Ghost in the City

“Future TV was a mistake.” I whispered after watching in horrified awe what passed for a popular action movie that only came out a few years ago.

It was horrible.

No wonder everyone in Night City was so violent. They had no good violence to watch on TV! I nodded to myself. I was gonna need to up the production quality of my XBD’s. The people deserved high quality violence!

“What are you doing?” I blinked, looking at Jun as he looked at me. I lowered my fist that had been aiming at the sky and wiped some imaginary dust from my leotard as I sat back down on the couch.

“Nothing.”

Jun gave me a look telling me he didn’t believe me for a second. Then he just walked past me to sit on the couch. “Your movie done?”

“It was so awful I’ve deleted it from my brain.” I assured him and Jun laughed.

“It was a good flick. The special effects needed work though.”

“What special effects? Whenever he punched someone it was obviously just a dummy full of blood. I literally don’t think they did any digital alterations on the entire movie.”

“Yeah why would they? The dummies were too fake. They should have gotten some robots inside them to let them move or something.”

“That actually sounds cool, but I know even if they did that it would still look like shit. I hate TV.” I grumbled and Jun just snorted and then turned back on the TV. Switching to a show he liked.

I faux gagged at him, but didn’t fight him for the remote. It wasn’t like there was anything else I wanted to watch.

Then I felt it. That prickling in my shoulders as my hindbrain noticed something. I moved instantly. No hesitation as something in my senses was telling me I was in danger. I barreled into Jun full bore knocking us both off the side of the couch Jun was instantly yelling in anger at me, thinking I was fucking around, but then the noise hit him.

A gun shot slamming through our window and into the couch.

“Sniper!” I yelled out, as I looked towards the window. Instantly the shutters closed. The safety shutters were meant to keep out stray gunfire and the like, but against a Sniper?

Fuck I even recognized the sound of that gunshot. That was a Nekomata.

“Stay down!” Jun yelled at me as I made to rise towards my room. I needed a gun, to counter snipe, but my Nekomata was in the Quadra!

Then we both heard it.

Boots on flooring.

“Fuck.”

“Fuck.” Jun and I both uttered and he let me go, I rushed for my room. I still had a Tactician Shotgun in there… Unfortunately my HMG wouldn’t be a good choice despite how much I itched to pick her up. Jun just grabbed his Katana from the stand on our family shrine.

A moment later I heard it even as I was preparing my Tactician. Another echoing retort, and metal failing to stop the railgun firing into our apartment.

It took a second for me to process, but I realized the sniper had to be on the road leading up to the city level above us. Probably just sitting there parked on the side of the road shooting into our apartment.

That meant we had no place we could hide in any of the main rooms.

I hurried out relieved to see Jun hadn’t been hit. The sniper must just be firing randomly.

I crouched down beside Jun who was hunkered down resting his back against the shrine facing the door.

“We should charge them. If we stay in here, the sniper will eventually get lucky.”

He nodded, not saying anything further, and I noticed his eyes were golden. Ah, he was making a call. Good.

“Ready?” He asked and all I did was reach up and grab my Katana too, and slipped it through my belt. Then nodding.

Tactician was already loaded. No need to wrack it just to show off.

He surged forward, the door opening instantly and surprising the group of gonks all formed up as one of them had obviously been trying to break in through the lock.

A tech guy not a netrunner huh?

Jun was faster than I was. Mostly because I didn’t have a clear shot with his stupid head in the way, but he slammed into the guys waiting ignoring SMG’s and pistols and simply ran them down like a bull. Two died instantly as one was skewered with a Katana and the others head was grabbed and he was simply thrown into his chooms.

Neck broken, the gonks body went floppy.

Then I was there. I leapt my feet hitting the concrete hallway wall. Sticking me for just half a second thanks to the friction. More than long enough to fire a shot into the arrayed group. My eyes already blurring as I worked to send a Quickhack through to shut off their weapons as well.

Then it was all hell.

They started firing, Jun starting swinging, I fired and hacked everything I could. Their weapon fire quickly shut off which caused them to freak out, as they had an angry Oni in front of them.

The fight only lasted a few moments. Jun’s absurd chromed out strength. Even with only being able to really stab with his Katana, he was still skewering the fools that attacked us, and breaking limbs or necks with his other hand.

“Down!” I yelled out, and Jun was in tune enough to do that. As a sniper round ripped through the concrete hallway.

I had caught the transmission one of the fuckers had sent out just in time. I turned and fired my shotgun into the ‘dead’ fucker and looked away only once his head stopped existing.

“Stairwell!” I yelled, leaping over Jun and down the stairs, Jun joining me as another round ripped through the hall.

We should be safe here though. A Nekomata can only shoot through so much concrete before even that railgun just can’t punch through anymore.

“What the fuck?” I asked aloud my heart barely moving as Cold Blood had taken over, but even with that going full blast the outrage in my head was making my blood feel like it was boiling, going hot and cold.

“Scavs.” Jun said and I blinked looking at one of the corpses.

I scanned his face and yep.

Record of working with Scavs.

Scavs had attacked us. Me. Scavs had attacked me, I realized.

“This is my fault.”

“Worry about that later. Focus on the fight. Our reinforcements are on the way so we just have to hold.”

I nodded already expecting that, from Juns earlier call, but still. These fuckers. They attacked my home.

I moved.

“Motoko!” I ignored Jun, as I raced down the stairs. Outside there were two vans. Both backed up to the entrance with the back doors open. I leapt into the first one sliding on the metal flooring as I slid right up to the driver's seat.

The driver there hadn’t noticed me until that moment. When I had a shotgun slamming into the side of his face and pushing him into the glass of the vans side window.

“Fuck!” he cursed at the blow but then stilled as the barrel of my shotgun mashed into his cheek.

“I want answers, asshole.” I hissed reaching out and slamming his head into the glass again to prove my point.

“Bitch! You think we are just going to let you keep killing us? You think we are that stupid? You and your brother are marked! We will-”

“You will die. All of you. Every Scav in this city. Even if I have to spend the next year to do it. Hunting every single one of you down. There is no hole deep enough. No place safe enough to stop me.” I said tonelessly.

I didn’t need to get angry with this piece of trash. What I said wasn’t some threat to get him to talk.

It was simply what it was.

They had come after me in my home. Had nearly shot my brother.

I had gone too far. There was no other option now.

It was kill or be killed. Wipe out the Scavs. Or they would eventually get lucky. So there was no other option. I saw Jun doing the same thing I was through the drivers window. The poor Scav in the driver seat of the second van had been pulled fully into the back and the entire van was rocking and echoing with the fuckers screams.

Good.

Jun was probably beating him to death.

“Your chooms you sent into my home are all dead. You and your choom over there are fucked. Unless you tell me everything I want to know.”

“Fuck you-Bitch!” He hissed as I slammed him into the window again, but he just glared, and said something in russian.

So I slammed his head into the glass again. “This is Night City! Speak English Motherfucker! Now tell me what the fuck the plan was? You think you are going to get away with attacking me at home!?”

“You won’t get shit out of me! Kill me and all the-”

“You’re right. I will kill you.” I pulled the trigger. Ignoring the mess I crawled back out, going slow and careful as the sniper was still around until I slipped into the back of the other Van.

Jun was still beating the driver to death.

Well no he was already dead, but Jun was still hammering the mess into the floor.

“Jun! Focus up.” I demanded. Now wasn’t the time for going Cyberpsycho.

He looked up at me, but still slammed his fist down one last time.

“I’m going to see if the sniper is still here.”

Jun looked constipated for a second like he wanted to agree, but eventually whatever was fighting against that thought won out. “No. Just wait for the Kamikaze. Fujimura-sama is on his way.”

“He might be gone by then.” I argue as I’m already climbing over Jun noticing he has a few bullet holes from our hallway battle.

Dammit.

I felt my teeth clench at the idea that Jun was hurt because of me.

I slipped into the driver's seat and the van was already on. So I quickly hit the gas. Ignoring Jun’s grumbling as I took off.

The sniper position was just around the corner. I drove down the road uncaring if the sniper saw me. He might have a good high position from the on ramp looking into our fourth floor apartment, but he was also dealing with a barrier around the road. He wouldn’t be able to aim at the ground floor as easily.

I practically drifted around the corner at the end of the street ignoring Juns cursing as he rolled around in the back. I could already see him.

A big Thorton Mackinaw parked on the ramp. Traffic just going around it, and doing their best to ignore it.

I couldn’t. I felt my stomach drop my mind fritz. Because the iconography? The symbols? Everything about it screamed only one thing. Something I knew.

“Fucking Maelstrom!” I growled, surprising myself at the rage I felt as I hit the gas. “Hold on to something!” I called out to Jun.

Somehow the sniper hadn’t noticed. That or he was high, because the truck wasn’t even moving when I slammed into it. The gonk was probably too scope focused. Shitty amateur hour sniper.

The Villefort Columbus I was driving wasn’t nearly as beefy as the Mackinaw. Which was basically a super sized pickup truck.

But slamming into it going as fast as I could get it to go, still rocked everything, smashed me around a little and ended up with the truck pinned against the side of the road.

He wouldn’t escape now.

To my surprise Jun was out of the van before I was. I guess I had to spend a bit more time untangling myself from the seatbelt.

I was trying to catch up when he reached the Mackinaw and ripped the door right off the truck.

A moment later he leapt back nearly landing on me as something big fired inside the truck at where he had been.

Then I was there. Rushing in and I found myself face to face with a Maelstrom member and his Nekomata. I was too fast though. He wasn’t in a good position. It was obvious he had been looking out the passenger window into the apartment when we hit him. So he was all turned around and holding the Nekomata awkwardly.

I bashed the end of the Nekomata out of the line of fire and then I was on him.

He was still Maelstrom.

He had chrome. He had a lot of chrome. My knuckles would mostly be hitting chrome if I punched him nearly anywhere.

But none of that mattered.

My fist slammed into his stupid optics and he was cursing throwing his own chrome fists at me.

I ripped into him. Uncaring about where he hit me. This fucker had sniped me in my own home!

I was going to tear out every piece of chrome in his worthless corpse with my own hands! Just so his stupid spirit-belief bullshit would leave him a normy in the afterlife!

I might have been screaming that at him as I went at him, because a moment later Jun grabbed me by the back of my Leotard and flung me right out of the car and onto the street.

The van blocking the entire road kept anyone from running me over, but it still hurt!

Jun you asshole! Asphalt hurts!

But as I looked up intending to continue with my murder. It was already over. Jun had gotten his hands on the Maelstrom gonk.

I was pretty strong, and I was okay with my fists.

But they called Jun the Oni, and I sometimes got reminded of why.

As he literally ripped the Maelstroms arm off and started beating him to death with it.

Okay fair enough. You do you Jun.

I groaned and winced as I noticed my nose was bleeding. Since Jun was occupied, I popped a MaxDoc, and instantly felt back to 100%.

Then it struck me.

I knew that Maelstrom.

I had seen him before. I recognized him.

“Stupid Fuck.” I whispered. That was the gonk! One of the fuckers that had come to the scav den. He had been with… Gear Shaft? Gear Slot? Whatever her name had been. The stupid one that had thought about stealing from me.

I recognized him.

“What the fuck is going on?” Why was a Maelstrom shit working with Scavs… No wait, that was a stupid question.

Maelstrom needed chrome. Scavs had chrome…

But then… His choom had been klepped by Scavs, rescued and he went and joined them against us? What fucking crazy shit was that? Or was he the reason she was there in the first place? Maelstrom politics. Fuck me,.

Oh well. Jun had already taken care of any chance for us to get any info from the poor fucker.

He was dead.

“Jun he’s dead, stop punching a corpse.” I told him firmly, earning a look back from my rage filled brother, but after a moment or two where he seemed to consider it he did finally let go.

“You shouldn’t have charged him like that! What if he shot you!” Jun snapped at me, growling and baring his teeth, as his anger at the Maelstrom and the entire situation didn’t just disappear like mine did.

With a single thought Cold Blood shut off all the rage and let me think clearly.

“Sorry Jun-Nii. I didn’t want this one to get away. Plus, I had you watching my back.” I told him with a smile hoping it would sputter out his anger, and while he did turn away from me, his fist slammed into the side of the Maelstrom truck showing he was still raging.

That was fine.

I was still pretty angry about it too.

But you know what? Even if this fucker was dead… That didn’t mean I didn’t have a lead.

“Natalie Desanto AKA GearSlot.” I whispered to myself. A reminder of the words I had spoken while choosing not to kill that Maelstrom girl.

Did my own mercy then lead to this?

I shook off the horrifying thought. It didn’t matter yet. I would find out. And if mercy was what led to this attack on our home. Then I would just rectify that mistake.

And the mistake of allowing Maelstrom, and Scavs to exist.

—--

Jun and I parked the van and the Maelstroms truck in front of the apartment, and waited.

It wasn’t long until the roar of Kusanagi motorcycles started flowing down the road. Followed by other cars all tuned up and painted in all sorts of things. Tyger Claw symbols, Japanese letters, anything and everything.

It looks like Fujimura hadn’t held back. More than twenty vehicles all parked in front of the apartment taking up much of the street. The mass gathering caused the people that would normally fill the street to all disappear, watching on from windows or store fronts.

“Kusanagi. You need a Ripper?” Fujimura asked as he stepped out of a high end Quadra Turbo-R.

I liked my Quadra Type-66 more. The 66 was a muscle car, while the Turbo R was like a japanese racer.

“No. Just scratches.” Jun uttered as he rose up. I had looked over his ‘scratches’ as best I could in the few minutes since we had headed back to the apartment, but I wasn’t a doc.

“Yes, he needs to get checked out and patched up.” I uttered without hesitation. “He still has some bullets in him.”

“I’m fine Motoko.” Jun hissed at me, but he was acting more like an annoyed older brother, than the furious rage beast he had been just before.

Fujimura of course only gave both of us a lifted eyebrow. The man was utterly uninterested in our sibling cat fights.

“What happened?” He demanded and Jun the dutiful little soldier answered, explaining what he saw from his perspective.

I kept quiet. It wasn’t my job to explain shit to Fujimura.

“Kusanagi.” He uttered, and this time he was talking to me. Our eyes met, and for once I actually felt a little softness towards the man.

Because he wasn’t glaring at me like he usually did. No, he actually looked rather sympathetic.

“You are unharmed?”

“They didn’t touch me. I had a good meatwall. Worst I got was a bit of a fist, but you should see the other guy… Jun ripped his arm off and beat him to death with it.” I explained and the man exhaled air out of his nose.

It wasn’t a laugh of course. Men like Fujimura didn’t do that sort of thing.

“Going after one of our people in their own home is unacceptable. Action will be taken.” He said to me, but I didn’t really care.

The Tyger Claws could do something, or nothing.

It didn’t matter.

This was now personal. Very personal.

“Ah, but I see you intend to seek your own revenge.” He said annoying me by actually being right.

“They shot up my home. I hated them before, but now it’s an existential threat. They die, or Jun and I do. So I choose them.”

Fujimura nodded, looking pleased.

“I agree. So you have a choice, Kusanagi. Do you head off into the sunset alone? Or do you let your family, and your friends assist you?” He asked, and it took me a moment to get what he was saying.

He wasn’t talking about Hiromi and my chooms.

He meant the Tyger Claws.

Do I go off to do this alone. Or will I accept gang assistance.

This was it wasn’t it? The path that people in Night City walk that leads them into a gang in truth.

I scowled, irritated, but I didn’t have a good response. I was too ready to do stupid thing to kill Scavs and Maelstrom right now.

He turned back to Jun. “Go get checked out. I will be reaching out to Ichida-Sama to put the Claws into a war footing with the Scavs… And perhaps the Maelstrom once again.” He added and Jun grumbled but nodded his head.

“Understood.”

“Kusanagi. Make your decision. We will likely begin assaulting the Scavs tonight.” Fujimura told me and all I could do was feel irritated. Like I needed them to find Scavs.

“C’mon Jun let’s get you to a ripper before you bleed all over everything.” I snapped at Jun doing my best to ignore Fujimura.

I needed time to think.

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