Ghost in the City

Home was nice. Jun was still at work when I got home but I was kind of glad because I was really wanting a nap.

My chest itched.

Like crazy.

I was forced to use Cool just to resist the irritation. So I really wanted a full sleep to hopefully remove the discomfort.

As I flopped onto the bed wincing a bit as I pulled my boots off my ankles that were all blotchy and swollen.

Despite Vik’s gentle touch he had still stuffed shit into my body. I was bruised up a bit. I didn’t even want to check my chest. My leotard thankfully had a bit of stretch to it despite the armored layer so It was wearable. It did feel a little tighter than normal, although that could just be the swelling.

So I laid back onto my bed and set myself to eight hours.

I blinked awake feeling pretty damn good. I stretched, noticing that the pain that had been just under my skin before was gone, although I winced a bit as the itching wasn’t entirely done with.

Sure it wasn’t nearly as bad as it was, but as I stretched and felt the way my skin stretched there was a bit of irritation in areas.

For now.

I checked my ankles which… Well they didn’t quite look like how my ankles used to look. Part of that was the realskin seams over where the chrome had been added in. There were two seams, One along the top of my foot, and one about mid thigh height. The Real Skinn was a good match for my own so that was cool.

Vik did good work. I actually thought the seams were kinda cool too.

I wiggled my ankles left and right.

Up and down.

Rapid fire wiggled them.

Seems everything was good.

I stood up, rocking a bit, I did have a bit more bounce to my step. I would definitely need some practice to get the hang of everything again, but it was pretty natural to walk forward and I didn’t have too many problems.

Without thinking I did a little extra bounce that would normally have just put me an inch off the floor only to bounce my head off the ceiling.

“Ow.”

Hadn’t Vik warned me to be careful where I practice…

Fuck he could never know. The Dad look would shatter my self esteem forever.

I rubbed my head as I left my bedroom. I was gonna need some exercise.

Time to go for a jog.

—-

I was so bouncy! It was taking up my entire focus as I ran down the street. My feet felt like they wanted to lift off the ground with every step. Once I got used to just how much bounce I could get, I entertained myself by doing front flips over the terrain of Night City as I jogged around. ꭆαＮóʙĚs

Startling people as I literally flipped over their heads if they were in my way.

When Vik had originally told me about the Serano, he had mentioned their quality. He hadn’t told me my hops would go to pro basketball player level. Or rather he had, but I hadn’t understood.

I was leaping high enough that my feet would be over where my head was at the apex of the leap if I was walking.

Hell. I was easily leaping six feet straight up without a lot of effort. Especially since I could probably get even higher with some training and getting used to them.

It was super awesome.

And sort of distracting. I just knew I was going to overestimate my leaps for a while until I got used to them…

Or until I burned a stat point for Adaptation. It was only a one drop for my ankles which was nice.

Both the subdermal, and the ankles being so low cost had reassured me.

I guess my arms had been so costly due to the unique circumstance.

I stretched my arms up to the sky enjoying the tension in my chest from the action. Of course as usual the chrome arms hitched, or maxed out their extension in a weird spot.

I still needed to add more points into them.

But my ability to move was certainly better than it had been. I started slipping into some parkour, leaping up over vending machines, or other obstacles, as I broke into a jog. Letting myself really see what I could do.

I was still right around the block of the apartment, but Instead of circling around. I turned and just ran.

Hitting another office or apartment building and just…

Going up.

Climbing straight up a building was a very unique experience, it wasn’t something most people ever really did.

But my hands knew exactly where to grab, my legs brought me to where I needed to move ever upward and I didn’t hesitate.

I reached the roof by flipping over the edge landing in a quiet crouch.

I grinned to the kid that had been hanging around the roof a can of something in his hand dropped as he flailed at my sudden appearance beside him from the wrong direction. Then just kept moving.

I bounced over the edge, landing on a sign board and then running along it until I leapt again. Hands gripping into concrete and metal as I climbed over the side of an upper level bridge. As always parts of Night City were multiple levels, and it was awesome to be able to reach them completely on foot.

Then I ran, jumping and climbing onto a street light, until I was on top of it.

I stood looking over the street chest rising and falling in a gentle rhythm. The fact I wasn’t out of breath, but I was breathing harder than normal, just a reminder I still needed to level body and athletics more.

I laughed at the thought, unable to hold back breaking into a long delighted laugh as I raised my hands above my head.

I loved this world.

I loved being able to be more.

As my laugh ended I turned Parkour helped me pick out the best rout. I jumped from the light pole to a building.

Everywhere I looked I could see a million paths I could run through the city.

It didn’t matter what was before me, because I could traverse it.

So I leapt again and again.

—-

My feet landed quiet as a mouse in front of my apartment building. I was definitely breathing heavily now, sweating like crazy and really feeling the exercise. I had gotten a few Body alerts popping up, having been running and parkouring through the city for the last few hours just loving the rush of movement, and getting practice with what I could now do.

I looked up at the section of the city high above the apartment that I had just came down from.

That would be a useful trick in the future.

I suddenly turned and remembered the attack that had lost me my arms. How I had tried to climb up a building to escape.

With my new ankles I would have been able to get away.

Not that it matters. I patted my shoulder holster. I was always armed now.

Of course I looked at my alerts for a moment.

*100 Body XP Gained*

*100 Body XP Gained*

I was really going to have to start seriously pushing myself if I wanted to grind more level ups.

I headed inside, wiping my forehead and running up the stairs because I might as well get a little more exercise.

I jumped into a quick shower to clean up and after slipping into a new leotard I flopped on the couch and grabbed my laptop. I still had another Quick Hack that I hadn’t ‘fixed’ yet.

Weapon Glitch.

Ping was an amazing utility, giving me information to better sneak around.

Reboot Optics was excellent at removing threats, but it was also very obvious.

Weapon Glitch? Weapon Glitch was just as good at removing threats, but it could also be prepared in advance.

No one missed when their eyes suddenly stopped working, but being able to turn off weapons before ever being revealed would give me a good advantage.

I looked at both the original Weapon Glitch I had bought from Yoko. The ‘fixed’ version I had put together which was okay, but still not great.

Then I considered how I could make it great.

I had enough experience now. Enough skill that I knew what to do. How to go about it.

I was going to make a Weapon Glitch that would just be hilarious. If I could get the hack to bounce through the network, I could definitely get it to spread to every weapon connected to whatever gonk I was fighting against.

I could potentially get it to bounce an unlimited amount of times within the network if I process the virus right.

Length and spread. That was my goal. Sure I could probably get a version that causes weapons to explode or something, at least smart weapons, causing their fuel and ammunition to cook off in the gun would be nasty, but that meant less loot!

No, I wanted a single quick hack to massively reduce the threat of a large group of people.

So I started programming.

—-

“-Mass hacking incident perpetrated by what the NCPD have decided to call the Laughing Man Hacker.”

I blinked as I watched the news report. I had remembered that there had been an actual news report about my act of piracy.

So of course I had checked it out!

Apparently hacking the optics of dozens of rich and famous had caused a bit of a wave. I had to giggle uncontrollably as some playboy singer was interviewed absolutely spitting mad about how I had blinded him.

Apparently he had been mid… Coitus when it happened, and it had been with a married woman. A woman that was his bosses wife. Blind as they had been, they hadn’t been able to split up before someone had come to help them.

I’d apologize but the guys rant was a bit much.

Temptation to assassinate rising.

But it was all hot air… I think. I made a note to check if the guy actually knew anyone that could cause me trouble.

In the end since they didn’t take too long to figure out how to fix the blindness the incident slipped off the news.

But for a short time the Laughing Man, had been big news.

Cool.

Scary, but cool.

In the end the news never figured out who I was before the whole incident was forgotten. In the end I had only killed the one person after all. Everyone else affected was just given a small optical virus that had been fixed that night.

I tapped my neck feeling the shard ports.

I still had the BD recording saved. I hadn’t handed it over yet. I could just forget about it…

No, that was fear talking. I rose up and stretched. It was getting late, but Judy should still be at Lizzies.

I got dressed and headed out enjoying the drive through the city, singing along to the radio.

Lizzies was booming when I got there. So much so that I had to drive down the street to find a parking spot. In fact there was practically a line getting in, but I did what any person does when they know the bouncer.

I walked past the line up to Rita.

She was glaring at a pair of gonk kids at the front of the line that were trying to talk their way in.

“C’mon! We’ve been out here for three hours!”

“And you’ll wait a bit longer.” Rita offered with a glare and a move that caused her baseball bat to tap against her chrome shoulder with a tink noise.

Of course I was getting attention by bypassing the line. Glares and a few irritated call outs, but they all expected Rita to halt me.

“Hey Rita.”

“Motoko.” She greeted with a single nod, before looking me over. “Business or pleasure?”

“Business. I’m here to see Judy.”

“Go on in then.” Rita said and the looks I got from the people in the line was pretty hurtful.

Wasn’t my fault I was here with actual business.

The insides were crowded as I wandered in walking past hordes of people flirting and drinking.

Luckily I was able to walk right through to the back and then down into Judy’s lair.

As I walked in, I was surprised that Judy wasn’t alone.

Suzie Q. The leader of the Mox was standing beside her, looking down at a monitor.

“Oh. Hey Judy. Should I come back later?” I asked, making sure they knew I was there.

I knew how sneaky I was, I didn’t want to get caught standing around waiting for them to notice and have people think I was spying.

“Jesus!” Judy jumped despite my attempt to not scare her. “Motoko! I’m getting a bell on you I swear to god!”

“Sorry sorry!” I flailed a bit as I apologized mostly because Suzie Q had jumped too, and she unlike Judy didn’t look amused.

Or very happy to see me.

“No come on in, Suzie was just looking over my list of new BD’s. What brings you here?” Judy waved me in, which I noticed didn’t make Suzie very happy.

But I wasn’t here to make her happy.

“I got another BD. A big one this time. I went on a big gig, stole tons and tons of scav chrome from where they were keeping it. Stole a yacht, blew it up with a rocket launcher at the end! Should be preem.” I offered, trying to act casual at the awesome tidbits I just offered.

“Wait. Stole a yacht? Motoko! Are you the Laughing Man?” Judy asked suddenly without warning! I wasn’t ready for this!

“Ugh! I can’t believe they called me that! I’m not the laughing man, I’m not a super wizard class hacker… Yet.” I muttered, I would get that power someday.

“Super wizard class hacker? What in the world is even that?” Judy struggled to ask as she laughed through the question.

“It’s a thing!” I argued but it was Suzie Q that broke in then.

“You’re the one that broke into the Gold Beach Marina? You?” She asked, looking me over, with a look saying she refused to believe me.

I shrugged. I wasn’t here to prove I had done something.

I popped the shard out of my socket and offered it up to Judy. “See for yourself.”

“Yoink!” Judy chirped, snatching the shard and pushing her chair wheeling over to her system where she inserted the shard and seemed more than willing to get to work.

“You’re the one that saved Nox.” Suzie Q muttered suddenly as if she suddenly remembered where she had seen me.

“Yeah, that’s how Nox and I met. I’ve been giving my BD’s to Judie, to fix up, and then Nox sells them.”

“That’s right. The XBD’s. I remember now… You’re also the one that took out Jotaro.”

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t nod, or make any acceptance of that. Just a glare on my face as I thought about that monster.

“Alright. Judy get those BD’s added to the server before you jump into that. You might not look like much, but any girl that can make the news, and murder that monster is someone welcome here.” She gave me a single firm nod as if my presence was now accepted before walking off.

“She always like that?” I couldn’t help but ask Judy.

“Yeah, that’s how Suzie is now. She used to be a lot nicer, before Lizzie died.” Judy offered, sounding distracted as her fingers ran across her keyboard.

—--

Back home I didn’t jump back into programming even if I kept having the feeling of ‘programming good’ whispered into my brain.

Inspired programmer was super useful, but it did mean I had that urge to act on it all the time.

No, instead I grabbed my guitar and my music box. I had been rushing around so much the last few weeks, first tracking the scavs, then the gig to steal from them, and then guarding the loot.

I had even jumped straight into work when I got home, but I really needed to decompress a bit.

So I hit my first note and played something actiony just to get the energy out of myself. Slowly as I finished song after song, I slipped into more relaxed music. Soothing tones and crooning vocals.

A few songs went by and then suddenly I got an alert.

*Rockerboy skill level up!*

Rockerboy 6! I smiled as I felt myself relax, as always improving made me feel better. So I just kept playing, and while I played I considered my situation.

While I still winced a bit at actually starting to get a rep, it did have benefits. There was a certain respect in the city for people who have done things.

Stealing a yacht and blowing it up counted, I guess. Maybe?

I don’t know. Night City people were fucking weird.

I now had eddies to spare. Even with the purchase of my subdermal, and new ankles I still had a ton of eddies.

It was nice, but honestly I wasn’t ready to buckle down and slam through tech yet. I was just too focused on other skills. So the eddies were pretty much just going to be sitting around for now unless something popped into my head that I wanted.

I continued to play along to songs as I relaxed, letting the sounds lull me into a calm mood.

—-

The next day I got a call from someone I wasn’t expecting.

*Yoko! What’s up?*

*Motoko. Or perhaps I should call you the laughing man?* She asked, in a teasing tone.

*Ugh. I can’t believe the news actually started calling me that, just because I used the J.D. Salinger quote.*

*It’s eye-catching, and you inflicted it upon some of the rich and famous. Of course it would become news. You should come by the server. I’ve had a lot of questions about who it was with a reboot Optic hack that could last for hours. People are interested, as someone who has been around the block? You want to come in and get some of their attention out of the way now. Unless you want to deal with everyone trying to hack you constantly over the next few months.*

*Ugh. That’s annoying! It’s not really turning them off that long. It’s just a trick.* I replied irritated.

*Oh I’m aware. You modified their user preferences, making them blind. Smart. I hadn’t even considered that before. Usually the settings don’t go that dark.*

*How do you already know? Ugh. The only reason they don’t is because the settings are purposefully limited. I just added-*

*Come to the server Motoko. There are a lot of people that want to hear all about what you did. Think of it as a congratulations party. You did something interesting enough that everyone wants to hear the story from the source.*

*Oh. Okay yeah. Sure. I’ll be there soon!*

*Excellent, then I’ll see you soon Motoko.* Yoko hung up and I smiled at that. Quickly jumping away from the couch and heading to get dressed.

There was a part of me wondering if this was a trap and the NCPD were going to attack my unconscious body, and haul me into jail, but I trusted Yoko.

Plus I was kinda wanting to show off.

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