Ghost in the City

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!”

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