Fddg

I was back outside the next morning, after spending all night working on the program I was out at the gym. Pushing myself as hard as I could to try and get more Body XP.

There was no John bothering me today thankfully. Just me and the weights that I was pushing myself against.

And the new chrome was making a massive difference.

I was pushing weight I never would have managed before. My arms were connected to my body far more intrinsically now. No more tingling feeling around my shoulders telling me I was pulling at my bones a bit too much.

No, I felt strong. My chrome secured into the whole making Motoko stronk.

I finally put down the weights, wiping my forehead on a towel, as I then wiped down the weights.

That was a good physical workout, but I had more to grind.

I cleaned up a bit and double checked my boots were secure before I started jogging.

Down the neon lit stairs and to the street and then I turned right and started moving. Pushing myself to keep going despite already being tired. I jogged all the way to where the road ended, Jig Jig street just below, I took the elevator keeping myself moving as it went down by shadowboxing and keeping my heart rate up.

When it opened I was out and moving, jogging quickly through the dark street of Jig Jig, ignoring the looks I was getting as I ran through and then ended up at Sakura Market. Though this time I didn't stop for Ramen.

Instead I ran up the concrete stairs, ending back up on the upper levels, I ran towards home. Sprinting and jogging in bursts to try and push myself even more.

By the time I made it back, I had earned some alerts for Athletics, and Body, but no level ups.

I sighed, heading upstairs ignoring the noise of Rockerboy Neighbor playing her music again and headed in for a shower.

As I finished that, head half covered in a towel, Jun was up. Jun was making himself breakfast, and looking at me tiredly.

"Mornin."

"Morning Jun-Nii. Sleep well?"

He blinked at me, both eyelids closing at slightly different paces.

"Slept okay. Not enough." He grumbled, and I nodded, walking over and patting his back.

"Can't go back to sleep for a while?"

"Got a gig from Fujimura-Sama. Just bodyguard stuff like usual, but he wants me."

"Hmm. Well if you start feeling too tired, you tell him that you need a break to get some sleep." I ordered as I wandered away. I knew Jun wouldn't and couldn't do that, but I cared more for Jun's health than I did Fujimura's wants.

"Sure Imouto."

I laughed at his obviously insincere reply, but that was fine. I buzzed around Jun, making sure his XXL burrito was warmed enough but not too hot before plopping it in his hand, which he stared at in surprise for a moment before looking happy as he took a bite.

My own breakfast was a mix of a few other things I liked that I could find in vending machines in the area.

I choked it all down as fast as I could, ignoring the taste as most food in Night City I could only just stomach, and certainly didn't enjoy.

But food was food, and while it didn't taste good, one thing NC did have was a dietary fulfilling foodstuffs.

Jun seemed to finally wake up a bit after his breakfast, looked at me as I was sitting at the living room table tinkering with the ECM program. "What about you? Doing anything today?"

"Mostly programming this Militech ECM unit. It's gonna take a while, but everything is quiet at the moment. I told you about the eddies we made in the badlands, so we aren't exactly hurting right now."

Jun just snorted.

That gig made more than Jun made in a year and then some.

"Don't rub it in." He told me with a huff, and I laughed shaking my head.

"I wasn't! Although if you ever want to leave the gangoon biz Section 9 would consider your resume… Consider it." I offered, eyes narrowed like I was judging him and he instantly grabbed a pillow off the couch and launched it at me.

But I was too fast!

I saw it coming, and leapt leaping backwards from where I was sitting to land crouched on the back of the couch having dodged his attack!

"Nin-nin!"

"Fuck off!" He snapped half serious and half laughing at me as he wandered to the bathroom for his own shower.

I was actually a little disappointed that Jun didn't want to rough house, but he was pretty tired.

I'd make sure he got a good nights sleep tonight and wake him up with a pillow to the face tomorrow for daring to attack me!

I was grinning evilly as I settled back onto the couch to continue the programming.

—--

I ran the program through the ECM unit, seeing it turn on, I cobbled together a holo emitter to get it to actually display showing just a circle of light that activated.

Everything looked good.

But I would need to actually test it.

Gathering up a unit, as well as grabbing a spare Yukimura from the Arasaka equipment, I loaded it up and left the apartment.

Couldn't exactly do any shooting in here. In fact I couldn't do it in most places.

I loaded up and drove north. Taking the long circuitous road out to Westbrook. It didn't take too long to find a side of the road that was full of trash and empty enough I could do some practice.

I plopped the ECM unit on an old crate, and then walked away, hooking the Yukimura up into my Smart link and then placing a target to the side of the ECM.

I didn't exactly want to shoot it after all.

Then I remotely activated the ECM unit and opened fire.

Pretty much instantly the rounds shot forward and then simply went wild as their targeting systems fed them nothing but false data.

Bullets instead of shooting straight went wild thunking and slamming into the ground, one even got so turned around it spun towards me, and I had to duck out of the way as it zipped past.

"Well that was… A thing." I muttered. Quickly checking the ECM System and checking the programming. Finding out how it handled actually being targeted.

Most of that was stripped wholesale from the original programming. So it handled it just fine. A few quick tests, and a few more rounds shot towards the ECM, and I was convinced.

It works.

Not it was time to install.

—--

"What are you doing?" Jun asked as he got home that night. I looked up from the chest rig I was rigging the holo emitters through to shake it at him.

"Armor!"

"Yes I see that. But what are you doing?"

"The little boxes right there? ECM modules. I'm outfitting the chest rigging with the holo emitters it needs to spoof Smart weapon tracking right now. The dang things are fiddly."

He nodded as he picked one up that I already finished and settled in its place, looking it over as I continued to work.

I was almost done!

The hardest part had been peeling apart the cloth sections, to slip wires through to power the emitters. I had to do actual sewing, but sewing with Kevlar wasn't easy.

"The work looks good. Why do you need holo emitters?"

"Same reason your tattoos glow. The smart weapons tracking gets spoofed by the data in the hologram."

"Why not just get a ECM tattoo then? They aren't expensive."

"While having an ECM on me at all times could be useful… I don't like tattoos." I said and Jun actually looked shocked at what I just said.

"What's wrong with tattoos!?"

"I just don't like them." I finally got the wire to go through! Quickly soldering it into the power system, I started sewing kevlar closed again.

"Well… You should! Mine are preem!"

I looked over to Jun. His stupid vest-like jacket that didn't cover his chest or arms to show off his chrome muscles, and the dragon tattoos across his chest…

"If you say so." I answered, earning an honest squawk of outrage from Jun.

"My Tattoos are awesome Motoko!"

"I'm glad you like them." I answered and he grumbled deep in his chest and my continued disinterest.

"You just aren't preem enough to have tats."

"Reverse psychology? I wouldn't want them even if they were offered." I replied, continuing to sew up the armor. C'mon so close to being done!

Jun's big hand suddenly reached over and fell over my head patting me lightly and I scoffed a bit, but leaned in and nudged him to show that I appreciated the attention.

"Done!" I proclaimed holding up the complete chest rig and then just as I expected. I got the alert I needed.

*100 Technical Ability XP Gained*

*Technical Ability Leveled up!*

Tech 6!

I giggled and clutched the rig tight as I luxuriated in a job well done!

"What's with you?"

"I finished it! Well okay no I still have a lot of work to do, but I finished the ECM units! These were such a pain in the ass Jun!"

"Well that's good. I'm proud of you." He offered awkwardly, not sure what else to say, but honestly?

That was perfect.

I threw him a bright smile as I rose up holding the rig. "I still need to color, adjust, and do some tinkering on these so I'm not done done, but this was a big step!" I informed him proudly as I sauntered back to my room.

Now I just needed to fix the helmets so they didn't look like kitty ears. Which they don't. My chooms are just dumb!

—--

Sleeping in past noon was my duty as a teenager, and I really needed eight hours after all the work I had done.

Painting, and doing adjustments to the armor to fit my chooms. I had even spent a little time in CAD adjusting the directional mic housing so I would stop getting teased.

But honestly. It was mostly done.

It was time to bring the chooms in.

*Motoko: Section 9! Assemble at my place for final adjustments to our new armor!*

This time there could be no confusion! They had totally failed my original assembly call, but this time!

*Hiromi: Okay. I'll be on my way after class.*

*Ichi: Okay. I'm just hanging out today. I'll come over.*

*Malcolm: Yeeees! I'm in! Gonna suit up! You got rid of the cat ears right?*

*Motoko: IT WASN'T CAT EARS!*

I promptly ignored all the messages in return because my chooms were definitely going to mess with me!

Instead I ran around prepping some snacks and things for everyone. It might take a bit of time to adjust everything to each person after all.

Ichi arrived first knocking on the door and I smiled as it opened to him.

"Ichi! Come in! I wanted to get one of you suited up first anyways. The others can be surprised at how nova you look when they get here."

"Ah… I'm the guinea pig." He said flatly, nodding along as I ignored his words and dragged him into my room.

"Okay everything should be straight forward. You know how to wear armor right? Go ahead and suit up and-"

"Nope." He interrupted me instantly completely monotone.

"And I'll show you! Easy! Nothing to worry about choom, not everyone knows how to wear good armor after all." I redirected instantly without worry.

Ichi then laughed at me, but nodded and I grabbed the first set of armor and showed it to him.

"The color is…"

"Listen. I had to think about what color scheme to use and since all of you wanted bright colors, I used my rights as the one who is updating these things to pick a nice gray and black camouflage."

"At least it matches our old suits?"

"That's the spirit!" I chirped as I started throwing the base layer at him. Even though it didn't have a Netrunner suit to properly armor him, I threw the pair of pants and the upper jacket. And then turned around and whistled so he could get changed.

"Can't I do this in the bathroom?"

"Ugh. Fine I'll walk out of the room, just call me when you are decent!" I rushed outside my bedroom and tapped my foot impatiently. C'mon Ichi!

"Alright."

"Great! Now this." I threw the boots at him which he juggled for a second but slipped off his old shoes and into the combat boots. As he was struggling to get them secured, as they used a weird not-Velcro system. I ran around and prepped the outer layers. The chest rig wasn't just a chest rig, and actually connected to the pants with some kinda neat future faulds. Although I had slimmed down the chest rig by removing most of the pouches.

Pouches were good, but if they stuck out too much it made it harder to comfortably hold a gun! Silly Arasaka. This was the sort of design issue mandated by a boardroom and not by soldiers.

"Done?" Ichi finally called more questioning than sure.

"Great. Chest rig next. Slide into it, and then I'll show you how it secures on the sides.

"Right." He muttered as he slipped in, the armored future-gorget taking a second for him to get used to. I had to adjust it down so he could actually look down without just getting stuck on it.

Yep Ichi was definitely shorter than the last person to wear this stuff.

"Here are the straps. Just tighten these, and it will keep your faulds in place."

He did so with a bit of trouble and then I had him walk around a bit getting used to the armor.

It was thick. That was the first thing I noticed he struggled with. He kept brushing his arms against the chest rig as he moved around.

"You'll get used to it." I assured him as he was looking a little annoyed.

"Is this necessary?"

"If I pulled out my Lexington and shot you right now, you would be fine." I explained in very blunt terms and for some reason Ichi looked nervous like I was going to actually shoot him.

Silly! I wouldn't do that.

"Okay here are the gloves. They are nice and bulky, good for punching, and protecting your hands."

I helped him slip those on, as he adjusted to the fit, I brought out the last item.

"It still looks like cat ears."

"I am going to give you the benefit of pretending I didn't hear that." I told him as I handed off the helmet. He slipped it on, struggling a bit with the face mask part of it. The helmet had a built in menpo, an armored face guard.

As always Arasaka made all their stuff look like future samurai, which was pretty cool. But it was always kinda hard to get situated right.

"Okay. You are all set. How does it feel?"

"Uh… Not too uncomfortable?" He said, sounding a little confused as he turned this way and that, feeling the range of movement he now had.

"You'll get used to it. Now, take your personal link and slide it into the helmet right here. That will download the command codes for the radio."

I helped him plug in, and then he had access to the radio.

"I've messed with the settings. Channel 1 is our personal radio contact. You won't need to change from it very often. Channel 2 isn't the radio at all, but the Directional mic built into the helmet… No, it's still not cat ears."

I could see him smirking behind the helmet, and so since he was properly armored I punched him in the shoulder. Hard.

"Ow! Motoko!" He yelped, rubbing his shoulder but giving up on it pretty quickly.

"You barely felt it. Now switch to the mic, and I'll show you how it works."

I quickly ran Ichi through the process walking all the way across the apartment and then whispering. The fact he could still hear me throwing me a thumbs up when I asked for it was all I needed.

"Perfect! Now we just need to make some minor adjustments. Make sure everything is fitting exactly how it should.

"So what do I do then?"

"You? Stand very still." Then just to fuck with him I pulled out my knife, and moved behind him. Of course I instantly put the knife away, but he didn't know that.

"Motoko? What's with the knife? Motoko? Help?"

There is no help for you Ichi!

—--

"Whoa. That actually looks pretty scary." Malcolm commented as he finally arrived over an hour later.

I had even finished adjusting Ichi's armor!

"Malcolm! You are late!" I proclaimed finger pointed as I stood up.

"Sorry choom. My dad needed help with something." He offered actually sounding a little contrite, and I instantly lost my irritation.

"No no! That's fine. Parent stuff is important. Anyway we are still waiting on Hiromi. C'mon let me show you how to suit up."

"Good luck." Ichi said from the couch where he was splayed out acting as if he was exhausted.

"Ignore him. C'mon!" I urged, pushing Malcolm into my room to get ready.

Half way through, Hiromi finally appeared cheerfully bouncing into the apartment and calling out her arrival.

"Give me a sec Hiromi! Malcolm is almost done!" I called out, as I was helping Malcolm secure the armored faulds.

A little later Malcolm finished suiting up and I pushed him out into the living room to show off.

"See? It looks great!"

"It makes me feel like I have a corporate hit squad… I love it!" Hiromi chirped, smiling brightly as she looked at the two boys. Ichi just slumped deeper into the couch, still not getting up while Malcolm stood tall and puffed himself out.

"Just remember to pay your henchmen well or else!" Malcolm proclaimed and Hiromi immediately faux gasped.

"No! My henchmen are betraying me! Quick! Help! Motoko! My right hand and ever loyal minion! Discipline this unruly henchman!"

"Pfft. Motoko should join us and get paid bett-H-hey!" I walked behind Malcolm and just lifted him off his feet. Malcolm might be a little taller than me, and a bit more with the boots and rig on, but I was fucking fit! My arms went around his waist and I just picked him right off the floor.

"As you wish my Corporate overlord." I stated in an utterly flat voice earning a delighted giggle from Hiromi as Malcolm struggled in my grip.

"Hey! Let me go! Motoko!"

"Hehehe." I eventually couldn't hold it in and started laughing at Malcolms attempts to get back on his feet. He was new to the armor and was like a turtle stuck on its back. Eventually I dropped him. "Okay. Enough playing around, Hiromi come on. Time to suit up."

"I'm the fixer Motoko, I can't go around wearing armor like that, everyone will think I'm some-Eep!" I ignored Hiromi picking her up like a sack of potatoes throwing her over my shoulder and walking into my room.

Any argument about not wearing armor would immediately be ignored!

Protection was god!

"M-Motokoooo!"

Once my chooms were all suited up I disappeared into my room after pushing Hiromi out to get changed myself. Of course I had the actual Netrunner undersuit!

So instead of pants and armored jacket, I slipped on a suit, leaving me in skintight flexible armor! Then I threw on the boots, and chest rig. I had to make some quick adjustments for the faulds since I wasn't wearing the silly pants that came with it, and instead wrapped the straps around my legs with some velcro-like material I had.

Then I adjusted the chest rig, threw on the armored gloves, and then the helmet.

I stalked out of my room and stood before my mostly still armored chooms. Malcolm had taken off his helmet to eat, and Hiromi was half slid out of her chest rig.

"And this is what it will look like when you guys stop being weird and put on the skin tight armored netrunner suit!" I proclaimed showing off the much tighter fit of the armor and my improved maneuverability!

"Pass."

"Hard pass."

"I don't mind you using it, but I like pants." Hiromi added and I huffed at all of them.

"Fine! Wear your subpar armor!" I then promptly walked over and flopped onto the couch and wiggled to get my helmet off too.

"Pass me the chips?"

"Yeah alright." Ichi muttered lazily, reaching over and throwing me a back of some sort of pseudo potato chips I pulled from a vending machine.

"What are we watching?" The TV was on, and Ichi and Malcolm were sort of zoned out watching it.

"Some comedy show thing? Not sure. Apparently Ichi wants to watch Watson Whore after."

"I didn't say that!" He snapped at Hiromi looking a little red.

"Well I don't think I really want to watch that… Sorry Ichi."

"It's fine! I didn't say I wanted to. Only that it was coming on next!"

"And then he refused to let us change the channel." Hiromi whispered into my ear, and I giggled.

I quickly changed the channel through the expedited power of I had hacked all of the entertainment system forever ago.

Then we just sort of vegged out in full kit.

—--

"I don't want to know."

"I do! This looks like the weirdest start to some XBD I've ever seen!" Akari called out right behind Jun as they both walked in and stopped looking at the pile of armored teens spread across the couch.

"Don't say that!" I shrieked blushing red at Akari who instantly broke into her cackling laugh at my outrage. My chooms were all flushing at the idea too!

"Is that your new armor? The one you klept from the Arasaka shipment?" Jun asked but Hiromi jumped in.

"We gathered all of this completely legally as per our contract with Arasaka management in recovery of the critical data that was stolen from their klepped shipment."

Jun just blinked and nodded slowly as if he understood.

"Wow she is a little corpo aint she?" Akari asked, and Jun just nodded. Ignoring how Hiromi was pouting, I decided to show off. Standing up and resettling the helmet back on my head.

"So what do you think? Preem right? High end armor. ECM integrated, with a directional mic embedded into the helmet! We haven't messed with the ECM emitters yet, but we will be able to personalize that as well!"

"You look like a doughgirl." Akari offered instantly, with zero hesitation or empathy.

So I of course attacked her. "I'll show you dough girl!" I roared as I jumped at her, earning an honest squeak from Akari as she wasn't expecting my lack of chill and then I slammed into her.

Akari of course fought dirty and instantly tried to stab me in the eyes, but I had a helmet!

Her probing attacks were deflected and I started grappling, which wasn't easy since she was all chrome as well, but then something lifted us bodily apart.

Jun was holding me up by the back of my rig, and Akari back by her arm, Akari was smiling teeth fully exposed, like she was ready to tear my throat out.

I would have done the same back, but I had my helmet blocking my mouth.

"Alright cut it out. Akari, calm down please, Motoko is playing."

"Call me a doughgirl again! You-" And then Jun just shook me up and down a few times.

"See, just playing."

"Pfft! You look like a strangled cat like that!" Akari offered cackling and I just pouted at Jun which was blocked by my helmet…

Okay the helmet was a problem. But I took a deep breath and decided to be the bigger person.

"I'm done. Let me go Jun." I said calmly, and he looked at me with narrowed eyes as if he suspected I was lying, but eventually he let me go, although funnily enough he didn't let go of Akari who had noticed and was giving him a petulant look.

Then I stepped back and brushed myself off.

"I win." I told her simply and that set her off.

"What!? How! Jun interfered!"

"Exactly. Jun as my older brother is obviously my secret weapon. Any time he interferes it means I win."

"That's! That's cheating!"

I shrugged and strutted back to my chooms who had been watching with interest.

"You okay?" Hiromi asked and I just laughed as I tugged off the helmet.

"I'm fine. Although I really need to wear my tech gogs under this helmet or something. Akari going for my eyes was a bit of a scare."

—--

"Okay so you want… This?" I asked Malcolm as his holo emitters activated.

Yellow lights flowed around him, with some silver here and there as well.

"You look like your car." Ichi called out teasing and Malcolm just flipped him off.

"The Caliburn yellow and silver is an excellent color combination! They tested it!"

"Boo!" Hiromi called out, earning a glare from Malcolm, but I just moved on. If this is what he wanted, it was good enough for me.

"Alright Hiromi-"

"Green! Maybe flames? Can you do flames?"

"I can do flames. It's a slightly upjumped holo emitter after all. Green flames it is." I offered as I started designing the hologram that would flow over her, to activate the ECM system.

Within a few minutes Hiromi looked like she had green fire flowing out of her hands and around her hips up her back. More than enough coverage to make sure the ECM protection would kick in.

"Mwahahahaha!" She cackled evilly, suddenly startling everyone before she looked at all of us. "How was that? Did I get it right?"

"Boo." Malcolm called in turn and tossed some of his chips at her.

Ignoring Malcolm and Hiromi getting into a fight, neither could really hurt each other with all the armor.

I moved on to Ichi.

His was simpler.

"Just make it not look stupid like their choices." He called out, just loud enough that Hiromi and Malcolm could hear him.

Which of course changed the target as Malcolm attacked Ichi from behind and Hiromi joined in.

I ignored the wrestling match happening right next to me, and focused on the hologram design.

Well Ichi could get a copy of what I was doing then.

Lines of light flowing up through the body. Of course I wasn't just going to keep it as a stable source.

The activation would have the light flow upwards from the feet and hands until it reached the head in just a moment increasing the light and keeping it stable.

Okay so I was basically just pulling a Tron, but Tron was pretty Cyberpunk! And it looked so cool!

Ichi would get an orangish red color.

While I went pure white.

Then I activated both of our colors. Malcolm and Hiromi jerking back as Ichi's holograms started, the light flowing up his arms and into his chest,

My own white lines arcing up my legs and forming a cool outline.

"There. All done!" I chirped happily rocking back and forth a little to see the holo emitters do an okay job keeping up with the movement.

I bet this would look awesome on a motorcycle.

"It's nova." Ichi said, playing with moving around and seeing the light arc off him as well.

"I like my fire more. But it does look preem… Although Ichi you need to change, you can't just match with Motoko!' Hiromi argued, but Ichi and I both just ignored her.

—--

We all had a good time after everything was done playing around and ignoring Jun and Akari, as Akari kept interfering, but eventually everyone had gone home with their armor and equipment, and my room was suddenly much emptier.

That and I finally had time for other grinding again!

That morning I was back at the gun range.

Thanks to the Raffen gig, I was actually pretty close to leveling reflex. Shooting all the Raffen running around blindly in their camp had taken some effort, and had given me a lot of alerts.

Now I just needed to grind out the last bit.

Settling into the gun range I had been going to, I quickly loaded up the magazines I had for my Copperhead. But that wasn't all that I had brought.

The Arasaka Masamune was a gun I had wanted to play with for a while.

Sure it was overly engineered, but I wasn't really planning on using it in the field. I liked guns that could get half blown up and still fire for that. But for a gun range?

It was a nice treat.

I pulled it out of the case and grabbed a few of the stupid Arasaka logo marked magazines, and started loading those up as well. I set the Copperhead to the side for a minute. Instead I slipped the mag into the Masamune and took aim. The holo sight was already perfectly on point. No need for any zeroing.

I fired. And in a three round burst that I barely felt it punched holes through the hologram targets.

Then I fired again, and again.

I don't really like three round bursts. I switched it to single shot and started plinking away as well. It was irritating. It actually was possible to mod the rifle to be full auto, but I hadn't done it with this one yet.

Probably a project I would do once I went home, cause three round burst was blegh!

Either way I burned through the expensive Arasaka branded ammo I had brought with me and then put the Masamune away.

Pulling out the Copperhead I was actually smiling, as I flipped off the safety took aim and held the trigger down.

Full auto silenced fire burst from the gun and I easily held her in control, putting rounds right through the holograms without any effort as my arms kept the recoil completely controlled.

Then as soon as I was about to run out of ammo, I dropped the magazine, quick-loading in another and just started firing again.

I had made sure there was a round still in the chamber, so it only took half a second to put in a new mag and I was off again.

I almost felt like cackling as I kept firing full auto.

This is what a rifle should be! Firepower!

Then finally I got it.

*100 Assault XP Gained.*

*Assault skill level up!*

Yay! I nearly cheered at the level up! Assault 8!

Wait… I wasn't here to grind assault! I was trying to grind Reflex!

I took a second for that thought to flow through my head before I did actually break out into giggles.

I shifted my grip on the rifle a little, slightly more secure, a tiny synergy with Rifle Ace to be able to line up a shot that tiny millisecond faster.

My poor Copperhead was a bit overheated, so since I had just maxed out what I could do with it. I unloaded it, and set it back to the side.

I still had Handguns to level!

Smiling, I pulled out my Lexington and whistled as I fitted the silencer.

—--

I didn't quite manage the Reflex level, or the Handgun one, before I decided to take a break. Heading home I took the scenic route. Driving through the heavy city traffic and just enjoying the feel of my Quadra rumbling along.

Honestly everything was kind of quiet right now.

Section 9 was flush with cash. We had lots of new equipment. My armor build for the team was done, and Hiromi was the only one still doing any real work as she was setting up deals to sell off some of the stuff we didn't need.

So it was just kind of quiet.

I had considered picking up a new gig from Wakako or another fixer, but I was kind of enjoying the grind time. A bit of me time, just for myself between gigs. It felt nice.

In fact…

I didn't want to go home. Bit weird, as I was a bit of a homebody. I wanted to go out and do something. Hiromi was in class. Ichi and Malcolm could be fun, but you know what? I was a cool Afterlife merc!

I shifted heading towards Watson.

Traffic got pretty bad on the way, enough that I was tempted to just park and maybe call my Kusanagi so I could just swerve around, but I was feeling pretty chill after all that reflex training so I just relaxed into the comfy Quadra seating and inched my way to the club.

When I finally arrived, there was plenty of open parking and I grabbed a spot and sauntered down the steps into the Afterlife.

Heh.

As if this place was going to be my afterlife. No, mine would probably be a digital landscape, full of daemons to fight or something.

Hell. I'm saying I'm probably going to hell, but eh.

That just means more demons to fight.

The bouncer gave me a nod not even needing to scan me, as he stepped aside letting me in.

He must have a good memory, it's not like I had been around much. Either way I walked into the heavy music of the club, and felt the atmosphere. Like always there were mercs all over the place, although this time there was no one dying on a table so that was nice.

No, I guess being midday the place was more quiet and preparing for the night raids than anything else.

I walked up to the bar.

It wasn't Claire behind the bar, but another guy that I didn't recognize but I just ordered a soda and settled in.

I was honestly just planning on staring into the bottom of my drink for a while. Not because I was in a depressed mood, but just to enjoy the ambience.

There was nothing quite like a Cyberpunk bar after all.

I was just chilling out enjoying the music and vibes when the queen herself walked in. Rogue sauntered in, and I could feel the ripple of attention she brought with her. Mercs all over the club glanced up as she walked in and towards her little booth area.

It was interesting, but more than that. I noticed a few of the mercs around the bar stand up, they sort of… Got in line?

Well they talked to Rogues guard to set up a meeting I guess.

"Huh."

"You need anything else, honey?" I blinked at the question from the bartender before shaking my head.

"Not really, just noticed everyone got up to go talk to Rogue as soon as she came in. You'd think they would just like, send her a text if they needed something from her."

"Hah! Send the boss a text, that's a good one. Nah honey, if you are looking for an Afterlife gig, you come to Rogue in person. Same if you need something from her. She doesn't do biz over the line, never know who's watching, and with someone like Rogue?"

"A lot of people are probably watching. Yeah, makes sense." I muttered. Before looking at the bartender again. "So Rogue hands out gigs if you come talk to her?"

"Yeah, sometimes. Not always, and not to every crew. You have to have the skills she needs yeah? But if you talk to her, you can find out if you got what she needs for a gig."

"Weird." I uttered before shrugging. Not interested anyways, and honestly if I want a gig that bad, I'll just go make one. Sure there could be more blowback without a fixer, but the pay was real preem.

"Hey! Anyone in here a Techie? We need one!" A voice called out and I was doubly surprised as heads popped up all over.

"Now what's going on?"

"Heh, that honey is someone told by Rogue they need a skillset they don't got. They might be able to tap in a free merc, or steal someone from another team. It's all part of the game." She offered and I nodded. That made sense.

I watched as an obvious techie with a set of body armor that was covered in tools wandered over to the guy that had called out and a few moments later they shook hands and wandered back to Rogue who was rolling her eyes and tossed the man a shard.

Gig acquired I guess.

Neat.