Ghost in the City

Judy Alvarez

I let go of the wire at the exact moment it started flinging me up. Instead of being flung up into the ceiling of the pathway, it launched me across and I just managed to slam my boots into the floor to send me tumbling out the other end of the path, through the open window and into nothing.

Air.

Nothing but air.

Instantly Judy slammed the cancel code into the console and threw herself out of the BD. Rolling off her chair and grabbing for the trash can.

She panted, every inch of her body shivering, and sweating. She had already ripped off most of her clothes just so she could cool down.

“Fuck that kid. Fuck. Fuck fuck.” She moaned into the trash can, but thankfully she didn’t actually pop. Free from the sensation of falling with nothing to catch her she managed to slowly regain her breath.

She had finished editing the BD for the most part, but she couldn’t actually get all the way through it to call it done.

It was…

“Heights! Why did it have to be heights!” She moaned as she stood up on shaky legs grabbing a can of something with more caffeine than healthy and popped it, then chugged it down.

“Damn Judes. You alright?” She didn’t quite freeze, but she did jerk a bit at the voice looking over at the one that got her into this.

“Nox! This is all your fault! You introduced me to that little!” She growled clenching and unclenching her fists at him as if she was going to throttle him, or her.

Well. It would be him. Judy had long realized that Motoko wasn’t in her league. Out of shape, nerd that spends all her days in a BD is not comparable to a teenage cyberpunk super assassin.

She was still secretly putting money on the girl being some corpo experiment.

“Hey hey, don’t blame me!” He whined, shoulders slumped. “I’m not even in charge anymore… Fucking corpo bi-” He cut himself of and looked around as if expecting the girl in question to appear. Before relaxing and continuing. “Bitch.”

“I don’t want to hear you whining, I’ve already offered to speak to Rita about it.”

“No. She’s a turbo rusty lady but I can’t… I’m making more in profits now than I was before, despite her taking her cut.” He grumbled, retracing common ground.

One of Motoko’s friends had muscled in on Nox’s hustle, and had taken over. Nox was pissy about it, but the look on his face whenever the eddies he was making were brought up always shut him up.

“Don’t insult people with Midnight Lady. Rita will fuck you up if she hears you say that.” Judy reminded the boy and he scoffed, but did a mumbled half apology under his breath.

“So! Motoko’s new BD causing you trouble? She texted me, that she had dropped off another one.”

“I’m not good with heights Nox, and that’s all this one is. Fuck.” She hissed as she bounced a bit just to remind her brain what body she was in. BD skewing was something she had long since learned to cope with.

“Preem. Is it done?”

“It should be, but I can’t finish it without feeling like I’m going to pop.” She complained, throwing a hand at the headset. “Jump in, I’ll use you as a test dummy.”

“Uhh… This one is just heights not like, The Only Thing… Right?” He asked, hesitating.

Judy shivered. “I told you not to ever remind me about that. No. It’s like… Parkour stuff. She’s just a psycho.”

“Preem.” He called out jumping onto the chair and pulling up the Wreath.

A moment later he was in, and Judy walked over to her desk to track the program. Watching the information it was sending her, for dangerous highs, or lows.

Unlike her, Nox handled it just fine and in the end he jerked upright, hand grasping for something as the BD ended.

“Whoa!” He muttered eyes wide as he slowly came back to his own body. “That was intense… Jude! We got another preem experience on our hands!”

“Yeah.” She muttered. Motoko hadn’t given her much to work with in a while, Judy had honestly been relieved it wasn’t another massacre BD. “Any issues?”

“Nah, it felt smooth as anything.”

“Alright. I’m not seeing any issues either. Thanks for taking over.” She offered the boy who just smirked.

“Well, it’s my future merch! Gotta experience it to sell, even Hiromi thinks so.”

“Preem. Alright. Go ahead and take a copy, I’m taking a break.” She said, grabbing a cig and gathering up her clothes. She was still half naked after all, she was pretty uncaring, but it’s not like was going to walk around topside without wearing a bit more.

“Where you going?”

Judy stilled as she took a puff of her cig and then glared at nothing.

“I kinda want Ramen.” She explained and Nox’s eyes grew large as it stirred something in him too.

“Yeah.”

Sakura Market it was.

—--

“This is boring.” Malcolm muttered. We were all lying in different places around the room. Eating snacks, or in Hiromi’s case playing that game on her tablet.

Ichi had even found a TV and brought it down, with my help we had access to the building's TV channels, and so he was camped out watching that.

“It’s just a waiting game now Malcolm. Once they respond we will have them.”

“I’m still bored.” He grumbled and I couldn’t help but chuckle at his whining. He had claimed responsibility for getting the message but I guess it was bothering him as he kept checking his agent over and over for a response.

“Yeah I’m bored too.” I offered, standing up from where I had been sprawled over my netrunner chair. “Anyway, want some food or something? I want to stretch my legs.”

“I’ll come with.” Malcolm offered to my surprise as he stood up and I could see Ichi sit up at that wanting to deny him but after a moment he didn’t.

“Be careful.” Ichi called out instead and Malcolm just waved his hand.

We went into the elevator and thankfully Malcolm was walking without pain as we left the apartment and walked down the sidewalk.

“You know we might not hear from them for a few days. Or more. They will likely stay in hiding for a while.”

“I know.” He grumbled and I nodded at that. As I stretched my arms up to the sky.

“You gonna be okay?”

“I’ll live.” He offered with a bit of grump. “Thanks again… Motoko. For saving my ass.” He said suddenly and I couldn’t help but flash back to that day.

“You scared the fuck out of me.” I answered instead. I caught the wince out of the corner of my eye. Obviously it wasn’t the first time he had heard that.

“Yeah. My dad said that too.”

“Why’d you go alone? Something big like that? That’s a lot of eddies to throw around without backup.” I asked the question I had been sitting on since it all happened.

He was quiet for a long while as we walked down the road toward the diner.

“I just wanted to do something myself. I guess. I had my iron… I thought I could handle it.”He finally replied after a while and I frowned.

That was a tough statement to reply to. I reached over and slipped my arm in with his own to his surprise.

“We all make mistakes, and sometimes have to suffer the scars for them.” I offered squeezing his bicep with my chrome fingers.

My mistake led me to losing my arms. Malcolms almost cost him his life.

“So we learn from them. I don’t go anywhere without firepower to handle a borg. And I kept improving. My Netrunning stuff helps a lot.”

“I’m not like a weird super ninja like you are Motoko.” Malcolm offered sounding down.

“You don’t have to be. Motoko is a super ninja cause it’s what Motoko wants.” I said in third person for my own amusement. “So what does Malcolm want?”

“I want… To be something more than just some kid. I wanted to be…” He didn’t say it, but I could understand. He wanted to be what every Night City kid wanted. To be an edgerunner. A Street Samurai. A Gang leader.

He wanted to prove he mattered.

“Well that's easy then.” I offered, pulling free and walking ahead and then walking backwards just because. “You can very easily stop being a kid, Malcolm. Just live.”

Then I turned around and continued walking.

“Heh.” I heard a chuckle from Malcolm that was half exasperation.

Hmm. What do I want? Be a cool merc. Make money. I wanted to stamp out the whole Scav thing. Stupid Stand Alone Complexes.

Then… I had to laugh to myself.

I just wanted to enjoy my life. Whatever that meant. This was my second life, and I had been letting it drag me down.

Letting the dark nasty parts focus too much of my attention.

—--

It was getting late. Even with the dinner I had brought in everyone was crashing, and Malcolm was getting ready to head home to get some sleep and be ready for Vik’s meeting in the morning. I had been trawling through the net a bit. Mostly just checking on some Scav locations I had been sent by some netrunners when I got the message from Ichi.

*Motoko come out. They responded!*

I quickly disconnected coming back to myself in just a few moments before pulling myself free of the netchair.

“What did they say!?”

“That they definitely have a Mizutani Shion that they can sell us.” Malcolm called and I rushed over to check the laptop he had been working on.

The response was exactly what we had expected. A confirmation they had what we wanted, The price, and some pictures that since I had seen their other messages they used, I knew were ones they had used before while ‘selling’ a shion.

Somehow they just kept selling the same car! How lucky!

I scoffed at the request but patted Malcolm on the shoulder. “Set up the meeting. But make sure it’s after your visit with Vik in the morning. Wouldn’t want to miss out on the fun would you?” I asked and Malcolm shook his head with a glare, as he slowly started tapping out a message back.

—--

The next afternoon we were ready. Malcolm was declared completely healed from Vik. And we had set up the time for the car ‘traders’ to show up.

To my amusement they had picked the same spot they had ambushed Malcolm at from before.

I guess they figured they were in the clear.

So I had shown up in the morning while Malcolm was getting checked out, and prepped everything.

Considering I had already searched around the area it hadn’t been hard to find a good place to settle in.

I had picked an empty apartment that had a balcony looking over the inner courtyard on the second floor. Nekomata was resting against the old concrete and I was looking through multiple camera systems in the area waiting.

The ambush was set.

Hiromi was our bait this time. She had to my amusement pulled a bunch of her TC stuff out of the closet and had gone from corpo student with an edge. To full TC fangirl in an hour of prep.

Only the black chrome that all matched hinted at her connections.

The meeting time came and went and we were waiting. I could see Hiromi getting impatient, and through the conference call that all of us were part of I was hearing the anxiety building.

*Do you think they bailed? They wouldn’t right? We didn’t give them any reason to think this is a trap!* Malcolms voice came through, irritated from where he was sitting in the back of Ichi’s van that was parked around the corner in front of a shop as if Ichi was just grabbing a meal.

*Might just be traffic, or they might just be late. They aren’t exactly intending to be reliable you know?* Ichi added.

*Relax guys. Just relax. They’ll show. And even if they don’t it just means we hunt them some more.* I added into the line calmly. Thanks to Cool, I was more than content just waiting for them to show.

*Yeah but what if they don’t!*

*Malcolm relax already! I’m the one out in the open.* Hiromi added and then I saw it.

A camera from down the street.

*Show time.* I called out and the line went quiet as I watched through nearby cameras as the Archer Hella that the fuckers drove pulled up to the same spot they had parked when they attacked Malcolm.

Four gonks climbed out. All of them checking pistols, which were then stuffed into waistbands, just to hit the cliche of being a shit tier gangster all the more.

Temptation to just start shooting them through the walls right away rose, but this was for Malcolm, not my personal satisfaction.

They walked down the alley and then into the courtyard noticing Hiromi as she was casually sitting on a concrete bench already facing where they would come.

Nice work Hiromi! Very Corpo queen!

“You’re late.” She called out loudly enough for me to hear and I could see the brash gangsters' hackles rise up at the tone.

But this time Hiromi wasn’t needing to modulate herself. Or pretend. She knew what was coming.

I stood up still out of sight of these blind morons Nekomata pointed down at them. Of course I had already thrown a Weapon Glitch at them as they were walking through the alleyway. Ichi and Malcolm would be driving the van right into the alley. Just to make sure no one could run.

Not that I would let them. Kinda hard to run blind, and if something did go wrong, a nice Reboot Optics would handle them just fine.

“Just a bit of traffic, I’m sure you understand.” One of the gangsters spoke up.

So that was him. Aiden Michaels. The nephew of some 6th St. Higher up. He was also the leader of this little troop.

The fucker with his slicked back hair and expensive clothes. He looked like every rich kid I had ever met.

Idly my Nekomata’s crosshair inched over the back of his head.

“Sure. Where’s the car?” Hiromi demanded after a moment, sounding so sarcastic even the gangers couldn’t have missed it.

“Ah, see there’s a bit of an issue. I’m sure you can understand. We’ll need a downpayment.” He nodded and his gonks suddenly stepped around Hiromi looming over her.

“Yeah I expected as much. Mr. Michaels. You are far too predictable.” Hiromi added, without showing an inch of fear as she tapped away on her knee as if she was bored. “I’m afraid this meeting is no longer one you have any control of.” Hiromi added and suddenly there must have been that tiny hint in the brains of the gangers that something was wrong.

“The you talking about you little bitch, you think-”

“No Mr. Michaels, it’s you who doesn’t think.” Hiromi cut him off, sounding honestly angry. “You believed Mr. Welles, who we hired, was our only attempt to ferret you out? That we knew you would go to ground the moment he showed up? It was all a setup to make you think you were safe so we can bring you right out into the open. I’m not the type of woman to spend time hunting scum like you down.”

Aiden pulled his gun. A Unity that had some respectable amount of care put into it. But Hiromi didn’t even blink when he pulled, aimed, and fired.

The only sound was a faint clink that I couldn’t make out from here.

“If you would be so kind?” She asked aloud.

I fired.

Aiden's arm disappeared at the forearm. Nekomata roared for a second and the screams started up right after. All four of the gangsters suddenly realized they were in trouble. Two instantly ran, and the third made to grab Aiden to try and pull him away.

Ichi and Malcolm were there already, The Van blocking the path at the end of the alleyway. Having reversed up to it.

And Malcolm standing at the entrance.

Malcolm of course wasn’t unarmed.

His Tactician fired causing the first runner to literally stop cold as he slammed into the floor dying. The second one, had his leg blown off a moment later. Malcolm was obviously pretty angry about the whole nearly killing him thing.

“You cunt! You blew off my fucking arm!” Aiden was whining and screaming as his choom pulled him to his feet, but a second retort echoed out.

I matched Malcolm. The third choom lost a leg at the knee.

His screams intertwined with the others, and suddenly we had three disabled fuckheads to sort out.

Malcolm was still marching towards Aiden with a certain look in his eye, and I wasn’t going to stop him. I leapt off the balcony and landed with a nearly silent thump as I sauntered over to Hiromi who I could tell was feeling a bit jittery with all the blood splattered around her. But she was handling herself really well. I settled beside her, nudging her just a bit with my hip so she knew she was safe.

Malcolm walked up to the cussing gangster and instantly smashed the butt of his shotgun into his face.

Then he kept doing it.

Jesus Malcolm did you watch The Only Thing They Fear is You?

“Wait! Wat!” Aiden cried out after a few hits, his cussing turned into pleading. To my surprise Malcolm did just that. Letting the man talk. “My uncle! He’s powerful! A leader in 6th St. if you kill me-!”

“Aiden Michaels. Do you really think we didn’t know that before we came here?” Hiromi offered with a half amused half disappointed smirk on her face “Do you think we didn’t already delete ourselves from the cameras? Cover our tracks? Aiden your Uncle will never know who flatlined his gonk nephew.”

Hiromi’s cold statement made the fucker seem to realize just how fucked he was.

Malcolm took that as his cue and smashed his shotgun into the guy's face again just to prove his point.

The guy tried to struggle against him, but with one arm missing his struggles pretty quickly slowed down. Too weak to really fight back as Malcolm let out his built up pain by bashing the guys face in.

Yeah I know that feel. I walked around instead. Nekomata just held to my chest as I pulled out my Lexington.

The gunshots were loud as I double tapped the other two moaning bodies.

*500 XP Gained.*

*500 XP Gained.*

*Level up achieved!*

*One Stat Point Gained.*

*One Skill Point Gained.*

I blinked and then smiled happily as the alert came in. How cool! I hadn’t even realized how close to a level up I was!

I was now level 15.

Settling in beside Hiromi who hadn’t moved from her spot I waved to Ichi who had casually walked down the alleyway to join us. As our entire group watched on as Malcolm continued to beat Aiden Michaels to death.

Which had always sort of been the plan. To kill him I mean. Not beat him to death, but sometimes a message needed to be sent.

“Hey you know what this means?” I asked the group suddenly as they all looked at me.

“Congratulations Malcolm! You have a slightly used Archer Hella! Congratulations!” I said, clapping at him.

Hiromi, seeing that I was up to something, joined in and clapped for Malcolm as well.

It took a second for Ichi to join in but his sarcastic clapping made it all the better.

“I fucking hate all of you. Why are we even chooms?” Malcolm asked as he wiped his face a bit of some of the extra blood, although he was barely holding back his laughter.

“Cause you loooove us. Now don’t forget to grab the key shard out of him. Unless you want me to just hotwire your new car.”

“I don’t even want a Hella.” He grumbled, but did as I prompted, pulling the blood covered shard out of Aidens neck after a bit of finagling, then wiped it off on his shirt for a few moments to try and clean it up.

We split up after that. Malcolm went to paint and re-register his new car since he didn’t want someone in 6th St. To be able to track it.

Thankfully Hella were really common, and with just that, it would be just another Hella on the road.

Although we were all going to meet up later.

Rockerboy Neighbors music act was tonight!

It was finally time to scope out the competition so I could destroy her! I mean. So I could see what other Rockerboys got up to in Night City!

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