Stiletto walked out of her room not long after, a black duffel bag now slung over her shoulders.
“Did you say something?”
“That means we have time to scout out spots when we get rollin',” she repeated herself, before glancing at the duffel bag. “—What are you bringin' with you?”
Stiletto unzipped her duffel bag and showed the contents to Oni: a couple of spare Kreuzzügler II mags, some plastic restraints, some plasteel restraints, a steel manacle, a crowbar and rope. “Ta-da!”
“… If we're restrainin' any of them, do you gotta mask or somethin' to cover up? Prolly don't want them reportin' back with how you look. Least, not with corpsec clowns,” she said as she peered into the bag.
“Oh, right! Almost forgot my mask.” Stiletto rushed inside her room once more and walked out with a matte black ballistic mask in hand, customized to have a wide grinning face etched onto it. “I think I'm set.”
“Don't forget, we ain't showin' off Banshee stuff either, 'cause we ain't gonna start a gang war over this,” Oni paused for a moment. “Unless you think it'll be a good idea to piss off some people who think they're cool.”
“No colors?” Stiletto pauses. “So we're not doing this for the chapter?”
Onigiri tilted her head to one side.
“—You know what? Fuck it. Colors.”
She paused again.
“Should I just ask Switch?”
“You could, yeah!” Stiletto nodded enthusiastically.
«NeuroLine_Onigiri → Switch: Don't know if you're around, but a Go-Gang from Aurora Hills is movin' goods through the Slag. Should we be wearin' colours while we knock them?»
Shortly, a reply came in.
«NeuroLine_Switch → Onigiri: Aurora tourists? Fly your colors. Hit them hard.»
“Okay, Switch says that colors are fine. So, you know. Shine bright and all that.”
“Icy!”
Oni refastened her messenger bag to her back. And then looked at Stiletto's chest. “—Lemme see your gun.”
She tilted her head at the request. “My gun? Okay.”
Stiletto unzipped her racing leathers and pulled the top to the side, smoothly drawing her custom Kreuzzügler II from its quick-draw holster and handing it to Onigiri.
Onigiri flipped it over in her hands, making a half-hearted attempt to investigate it. Several AROs popped up before rapidly closing, well beyond anyone’s perception to track what she was actually doing. Despite it being a near nauseating blur of sounds and lights to even Oni, she seemed like she had it well in hand what she was doing. “—Okay, bein' honest, I probably didn't need to touch it. But the internals should be workin' better.”
“Okay!” Stiletto fiddled with her ballistic mask, a neon purple AR overlay of the Screaming Banshees logo now on its surface. Her racing leathers now sported that same AR overlay on the back, thick purple lines slowly extending from her shoulders to her wrist.
Onigiri didn't have the panache to go that flashy, the AR logo only popping up over the back of her riding leathers. For a matrix jockey, she surprisingly doesn't make very much of a big show when it comes to her gear.
“We probably got a few hours to do what those friggen operators call legwork to scout out the area before the convoy hits town. You made it sound like you know the route, so you get the luxury of leadin',” she said as she strutted to the door, sending a NeuroLine command to activate her Hozumi Cyclone before she's even outside.
“Okay!” Stiletto followed behind, similarly starting her Cyclone via NeuroLine command. “We should probably head northwest of Blackwell first, see the likely route they show up from. Ideally we divert them east to bring them away from the Aurora Hills border, but we'll see when we get there.”
Onigiri straddled her bike, remembering to put her helmet on. Safety first! Although, she went through the effort and made sure that everything was strapped down and zipped up, not wanting to lose her messenger bag when she peeled off.
“How are we plannin' on divertin' them? You gonna shoot at them?”
Stiletto mounted her bike with little fanfare, forgoing any leaps or acrobatic jumps. She threw on her helmet as well, tightening her duffel bag strap to have it sit snug against her back.
“Shooting at them is an option. Shoving things onto the road for an impromptu roadblock works.” She pauses to rev her Cyclone a few times. “—maybe you can mess with the GuidSys?”
“—If I’m messin’ with them, shouldn’t we only be rollin’ with a single bike? I ain’t gonna be able to drive and properly mess with them,” Oni remarked as she brought the kickstand down.
“We're just scouting out the spots right now, right? Two bikes might be better for now, just so we can split up to distract anyone who might be looking for trouble with us.”
“Okay, that’s perfectly fair. Considerin’ the Freaks and all,” she said, revving the engine mid sentence. “Just gotta figure out the logistics of what we’re gonna do with the bikes when we gotta move the tuners.”
“Easiest but least safe way is telling the bike's pilot program to head back here on its own.”
Onigiri revved her engine twice again. “Never had any luck with the dog brain bein' anythin' less than shitheaded,” she laughed, before nodding back to Stiletto. “Lead the way there. If we're fast enough we can go and get somethin' to eat while we wait for the assholes.”
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
Stiletto shared her route, heading south from the clubhouse towards NE Blackwell Rd and cutting west, before proceeding to the first waypoint: the heart of Thorndale.
“I'm gunning it!” Stiletto shouted before her Cyclone peeled away from the clubhouse's parking lot, turning her and the bike into a black and neon purple blur.
Onigiri gunned it as well, doing her utmost to tail Stiletto's bike. Thankfully, they're both using similar bikes, so it mostly boils down to driver skill to keep the other Banshee in line of sight. She's more focused on that than any kind of stunts.
«NeuroLine_Onigiri → Stiletto: I'm guessin' this is a pretty standard route if it's one that they're usin' to come in from Sunnbury Flats?»
«NeuroLine_Stiletto → Onigiri: If they're bothering to take the long way through the Slag instead of entering Northern Aurora Hills from Sunnbury Flats, they'll be sticking close to the border.»
Stiletto bobbed and weaved through traffic, slowing down to a speed that isn't MAX POWER but still faster than most vehicles on the road.
«NeuroLine_Onigiri→ Stiletto: Wonderin’ why they’re routin’ through the Slag instead of goon’ through Sunnbury? Ain’t like tuners are illegal.»
Onigiri mimed the effort, the slightly slower pace made sure she didn't wreck into the back of another vehicle. No sign of pissed off Freaks yet.
«NeuroLine_Stiletto → Onigiri: Exactly. They're probably expecting less resistance going through here? I'm not sure what Aurora Hill's turf situation is looking like, so avoiding getting their shipment intercepted by a rival gang makes sense.»
Stiletto cut right at the NE Blackwell Rd-208th Ave NE intersection, heading north towards NE Carnivale Hill Rd.
«NeuroLine_Onigiri → Stiletto: What do they have to worry about goin' through Sunnbury Flats, though? It's CorpSec, right? Sunnbury ain't gonna fuck with some random trucks goin' through, 'cause that shit's all farmers and cattle, ain't it?»
Onigiri nearly biffed the turn, too busy sending out the NeuroLine message. She turned it from 'nearly biffs it' into 'trying to look cool' by dragging her leather padded glove along the asphalt as she pushed her weight in the other direction to re-align the bike.
«NeuroLine_Stiletto → Onigiri: Sunnbury Flats isn't the problem, it's just the fork in the road. Their only options from there are entering Northern Aurora Hill, which has factors unknown to me, or Northwest Slag, which I assume has factors unknown to them. Namely, us. And the other Slag gangs.»
Stiletto activated her helmet's image link, feeding her bike's rear camera to it to keep track of Onigiri.
«NeuroLine_Onigiri → Stiletto: Still thinkin' it's prolly a bit weird, but I ain't really savvy on the gang shit yet. Considerin' how much I spend on the floor and not goin' outside.»
In the meantime, Onigiri brought up a map to try and at least figure out the next sharp turn that Stiletto planned on taking.
«NeuroLine_Stiletto → Onigiri: We should probably start looking into gangs in other districts too. Don't want to be the figurative frog in the well.»
Onigiri saw that the next turn would be heading westward at the next junction, going along NE Carnivale Hill Rd. The turn shouldn't be too severe, though.
«NeuroLine_Onigiri → Stiletto: I'd be lookin' into it, but only one person, you know? I'm tryin' my best to keep an eye out to threats on us. And you know, big paydays, like this one.»
Onigiri made the upcoming turn nearly flawlessly. Which wasn't a big surprise, considering that it wasn't even a sharp or severe turn on its own. It was literally just a normal turn.
«NeuroLine_Stiletto → Onigiri: I'll keep my eyes peeled when I go through the other districts.»
Stiletto attacked the roundabout up ahead in one smooth motion, slowing down and weaving past cars into a knee-scraping turn before straightening herself to gun it again.
«NeuroLine_Onigiri → Stiletto: I thought you normally stick to the Slag?»
Onigiri, on the other hand, was far less confident about taking the roundabout with any amount of speed and slows down to slowly make her way through it, only speeding up as she escapes from the loop.
«NeuroLine_Stiletto → Onigiri: Thinking of signing up the next time a chiprun to Arcadia is being done.»
Hairpin up ahead that should put them on Thorndale Rd NE.
«NeuroLine_Onigiri → Stiletto: I've never been. Prolly 'cause I dunno how tight my figurative leash is when it comes to goin' places. You know, bein' the only member who knows their head from their ass when it comes to the matrix.»
She managed to multitask sending that as she hit the hairpin going a little too fast to deem safe, riding the momentum around the corner safely enough that she only skimmed the kneepad of her racing leathers in the turn.
Stiletto conquered the hairpin turn with ease, keeping her line smooth and tight. Sparks fly as her kneepad grinded asphalt briefly.
«NeuroLine_Stiletto → Onigiri: Should we ask Switch if we can go together on the next one?»
Less than two kilometers until they reach Thorndale's main intersection.
«NeuroLine_Onigiri → Stiletto: I could, I just dunno how useful I'd be on a road trip, you know?»
Onigiri slowed down to a more brisk cruising speed as she punched that out, apparently not looking to gun it straight towards the intersection.
«NeuroLine_Stiletto → Onigiri: I think matrix support is useful anywhere.»
Stiletto slowed down, pulling up and stopping just short of the intersection, parking her Cyclone in front of a Primo Purchase.
«NeuroLine_Onigiri → Stiletto: Hardly.»
She swung in behind Stiletto, trying to park parallel in front of her Cyclone.
“Not much to see on the waves when you're out at sea and all that.”
“Why's that?” Stiletto brought the kickstand down and dismounted her bike, taking off her helmet and shaking her hair loose as if she was in a shampoo commercial.
“'Cause. How often do you think people go out sailin' and stuff? Connectivity goes to crap once you get underwater, too,” she said, miming Stiletto but with much much less panache, instead opting to rest her helmet on the seat of her bike.
“Oh. That makes sense.”
“Just sayin' it might not be the best idea for me to leave the nest,”
She put her helmet down and jutted a thumb behind her towards the Primo Purchase. “Let's grab a drink and a bite or something. I could use a double tall Sploshee right about now.”