Ghost in the City

Instead of huffing the drugs I was handed, I just took a Maxdoc, and then I did the smart thing and drove to Viks. I was already scheduled for a checkup for my chrome. I had been out of the city on the road for over a week after all.

But I stopped to see Misty first. Walking into her shop, and taking a moment to enjoy the soft sounds of her space.

“Motoko!”

“Hey Misty!” I called out in return as the blonde smiled at seeing me. Stepping away from the counter to come throw a hug around my shoulders, of course that was a mistake.

“Motoko it’s good to-Oh!” She chirped out pulling away.

“Sorry sorry I just finished exercising. I’m all sweaty.” I apologized and she just laughed but didn’t go for another hug.

“How are you?”

“I’m good! I just got back into the city. I went up to Seattle on a gig!”

“Oh! I always thought about traveling to Seattle, but with my shop.” She waved at her place and I nodded.

“Honestly? It was kinda weird. I actually like Night City more.” I admit in a horrified whisper that has Misty chuckling lightly.

“Well welcome home then. Here to see Vik?”

“Yeah. I should get checked out and stuff. I want to make sure I don’t have dust anywhere that I can’t get to.” She nodded at that and sent me off with a wave.

Quickly jumping down the stairs I found Vik wasn’t alone.

“Jackie!” I called out smiling at the big man that was being run through a bit of boxing work by Vik.

“Huh?” Which is exactly the time Vik used the opportunity to bop the bigger man right on his nose. “Hey Vik!”

“No distractions.” The Ripper said but he was grinning regardless as he lowered his arms and ended their workout. “Hey Kid. You alright?”

“Not injured! But I just got back into the city! I had a gig that took me to Seattle, and I wanted to get checked over.” I responded, but then I walked over and settled into Viks rolly chair. “But no rush. Go ahead and finish playing with Jackie, I’ll wait.”

“We aren’t playing-”

“This isn’t playing Hermanita.” Both men argued before realizing that my smile was broad and amused. They both huffed at me, realizing I was just messing with them, so Vik brought his padded hands back up.

“Alright Jack. Let’s keep going.”

Jackie just nodded and the two went back at it. Jackie actually had good endurance I noted. Unlike Jun for example who just relied on his chrome, Jackie actually was fully into the training.

Although considering it’s Jackie. I wouldn’t mind if he relied on some protective chrome a bit more.

Eventually both men tired out and Jackie took a seat and drank some water as Vik gestured for me to head over to the ripper chair. Vik was still wiping his forehead with a towel when he rolled over.

“So no issues you know of?”

“I mostly just want to check for dust and junk. I was out on the road for more than a week.” He nodded and pulled up his scanner starting in on the inspection..

“Seattle huh? That’s preem Hermanita. I didn’t get my first gig out of the city until I was in my twenties.” Jackie offered and I smiled at that.

“Thanks Jack. I know a Nomad that needed an extra shooter to watch her back. She’s not Raffen, but she sorta left the Aldecaldos for now.”

Jackie whistled, “You don’t hear them do that much.”

“Yeah it’s a family thing.” I added and Jackie really frowned then.

“Well that I can understand.”

“Not too many problems here kid. Although you got some dents and dings.” Vik confirmed giving me a look.

“I’ve done maintenance!”

“Yeah I can see that… It’s why there are so many dents.” He says and then bursts out into laughter.

I felt my jaw drop before I realized Vik was fucking with me.

“Laugh it up old man.” I grumbled at him, but even Jackie was chuckling in that booming belly laugh of his at my reaction.

“You’re doing fine, kid. You do have some dust in the joints, that’s normal especially for nomads or anyone traveling through the desert. Give me a few minutes and I’ll clear you up.” He said still laughing as he rolled away grabbing a big canister that was basically an oil washer.

I rolled my eyes and leaned back, as Vik walked over and started opening up my arms. Panels popping open to show the sensitive interiors after a few moments of his deft hands accessing every port.

I shivered a bit the first time he blew the oil into my arms, it felt super ticklish, but after that first few spurts, I got comfortable with it.

“So Jackie. You going to get any more chrome? You still need some subdermal don’t you?”

“I got some Hermanita.” He said, knocking a finger against his forehead. “Can’t get too much of the stuff though. Camilla doesn’t like it much.” He said something kind of horrifying as he patted his shoulder.

That specifically wasn’t armored.

Just like his stomach.

Just like the stomach that he would bleed out from.

“You’re kinda a gonk, and Camilla is a double gonk if she doesn’t want you to have more protection.” I said bluntly, actually holding back from really snapping at the man.

It wouldn’t help. Telling someone in love, or dating that they are with someone they shouldn’t never works. It just pushes them away. So instead of saying anything more I just looked away from the big oaf. Stupid gonk.

I’ll just make sure you never step foot anywhere near Konpeki Plaza.

“Hey that’s not…” Jackie went quiet and I noticed Vik had intruded. Yeah snapping at him was stupid. Certainly not going to get anything done that way.

The room was quiet for a while as Vik continued to work before he finally finished. All of my chrome got a going over including my ankles which thankfully hadn’t been too bad. Stuck in boots had kept the dust out.

“You know, you’d get less gunk in these with a good covering.” Vik finally spoke up, breaking the silence between the three of us.

“But I like it!” I argued instantly, holding my arms against my chest to keep them from Vik who just laughed.

“Well just know a real skinn covering will protect the insides better. But it’s your choice. Nothing I’m not used to.” He said and I nodded at that.

Jackie I noticed was over by the TV watching the boxing match instead of being his usual friendly self.

Dangit.

I left without a word. I couldn’t apologize to him right now. Which might just be necessary. Camilla was a terrible choice. Misty would be better of course. But not wanting Jackie to armor up?

Fucking scop of a woman.

In the end I also asked Vik to tell me what was in the inhaler that I had been given and he assured me it was normal workout stuff. Perfectly safe if I wanted to use it.

I just shrugged.

—--

So I had a whole bunch of different stuff on my plate, but I was mostly waiting for the big one.

Would Sasha call me?

If she didn’t in a week, I would have to do something drastic. I didn’t want the woman to die. Not after seeing what causes her last stand.

Fucking corps.

Fortunately she had created a secondary distraction for me. After Viks checkup I went home and settled onto the couch with my guitar.

Let you down. It was a very Cyberpunk song, and I wanted a copy of it. It was definitely a favorite of mine, and having seen Sasha I wanted to listen to it.

There were a lot of tones and noises in the song, so it took me a long time to get every sound I would need programmed into the music box.

As I was working Jun came home from work throwing his TC jacket over the back of the couch as he stopped to grab some food and drink and then settled onto the couch near me.

“What are you working on?”

“New song.” I muttered, semi distracted as I was setting up the rhythm track for the song. It wasn’t exactly a rock song after all.

“Oh?” He prompted, making me shake away the music boxes track creation toolkit. I popped my personal link from the box as well just so I could move away from it.

“It’s… A bit different from most of what I’ve done so far. It’s not rock or anything. More of a… Night City sound.” I said, yeah I liked the way that sounded.

“Sounds awesome.”

“It’s not Us Cracks, you won’t like it.” I told him and he just laughed at my tone.

“I like your stuff. When are you going to start selling your music?”

“Probably never.”

“C’mon Motoko, you are really good. I want to see you up on a stage some day.” Jun said, smiling all proudly at me.

As if I want to see that! I quickly retaliated and kicked at him, but his Motoko sense must have been working because he jerked away and I missed. Instead he just broke into laughter.

“You’re all embarrassed!”

“I’m not!”

“You are!”

“Not!”

“Totally are.” He assured me with a big smile on his stupid face as he looked on.

“Shut up!”

He just laughed at me. “So how about you show off for me? I want to hear your new song.”

“It’s not done!” I hissed and he nodded, resting back and putting up his feet on the table looking perfectly content to just sit there and wait.

Realizing that I snapped at him. “It’s a new song! It could take a while!”

“I’ll wait.”

“I might get stuck on it and take a week!”

“Then I’ll go to sleep and work and when it’s ready I’ll listen.” He assured me with that calm cool tone he had started to develop over the months.

Ahhhhh! I was weak!

I grumbled and grabbed my music box. I’ll finish the stupid song then! Doubt he’ll even like it since it isn’t Us Cracks!

I pushed my personal link back in and started to work. Let you Down, didn’t have a super fast pace, but it needed to be perfect. This song was… Special? Important? No, that wasn’t right, it was just…

It just needed to be perfect.

I hadn’t heard back from Sasha. I had no idea when the Biotechnica job was happening. All I knew is it should happen soon. But there was another reason I was making this song right now.

Perfect Musical Memory let me remember the song exactly. Every note, every beat, every lyric… And every scene.

Music was an art, and many artists combined art with their music.

Let you down, basically was a music video. Sasha’s story from start to end. As I worked on the song I was remembering. I was reviewing what it had shown me.

Sasha’s big problem was the Arasaka Robot R Mk.2. Well they would be Biotechnica Robots now, but Araska were the ones that made them.

They were tough. Armored, and unflinching. She had used some powerful hacks to try and disable them, but it hadn’t really worked.

She needed a way to kill them, and a way to defend against their attacks.

One of those was easy. Weapon Glitch would solve the problem outright, but I was going to need to do some work on it, to make sure it would punch through the security around a high end corpo defense unit.

Then it came down to how to kill the bots.

Short Circuit was a good hack against drones…

I would need to get a copy of it from Yoko.

But I shook off the plotting to focus more on the song. Track after track was added in, making sure everything was fit together, I listened to the song I was creating over and over making sure everything was timed correctly, and then it was time for the lyrics.

I glanced at Jun who had been idly watching me for the last while with that stupid proud smile on his face.

And then I was done with all the backing tracks, but still had a few lyric additions I needed.

“Gonna sing a bit. Don’t bother me!” I demanded earning a rolled eyes from my brother who at this point was totally vegging out on the couch.

“Let you down!” I sang out messing with the reverb in the music box, and then went silent, as I wasn’t actually singing the song just some of the backing vocals. “Loooooove!” I crooned out, and then I went through a few of the additional vocal lines, syncing them up, and I was ready. I could feel my ears heating up as Jun quirked an eyebrow at me.

It wasn’t a love song! Idiot!

The only thing left was to stand up and actually sing the damn thing. I stood up surprising Jun as I hefted up the music box and settled it into a place for this to work, I ran over to grab the speakers and set that all up so Jun could actually hear the song.

Then I put my hands on my hips and looked… Well it was still up, because Jun was a big boy even sitting on the couch.

“Okay this is the first time anyone has ever heard this song, so you better appreciate it!” I told him firmly as I then exhaled, letting all the air out, changing how my voice would sound a bit, I needed to be closer to Sexy Motoko voice for this.

The music began. The soft melody echoed through the apartment, and I was ready.

“Feel the rhythm of the streets.”

Let You Down, if you just read the lyrics was actually almost a fight song. It was just how slow and almost peaceful it was that changed the whole theme. It was a song about failing, yet… Not. About overcoming failure in a way.

Or it was a song about Night City. Or a song about… Well music was subjective like that.

But I sang, destroying the vocals for this song. Considering how many times I had listened to it, I knew every note, and exactly how to best sing it.

The song was just too good.

And then it was over.

The faint ending snares and sound ending in a quiet finale.

To my surprise Jun didn’t react for a while. Just staring at me, and I shifted a little uncomfortably under his gaze as he stood and then pulled me into a tight hug.

“It sounded preem Imouto.”

—--

So, song was done. Now time for some programming work.

I headed out, taking my Kusanagi instead of the Quadra so I could enjoy the late evening drive through the city.

As I drove I went through all the things I needed. First off, Sasha’s defenses, so she wouldn’t have to sacrifice herself outright. Then I needed to figure out the best way to help her from there. She had blown up the office at the last moment, and been blown out the window. There was no way I could figure out exactly where she would land without more information…

Could I talk to Maine and make sure he was in the right place? Could he catch her? I shook off the idea. I just needed to give her the tools to escape without it being her end.

I really hoped Sasha reached out. If she didn’t, I might have to do something… Drastic. I shook off the thought as the light I was stuck at turned green.

No. I should do what I can. I should do enough that she should be able to survive, but… Her death was her choice. I didn’t know the woman, I wasn’t family or friend. Her decisions were her own.

I wanted to help, but the real question I should be asking myself is, would I risk the wrath of Biotechnica on Jun, or Hiromi in order to save Sasha?

No.

No, I wouldn’t. I wasn’t a hero, or even that good of a person in the long run. I wanted to save the cat girl, because I had felt something at her death, and I hated the pointless tragedy of it all.

But her death was her own fault. I hated to say it like that but it was true. She made a choice to end her life for a cause.

I pulled around a van drifting between lanes, probably drunk off his ass and zipped around him, my Kusanagi easily accelerating me past the block and away from that annoying little traffic problem.

Sasha was a grown woman. I couldn’t save her. Not like a knight in shining armor. I could help, I could give her extra tools, and maybe end up with a new friend, but she wasn’t Jun. I wouldn’t go out of my way to risk my life, or my family's life, for hers.

Decision made, I focused on the road the rest of the way to the roundabout.

If she did die. If I failed to save her? I would make sure her story was told, that might be all I could do for her.

—---

“Yoko.” I greeted happily seeing the dark glasses clad woman standing behind the counter like always.

“Motoko. You are still alive. I’m glad.” She offered calmly in that weird monotone she had outside the net.

“What? Oh… Yeah the scav thing… I’m taking a break. Been out of the city for a week on a gig as well.”

“Taking a break?” She asked, sounding amused despite her tone. “Well I suppose that’s all we can ask for sometimes.”

“Yeeeeah.” I drawled out at her pointed remark. “Hey. I need a copy of a Short Circuit. You got anything good?”

“I have a very good off the shell version.” She confirmed and I perked up at that. A higher level starting point meant the final version I make should be even better!

“You will make your own version again? I would be happy to trade it for a copy.”

I opened my mouth to agree before stopping. An image of Hiromi glaring at me, a reminder that I should really stop agreeing to every deal that just seemed easiest to me.

“How about we talk trade.”

“Ah, you finally learned.” Yoko said actually looking sad like I had just kicked her puppy or something. “Very well. Let’s talk, what I can add to the deal.”

I was glaring at the older woman more because of the teasing than because I was actually angry. It wasn’t like I really cared that much, but don’t act like I’m stupid! I just value convenience more than profit!

“I want a few other hacks. I’m thinking about adding a few more weapons to my arsenal.”

“Oh? Well I know just the thing then.” She said and I felt my eyebrow quirk up as she revealed a shard with a familiar name.

Oh.

Yeah, that wasn’t something you wanted every script kiddie on the street to have.

“Let’s talk price!” She said for once losing her monotone and sounding like the kitsune she truly was.

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