Ghost in the City

Turbo’s was definitely having a party. As I pulled in, the rumble of my Quadra earning me a spot as a few of the wandering crowd moved out of the way so I could slip into a parking spot. I took a moment to stop and just breathe.

I was so not ready to run into my favorite character right now.

No Motoko, you fucking gonk, she wasn’t a character. She was a person, and wouldn’t like me geeking the fuck out over her.

I opened my eyes and stepped out, Cool and Cold Blood working in tandem to keep me calm as I stepped towards where I had seen Sasha.

Where I saw Maine, Dorio, Pilar, and best girl Rebecca.

She was so tiny!

Eeeee!

I shook it off and kept calm, adding a bit of Sexy Motoko walk to my movement, so I would look a little less young as I approached the group.

I took them all in as I approached. Maine noticed me, but was basically ignoring me, focusing on Dorio in his lap, and the beer in his massive hand.

Pilar was currently drinking as well, and trying to flirt with a girl beside him. He was doing okay honestly, from the looks the girl was shooting at him. A mix of interest and exasperation.

Sasha wasn’t at the table. No, she was up and dancing to the music of the radio playing nearby. I did struggle to keep my eyes off her, because holy shit that girl was flexible.

Of course as I approached Maines little table of important people I was stopped.

By the smallest of the group.

Rebecca had been fucking around with a group of random gonks to the side, from the way she had been jerking her pistol she was telling them about what had happened on the gig, but as I walked over she caught site of me and stomped over.

“Hey! Who’re you!?” She demanded stomping right up to me, and then looking up.

Which I thought was fucking adorable.

She was so smol!

Protect the loli!

“Hi! I’m Motoko! Nice to meet you!” I offered, throwing out a hand towards the girl, and I could feel my face shift into a happy smile.

Aaaaah! She was so cute!

Her strange colored eyes narrowed but she surprisingly reached out and accepted my handshake.

“Rebecca. I don’t recognize you.”

“I’m Chooms… Friends?... I know Sasha! She invited me, I’m a programmer so I have a new hack to try and sell her.” I explained not sure what to call my current relationship with the catgirl.

“Huh. Netrunning stuff huh? That’s preem and stuff. Not really my thing.” She replied looking up at me for a moment and then sort of snorting out a laugh. “So why do all netrunners wear leotards?”

“Comfy.” I explained without missing a beat, and that earned me an actually surprised look before Rebecca burst into cackles.

“You got me! C’mon then, Sasha! Your choom is here!”

The Catgirl perked up from her very… Flexible dance moves as she looked over and saw me, and then she… Well pranced is the best word I could think of over to me.

“My little Kohai!” She called out rushing over and throwing me into an overly affectionate hug. “See Dorio! I have a Kohai now!”

“I see.” The large woman replied flatly as she rolled her eyes at Sasha’s exuberance. “Nice to meet you.” She replied casually and mostly just ignored me, as she turned back to trying to find Maines tonsils.

“So Toko! Show me your new hack!” Sasha demands as she grabs a seat and sort of looks up at me eagerly, and I relaxed a bit.

It was hard to be tense around Sasha she was just so… Out there.

I popped a shard with the copy of my Short Circuit and offered it up.

“Let me know what you think. I promise it’ll impress.” I said feeling pretty proud.

I had pulled that program together in just a few days, while rushing around doing other things, but it was important.

It might just save this woman's life.

“Hmmm.” She drawled out after inserting the shard.

“Don’t mind her, she’s always like this.” Rebecca said on my right as we listened to Sasha just keep making questioning noises long after she should have stopped.

“This is interesting. I see what you based it off, and I can see the additional functionality. Are you sure it’s a good idea to spread it out?” Sasha suddenly mentioned cutting into the noises she had been making.

“The battery discharge already has a limiter built in that's part of the hardware, not software. So it’s not really hackable. Instead of having everything try to discharge at once, making it last longer actually improves the hack.” I said sitting up and feeling eager. “Depending on the target, and how much chrome they have, you could keep someone crippled for a good while.”

She nodded her head as her eyes finally lost the glow as she explored the shard.

“I don’t think I need it.” She answered suddenly and I felt my confidence pop like a soap bubble.

“Wha! You do! Gonk! It’s preem code!”

“It’s a good Short Circuit sure, but I don’t go for nonlethal stuff much.”

“It’s a cheap control hack! It even auto spreads! That’s my personal hack jumping trick there you know!” I squawked, offended at her disinterest.

“It’s cute, sure, but I go for stuff a bit bigger you know?” She said actually having the audacity to first put her hands close by, and then spreading them farther apart. Lewd!

“Oh god you're one of those. Probably burn your entire RAM on every hack too, don't you?” I mocked, earning a startled look from the woman at my sudden attack.

Then Dorio started snickering.

Becca cackled, not bothering to hide it like her choom, even Maine was chuckling.

Sasha actually flushed a little red as everyone was cackling at her. Pilar looked up from the girl he had been flirting with only then seeming to notice I was here. But tits and ass distracted him a moment after.

“Wha! That’s not what I do!”

“Didn’t you say, if the program doesn’t overheat your deck it’s babyware?” Rebecca cut in, suddenly and Sasha reached out to shut up best girl.

I felt smug as I had been right.

Sasha despite being a skilled Netrunner was one of ‘those.’

“Here.” I demanded, pushing the shard into her hand that she was trying to shut Rebecca up. “It’s a compact, low RAM, high performance hack. I’m sorry you’ve been stuck with grossly over-coded scop so far.”

“I have not! I have normal hacks too!”

“Hey Dorio, have you ever seen Whiskers use anything but her giga hacks?” Rebecca asked, and I made sure to note the cute nickname!

Whiskers! Super cute!

Sasha instantly whipped over to her choom and glared, and Dorio looked like she was considering not answering, but her shoulders were still shifting a little as she restrained her giggles.

“Never.”

“You are all traitors.” Sasha mumbled glaring at the group, and I felt my smile growing because this was actually really fun!

Maine’s crew was cute! Way better than they were in the future.

That reminded me of the tragedy of what was coming. That Sasha would soon sacrifice herself if nothing changed.

Had I done enough? Had I given her some better tools? Would that be enough? Could her fate be changed with just that? It had been a decision she made on the spot, a decision I think she knew would be her end, so was there anything I could actually do to change her mind?

“Hmph! I’ll take your hack!” Sasha pulled me back into the conversation as she swiped the shard and plugged it in, obviously installing it into her deck.

“Good. I hope it keeps you safe!” I chirped, smiling bright as I managed to fission mail successfully!

Sasha made a sound of denial as she scoffed a bit, but it was a cute flustered scoff, not a straight denial.

Dorio started laughing at Sasha’s flustered face. Which earned her a glare from the cat girl.

I stilled suddenly because I got a call from Wakako.

“Sorry everyone, one sec.” I said as my eyes blinked yellow.

*This is Motoko.*

*There is an issue. The vehicle you just collected? It was stolen out of my storage unit. Some fool is attempting to step on my toes, or they are so foolish they didn’t realize what they have done. I need the vehicle recollected. Now.*

*That’s… Someone really is dumb. What do we have?*

*I am sending you what I have so far. I am aware of your little group. You did an acceptable investigation for Fujimura. Complete a second one for me. Find the vehicle and return it to the storage unit. And send a message to whoever did this.*

I considered it for a moment. I had been wanting a gig with more killing for XP.

*Okay. I’ll take it. Send me the deets.*

The line hung up which I couldn’t help but smile and shake my head at. That’s Wakako alright. I thought with a laugh escaping me.

“Kid something good?” Sasha asked, noticing my amusement.

“Wakako hung up on me again.” I replied and laughed. “I have to go, surprise gig, you know how it is. It was nice to meet all of you!” I said as I stood up and hurried away.

I couldn’t do much else for Sasha. She was a grown woman and a professional. I had given her extra tools. Hopefully…

Hopefully it was enough to circumvent her tragedy, but if it wasn’t, then I would at least know that I had tried.

As I hurried to my Quadra I sent all of my chooms the call.

*Motoko: Section 9 Assemble!*

They would understand.

—--

They did not understand.

Three calls later, I was plugging into my net chair as I was readying for a dive, and waiting for my chooms to show up.

I had watched the surveillance video Wakako had sent, as well as what basic information she had.

Apparently about five minutes after I left, a group of three men, all wearing masks had shown up at the garage, broke in rather bluntly, and stole the Quadra-R.

There was a problem though. They were Tyger Claws.

The tattoos were a dead giveaway.

Some fucking TC gonks had stolen from the queen of Japantown.

They were already dead, they just didn’t know it yet. Even if I didn’t get involved.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have an ID for any of them. They all had spoofers that the cameras couldn’t break through.

So I was going to be chasing them through the city through cameras… Again.

I eased back and blinked. A moment later I was in the net. I quickly blurred across the digital city, riding on the back of search engines to end up across the virtual reality. I landed in front of a network that for once I didn’t need to break into.

I walked in and Wakako’s information gave me full access to the security of the site. I could see the marks showing that Wakako had a skilled netrunner run the security as well, but the password and access key Wakako had sent me with the video meant I walked in without issue.

Then I pulled up the security cameras.

Just as I had seen from what Wakako sent me, five minutes after I dropped off the car a couple of gonks walked in, broke the garage door, and then drove off with the car.

But, and this was something I had noticed when Wakako had first sent me the video.

There were three of them, but the Quadra was a two seater.

Two of them jumped in the Quadra-R, but the third had run off on foot.

So I jumped through all the different cameras of the lot area, but unfortunately the one camera that should have seen where they went, had been damaged.

Its recording was blank and had been for weeks. So either, this was a mastermind level plan, or the gonks just got lucky.

I perked up as I got a call from Ichi, asking to be let down to the basement.

A few moments of thought and I sent the signal to let him come down. Seems my chooms were finally showing up!

I quickly pulled open a connection to pull him into a group call.

*Ichi! Glad you made it! Can you jump on the computer, I’m going to be sending some camera data soon.*

*Yeah, I’m on it.* He assured me and that was that. Ichi was fully in work mode.

I jumped across the way from the storage lot that Wakako either owned, or had set up the security for and into the netscape for a mechanic shop.

Time to track them down.

—--

By the time Hiromi showed up, the last of the group to appear, we had made good progress. We knew they were still in Japantown, and had just narrowed the location down to a specific street. There were a few apartment complexes on the street, and I was assuming the car was somewhere in one of them, but there weren’t a lot of cameras aimed at the street in the area.

Confirming the general location I popped out of the net. Blinking my eyes to let the real world take over my vision, stretching and groaning as I pulled out the cords connecting me to the chair.

“Here, something warm.” Ichi offered, handing over a carton of chinese food. I didn’t even ask what it was, before digging in. The warm food restored some heat to my chest, as the coolant had kept me chilled while I was in the net.

I slurped up my first few bites before talking. “So Ichi, do you know anything about the area?”

“Nothing in particular. I can’t think of any specific TC business on the street. I think whoever these gonks are, they planned this themselves.”

“Ugh.” I groaned as I went back to eating.

We would have to investigate the old fashioned way. Getting out on foot, and checking all the locations trying to find where a car could have been hidden. One street wasn’t too bad, honestly. It would just take time.

“Uuuugh.” I groaned as I realized how long this was going to take.

—--

We split up while working. Just to make sure nothing slipped past us. Ichi and Hiromi both parked at either end of the street, and were keeping an eye out for our car. Malcolm and I working together were walking down one side of the road, stopping at every apartment complex, business location, and back alley we could find connected to the road that someone might stash a car.

Unfortunately, the amount of nooks and crannies in any city block only seemed to grow exponentially.

“This is another back alley garage area.” I grumbled, as we walked through an alley that had old roller doors attached to every building. Any one of them big enough to hide a car.

“Nah it’s none of these. Look, no ones opened any of these doors in years.” Malcolm pointed out to me walking up to one and showing me just how rusted the entire thing was.

No one was getting that open without a lot of effort, and noticeable markings.

“That still doesn’t narrow this down.” I hummed, trying to be positive, even if I was doing a job I didn’t really want. There was no murder here Wakako!

Maybe I shouldn’t have done investigative work with Section 9. Any gonk with a Unity can flatline someone, but it takes a whole other set of skills to be able to track someone down.

Of course Wakako would make use of that skill, and so would others.

“Something up?” Malcolm asked, as he noticed my worsening mood. Although I definitely wasn’t just pouting at nothing okay! I don’t pout!

“I just wanted a more exciting gig I guess? I want to fight some ninjas, or something. I did that once. That one borg was like a ninja.”

“I don’t think he counts Motoko, he was just a netrunner.”

“Netrunning is like magic, so I’m putting it in the counts column.” I informed him with a smile that earned me a scoff from Malcolm.

“Hey!” A voice called out pulling our attention away from the rusted out door we were looking at, towards the big guy that was looking at the two of us, with a hand reaching towards the unity on his hip. “You little, shits better not be thinking of breaking in!”

“Nope!” I called out, hands raised up a bit. “We were just noticing that no one had used this one in a while.”

“Bullshit. Clear off before I flatline you brats.”

“Sure sure.” I agreed, mostly because the guy was obviously just trying to keep a couple of teenagers from breaking into his stuff. “C’mon Malcolm.” I called as we moved past the guy.

“Hey old man. You see a couple gonk fucks driving around here in a suped up Quadra-R. Looks like this.” Malcolm surprised me by saying, as his eyes shifted blue as he sent what must be a picture of the Quadra. “Or maybe the gonks themselves?”

The man went silent for a minute, glaring, but eventually he answered in the most obvious way possible. “I didn’t see anything.”

“Listen old man, we aren’t here to steal scop, can you tell us where they went?”

“I don’t know anything. The Claws know I don’t narc.”

Malcolm shook his head, actually smiling. “Perfect, because these particular gonks pissed off the Queen of Japantown. Wakako is looking for them. So this is all square.”

The older man sort of worked his jaw, considering the question before he nodded real slow. “I never saw them before in my life.” He verbally said but a moment later his eyes flashed and Malcolm nodded smiling.

“Of course not. A respectable upstanding man like yourself wouldn’t ever bother with scop like this. You have yourself a nice day sir.” Malcolm offered, sounding every inch the respectable kid just trying to help out.

Of course I knew Malcolm, and that was not what he was.

A moment later the man walked away and Malcolm huddled closer. “He gave me the deets. C’mon.” He whispered to me, and he pulled me along back onto the street.

“Malcolm?”

“Apparently that guy is pissed that these guys have been fucking around, he caught them breaking into shit multiple times, but he doesn’t exactly want them to know he ratted on them.” He explained to me quickly as we hurried back to the street.

A few seconds later he sent me the message as well, and I looked towards the building just across the street.

Found them.

Now to find the car.

“Let’s go.” Malcolm hurried me on and rushed across the street. I couldn’t help but chuckle at how eager he sounded, but I couldn’t deny that this was definitely his win.

I crossed after him dodging a few cars and we walked into the complex. The lobby was covered in trash and stunk like someone pissed in a corner. But Malcolm didn’t slow. To my surprise he was like a bloodhound. Hurrying through he found the elevator and turned to me.

I laughed at the begging look as I walked over, and my eyes flashed as I started hacking. I barely needed to do anything. The ICE on the hardware was ancient, and didn’t even slow my Breach. The elevator came up and we walked in, and then a moment later Malcolm pushed the pad to send us down to the basement.

“You think it’s here?” He asked, and I shrugged.

“I hope so. It would certainly make this a lot easier. Wakako will be happy.”

“What about the gonks that stole it?”

“We hunt them down and flatline them?” I questioned back, wasn’t it obvious?

“They are Tyger Claws. Sure that's a good idea?”

“They stole from Wakako. If they wanted to survive, that is a quick way to do the opposite.” I shrugged. “If there is trouble we deal with it. But this is an official gig.”

“Yeah… Right. Official.” He muttered as the elevator opened to a truly dark parking garage, most of the lights flickering or out. Malcolm hesitated, but I could see just fine. So I stepped out leading the way. Looking for a particular Quadra-R.

“Gotta get better optics.” Malcolm mumbled from behind me, but I shrugged.

“Chip in at your own pace choom.” I called out behind me as I walked down the dark path, head darting this way and that.

“C’mon tell me it’s here.” I mumbled to myself, as I hurried around the garage space. Finally I ended up catching back up with Malcolm and shook my head. “Nothing.”

“Hmm.” He mumbled though looking around despite the darkness making it hard. “Motoko, scan around a bit? These buildings sometimes have private garages along the walls.”

I blinked, I hadn’t even considered that. My eyes flashed, into a scan mode, something that was completely natural at this point. I barely had to think about it before my Kiroshi responded to my needs. “There!”

Along one of the walls, was a small rolling door. Just big enough for a car to drive in. And there! Another one.

Looks like there were two to three of them on each wall of the garage.

We didn’t even need to speak. Both of us rushed for the first one, and after a few moments, I managed to breach into the door's security and it unlocked, rolling up into the ceiling.

The space inside had a vehicle, but not the one we were looking for.

“Fuck.” Malcolm cursed, but I just smiled, and signaled for the door to shut, and ran to the next one. Malcolm following after just a moment his own excitement returning with the reminder there were more doors.

Mystery doors! What is behind door number two? I thought as I poked the door, the same security as the first door gave way instantly and it rolled up.

Just some junk.

We rushed to the next after closing the second and as it rolled up, I couldn’t help but whoop and leap onto Malcolm to pull him into a hug.

There it was.

The Quadra-R I had literally already stolen today.

“C’mon!” I hurried over without hesitation. I already had the thing breached from before. I already had a key. The door popped open before I even touched it, and I slipped inside, Malcolm joining me a moment later.

“Let’s call Ichi and Hiromi and get this taken care of… Then we can talk to Wakako about what she wants done.” I told Malcolm, even if I would happily just kill the gonks, if my choom was worried about it, then there was no harm in asking.

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