are often multiple vehicles.”
“Right, but I figure there’s some hacks already out there that cut off the sort of communications they use. Right?”
“There are… I could provide the data in exchange for part of the supplies.”
“I could see that being an acceptable trade.” I responded back before breaking into a smile, because being all serious about it just wasn’t me.
“But what about stealing from their storage?”
“Difficult in other ways, although perhaps not for one of your skills. But you will be very limited on what you can pull out.”
“I honestly don’t need much. The Drone Hard Drives are really all I’m looking for.”
“Then… I can assist for another offer.”
“Oh?”
“There is a Militech Showroom in City Center. Ever been?”
“Ah, not that I remember.” I said as I scratched at the side of my head. Had old Motoko gone?
“Militech enjoys their show rooms, enjoys wowing the public with their next revealed product. But, while the showroom is excellent for that, it’s not a secure storage.”
“I think I get what you're saying.”
“Underneath the showroom there is an underground supply room. Very difficult to get into, strong security, but it may have what you need and more.”
“Do you have the security layout?”
“From six months ago.”
“Out of date.”
“Better than nothing.” Yoko replied and I smirked.
“And what does Yoko want out of it?”
“Militech is releasing a new update for the Paraline. If you can secure one for me, or a few perhaps. I would consider my assistance bought and paid for.”
“If we can confirm they have what we both need, I wouldn’t mind the assistance.” I offered and Yoko gave a tiny little stilted smile.
“I will begin digging into it, but I highly suggest you do so as well. You’ve not yet touched Corporate ICE, yet you have the skill.”
“You're right.” I couldn’t deny that. “I’ve avoided the corps for the most part.”
“Wise if you wish to stay alive a long time, but pointless if you wish to be more.”
“I’m perfectly happy with who I am, and I plan to live forever.” I denied her, and she smirked at my heated response.
“Doesn’t sound like an Edgerunner.”
“I’m not. Just a merc.” I shook it off. “Okay I’ll jump on the net later, send me what you have?”
“I will do so.”
“Nova. Thanks Yoko.” I slipped back out of her shop, before heading home. I didn’t have a super long time before the band was going to meet again for more practice sessions.
Huh. Hitting Militech to steal what I need… That was dangerous, maybe even super dangerous…
But…
I could do it.
—--
My fingers made the Guitar purr as I played along with the band. We were just practicing our normal songs. This Ffffire, currently. I moved up to the mic and sang, falling into the rhythm of the song.
Finally we finished and I wiped my forehead. “Well?” I asked, looking at everyone and got smiles in turn.
A little bit of success had gone to their heads. The depression filled crumbling band was no more.
They were eager to play, happy to work.
“I didn’t hear any issues.” Alice called out looking everyone over, and got nods from Jared and Klein.
“No issues here.”
I nodded and settled onto a seat to grab some water.
“Alright out with it. Alice, you’ve been side-eyeing me all night.” I asked her, and she smirked a bit.
“We got a bite.” She said and Jared and Klein both perked up. “Our music has been heard, and we’ve got more than one producer sniffing around. Nothing concrete yet, but I’ve heard through some contacts-”
“You mean your uncle?” I asked, because that was what I was guessing.
“Shut up! Anyway. I heard that we might have a few producers looking to drag us onto their label. Next gig, is going to be big… Super big.”
“Then we need to practice so we don’t flub a song.” I mentioned, and everyone glared at me a bit. What? Practice was important!
“We do, but more importantly. We need to get our name out as much as we can. Your choom Hiromi reached out, and she says there has been some requests for a studio version of Faint.”
“Ugh, Yeah I heard.” I muttered.
“Well we should get that made. Tonight.”
I looked at the band and nodded. “Alright I think we can all handle that. Everyone ready for it?”
“Ah, I'll need a break first.” Jared called out, and I nodded. Fair enough.
“Let’s take twenty. I could use a break too.” I offered and that had everyone happy. I’d stopped saying five or ten minute breaks, cause I’d just get these big ‘tough’ rockerboys pouting at me about not getting enough time to fuck around.
Lazy is what they were.
So I headed out, the studio we were renting as always led to a club upstairs, where the Rockerboy could go hang out in their natural element. Getting drunk and wasting eddies apparently.
Comments
Peyton Howard
When's the next one?
Sean Shivers
I'm just excited for her to meet netwatch. Lap top processing is one thing but such a big jump is not good for staying off anyone's radar.
Atlas Dwarf
Surprised Motoko went with Programming over delaying the Quick Hacks level 15 perk. Hopefully she can get it before her Militech hit even if it would leave her with no emergency point(s). Athletics, Handguns, and Rockerboy are all at 9, so maybe she could try to grind one to 10 for the Militech hit as well. Granted not sure how useful those perks would be: Athletics would probably just be Parkour 2, Handgun perks are unknown, and Rockerboy's usefulness in the hit would be questionably at best (although the perk could be great for the BD).
SquiddlyWinks
Maybe Alice hasn’t scrolled any of Motoko’s BDs. Only explanation.
SquiddlyWinks
Edit: I’ve realized I am overly antagonistic toward Alice. She’s pushing for her dream, I respect that. End edit. Alice is pushing as if she’s the band leader and Motoroil (great first album name. Makes no sense at all outside of a meta reader joke, but still a good album name) is a rented mule to get her up the mountain. Motown is under no obligation, social, familial, or otherwise, to provide Alice this service. Confrontation is inevitable as it seems like Alice has no idea how to handle Motorhome’s astonishing genius so shes copying Hiromi, but that’s already blown up in Hiromi’s face and this situation is heading toward disaster. (Holy run-on sentence, bat man!) Alice is showing all the signs she’s going to jump at the first offer because the validation and “success” are too tempting while Motoric will probably like “…eh, I just want a hobby. No.” Alice will then live the Heathens song, learning about the absolute murder machine sitting next to her. Don’t get too close, she stabs.
