For once cleaning up the place went without any issues. I ended up dragging the bodies away from where I killed them all and pushed them into a corner so they wouldn’t bother the others, while Ichi ran through the base finding loot and gathering it all up.
I did take a small break to grab the Scavs laptops laying around. Hopefully I could use a bit of netrunning sneakery and figure out another Scav den.
Honestly we probably could use more hands next time we did this, but while everyone did start flagging an hour in, I just reminded them that the more we could drag out of here the more eddies we would have in the end.
Boxes of Cyberware. Computer equipment. Ripper Equipment. Bits and bobs from the chop shop that Ichi confirmed would make some eddies if sold.
In the end we filled up the truck with the most valuable stuff and left the stuff that would be harder to sell. We all climbed back into the truck and drove off.
I finally pulled down the mask once the back of the truck was down and Malcolm and I were both squished into the loot we had gathered.
The boy might be exhausted, but there was a shit eating grin on his face as he rested back.
We stopped at Hiromi’s apartment again, all of us relaxing from the gig.
“Alright Section 9!” I called out once again using my sexy voice. Which had an instant effect.
“Stop doing that!” Ichi called back as he blushed a little but Hiromi elbowed him instantly as she threw me a thumbs up. Malcolm just shook his head at my nonsense.
“Never. It’s far too fun. Excellent work everyone. Hiromi, Malcolm, did you find anything interesting in the Cyberware?”
“Loads of stuff!” Malcolm practically exploded. “I mean it sucks it’s all scav chrome, but holy shit they pulled some preem chrome Motoko. You’re gonna be picking some stuff yourself at this rate!”
Malcolm and Hiromis reaction had Ichi and I both looking a little excited.
“Okay pull out the box of stuff let’s take a look!”
“Not here you gonk!” Hiromi demanded, shaking her head at me. “Let’s put the boxes in the cars and drive it out of here first. There are still cameras.” She reminded me and I bowed my head in acknowledgment.
“True. Let’s pull the chrome boxes and load them into our rides, meet up at Viks?”
“I’m gonna pass. You guys know I don’t really need new chrome. My rents would get me whatever I need, Arasaka stuff. You guys take it. I’m gonna start calling buyers. Just let me know what you don’t end up using… Or what you don’t ‘sell’ to Vik Motoko.” She said, looking squarely at me with a face.
Hey! I didn’t deserve a face! Besides… Okay fine yeah I was probably going to sell the rest of the stuff to Vik. He deserved to be well stocked, and I know he would do good with this chrome that had a terrible origin.
Make up for some of the bad karma of it all.
“Oooh hey is that a Mantis blade? Hmm. A Militech Infuser? Never heard of it.” Malcolm said as he pulled out…
They weren’t arms themselves, but more like pieces that could be installed in cyberarms.
“You want them Motoko?” Malcolm asked looking up at me with a face that was practically sparkling.
“As much as I might, I’m keeping any installs to small things for now.” I told him shaking my head. “Is there any Netrunner stuff?”
“Hmm. I think… Yeah small box of some old decks by the looks of them. Nothing good. Oh here you go.” He pulled out a small case, and popped it open. “Ex-Disk.”
“Nice!” I cheered Ex-disk were Neuralware mods that would increase a Cyberdecks RAM. More RAM. Faster punching through gonks security. “Yoink!” I snagged it away which he chuckled at as I closed the little case and put it in a pocket.
That would go with me to Vik later.
“Odds and ends. What the hell? These are some absolutely ancient Cybereyes. I’d be surprised if they even connect to everything anymore.” Malcolm grumbled as he wiped some dust off the thermos looking canister.
“Unless the canister was just used to store it. We’ll pop it with Vik and see if it’s any good.” I reminded him, earning a pleased smile.
“Motoko! Smart link!” Ichi called out waving it at me.
“What don’t want it yourself?” I asked but he just looked at me.
“Only one of us is a crazy solo that clears out entire scav dens on their own.”
“Which means I already don’t need it.” I tease but he tossed it at me regardless and I quickly grabbed it out of the air.
“Fine, I'll chip it. Should be easy enough with these.” I mention waving my hands. I guess it was about time for me to start actually interfacing with my guns.
“There is still tons more, but I don’t know what all of this is… Viks?” I asked the boys and while I got a response from both boys that reminded me of trying to take a bone away from a wild dog. Slowly we gathered everything together, but got sidetracked by Hiromi.
“Change of plans!” She yelled imperiously pointing at me. “You are my bodyguard while we make sales.” Then she turned and pointed at Ichi. “And you need to drive the truck. Malcolm will be with you holding a shotgun. We can start having fun with the loot soon, but I want to get this over with. I already got a sale for some. Let’s go!” She called pointing…
At my Quadra.
“You already made the sales?”
“I already made some contacts thanks to your Fixer. I was just waiting to know the loot. While Malcolm was loading everything up, I was already putting out feelers. You are allowed to worship my amazingness.” She proclaimed hands on her hips.
“Yes oh mighty fixer. Please allow us to help you sell the loot.”
“Excellent! Let’s go! Malcolm! Get that stuff loaded into the Quadra. I already know Motoko isn’t going to let us sell any of it before her ripper gets first look. Ichi! Secure the truck I want to get some of this sold off tonight before it gets any later!”
Ugh. I guess I’m chauffeur and bodyguard girl now.
But at least Hiromi stopped barking orders at me.
—--
The sales were… Interesting!
“No stop trying to rip me off. You wanted the canisters of Flunitrazepam? You pay up for it.” She snapped at the ripper that she was selling the loot too.
Of course it was only because Hiromi was Hiromi that the guy hadn’t turned us away for being scavs or something.
This was the third shop we had hit. And she was selling the stuff we had klepped. Including the Rippers tools and chair.
Apparently Charles had been a naughty boy. He had been making enough eddies with his scav friends he had a lot of top of the line stuff.
Hiromi was selling it off piecemeal.
We had of course stopped at Viks first, for a surprise sale, and dropped off the boxes of actual Cyberware that he had agreed to look through and pick out the choice bits for us, as well as figure out what everything was.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
He had even paid Hiromi- I mean us. He had paid us for a new diagnostic tool that he liked the look of.
Which made me happy. I forced Hiromi to give him a discount though.
She had refused at first, but I put on my sexy voice and told her it was happening, and that had stopped any attempts at refusal.
Honestly I had mostly done it to mess with Vik, but I’m glad my mature voice seems to make people listen to me.
And then, despite how action packed it was. It started getting late, and we all decided to call it a night.
Ichi took his much emptier truck and would store it securely in a garage that Jotaro had originally bought to do exactly what he was doing, hiding loot. A place to store a truck full of expensive stuff until it was sold off.
The money was flowing in, although we were keeping it all together for now until we were ready to divvy it out.
It was a good haul, and everyone was super happy. Ichi’s money problems would be solved for at least a little longer, Malcolm and Hiromi were happy.
And I was just glad my friends were happy.
Well that and 5k XP closer to a level up.
—--
“I’m home!” I called out as I walked inside the apartment. The lights were still on so I knew Jun was in.
“Welcome home.” He called out, and I saw his hand wave from his bed as I walked into the bedroom and then into my little room. I peeled out of my new armored suit’s jacket with a sigh.
It was funny, I was so used to wearing my leotard and jeans, that wearing something like this just felt weird. The jacket was tossed onto a dresser and then I peeled myself out of the armored top and pants.
Honestly they were a useful bit of gear, even if the looks were super basic, the sort of brown base, broken up by patches of the gray kevlar, the only spark to them. They looked super basic. And what kind of merc or edgerunner would I be if I wore something like this all the time?
I had only picked it up and wore it so my crew would do the same.
I wasn’t that worried about a few bullet holes, but it was a different story for my chooms.
Once I was free I grabbed one of my Leotards and slipped into it. Feeling much more comfortable with how free I felt wearing one. Then without bothering to put on any pants I walked back out and grabbed my guitar.
I had honestly been pretty bored hanging around as Hiromi sold equipment to fences and rippers.
So I really wanted to destress. Flopping onto the couch I kicked my feet up on the armrest of it and just closed my eyes as I started striking some chords.
It wasn’t any particular song, no lyrics beside my humming, but I let myself relax and move away from the killing and death that made up most of my day.
—--
“So you hit a scav den, that was working with a Ripper?”
“Yep. From the emails he would do work on some people, and some people would just disappear.” I told Jun the next morning as we ate breakfast together.
“Disgusting. He dead?”
“Put a bullet in him myself.” I assured him as I chomped into my XXL burrito.
It wasn’t good, but I was feeling lazy and I didn’t want to leave the apartment yet. I would eventually. After school Hiromi was going to try and sell more stuff, but that was later this afternoon.
“Glad you didn’t get hurt.” He finally said as he finished his burrito and tossed the wrapper in the trash.
“They never even knew I was there. I did get another kill with a guy watching a BD though. That never gets old.”
Jun snorted at my words and patted my head a bit and I winced before kicking at him. “Ow! Stupid chrome gorilla hands go get some real skinn! Do I have to buy it for you!?” I yelled at him as he dropped his stupid chrome hands a bit too hard on my head.
He winced a little as he lifted his hands up. “Sorry Imouto… I didn’t even think about it.”
“Go see Vik! Moron! Dummy! He’ll take care of you. I know you’ve been avoiding him. Hiromi just sold him some Real Skinn too… Actually did you know it comes in these weird canisters? Apparently you have to like grow it. Well it expands I mean. It’s weird stuff.” I muttered, kinda waving my hands around. Vik had been happy to receive the canisters pretty cheap. Lot of people that couldn’t afford it could use some skin to feel more human.
Jun snorted at my rambling but he got serious a moment later. “Alright. Fine. I’ll go see a ripper and get some Real Skinn.” He grumbled at me as he rose up and grabbed his jacket.
“Ah! Good! Go right now! I want a big hug when you come home!”
“Yeah yeah.” He mumbled tiredly, obviously done with my teasing.
“One yeah is enough!” I corrected with a laugh as he flipped me off as he closed the door behind him.
Huh.
“What am I gonna do now?” I could poke Regina. She had said she would have a gig for me soon, but I wasn’t in a rush and she said she would let me know.
I didn’t really want to go try and track down the next scav base from the info I got out of the den right now.
So I guess just lay around? I looked over at my mess of mechanical parts. At my laptop full of programming I was still working on…
That seemed like work though.
I reached over to grab my guitar and sat up. Music time.
—--
I did take a break from music to do some more programming, but funnily enough while listening to the radio a song came on that I liked and I ended up grabbing my Guitar and playing along.
I fell into a habit. I was listening to the radio and whenever a song I liked came on, I would sing along and play with it.
Of course I would switch over to different stations.
It was kinda hard to play electronic music on my guitar after all. Which is part of the reason I wanted my music box to be programmed.
I did have a lot of projects on my hands, but I was having fun so that’s all that matters.
Of course I was in the middle of singing along when the front door suddenly burst open.
I looked.
Hiromi looked back.
I looked.
Hiromi grinned.
“HIROMI!” I yelled at her as I swiftly tried to hide the guitar from her as she pounced on me.
“MOTOKO!” She yelled back in delight as she started laughing at me.
I wasn’t blushing! It was just embarrassing! No one besides Jun was supposed to know!
“Hiromi you need to learn to knock!”
“How could I? I heard my Motoko out in the hall singing her heart out! I had to rush in and see!” She proclaimed as she continued hugging me as I tried to peel her off and put the guitar away. I quickly glanced over at the radio and it shut off with a quick thought.
“Aww. Motokoooo!”
Finally managing to put the guitar on its stand I reached down to the giggling girl and put both hands on her cheeks. Forcing her to meet my eyes.
“You saw and heard nothing.” I told her firmly. Even using my sexy voice.
She just grinned.
That meant she agreed… Right?
—-
“You should have heard it Ichi! It was soooo preem Motoko was totally jamming out standing on her couch!”
“No one will find any of your bodies.” I promised as I continued to hide my face against Ichi’s truck. The cool steel just barely kept me from overheating.
She had promised not to tell anyone!
“She tried to make me promise not to tell, but I mean. C’mon! Of course I will!”
“Death!” I whimper-whispered.
“Motoko, when did you start playing the guitar? I don’t think you did before the coma or anything.” Malcolm asked, ignoring Ichi and Hiromi both trying to embarrass me more.
“It’s all Hiromi’s fault.”
“What? How!?”
“You made me sing during the Nomad BBQ! I realized I wasn’t any good at it, so I decided to start practicing!”
“Wait… Motoko, did you really get so embarrassed about your bad singing during the BBQ that you secretly went out and bought a guitar to learn some music?” Hiromi asked, suddenly staring at me with her big old green eyes.
“It! It wasn’t a secret! Jun knew!”
“Motoko… You are the cutest ever.” She whispered, barely hiding the massive grin behind her hands.
“No!” I denied but Hiromi was soon sage nodding at me, Ichi joining in. The jerk!
“You got so embarrassed about singing you went and bought a guitar to learn and practice?” Ichi asked for a moment. “Cute.”
“I’m! I’m dangerous! Not cute!” I demanded stomping my foot to prove my danger.
It didn’t work.
“You weren’t that bad at singing Motoko. You didn’t have to get so cute about it.” Hiromi said and I frowned.
“I’m not bad at singing!”
“You weren’t really great either, Motoko.” Hiromi offered gently as she walked over and threw an arm over my shoulder “But it’s cute you have a weak point.”
Weak point? Me? Never! Weak points are where you get hit for massive damage! I refuse!
I walked over to the Quadra and popped the door and after a moment it was on the radio blaring to life.
And then right in front of my crew I started belting out the song alongside the radio.
A minute later as the song came to an end I was breathing a little heavily. My face was absolutely bright red, but my chooms were all staring in shock.
“That… Was actually pretty preem. Holy shit.” Malcolm said, looking at me in a bit of shock.
“Motoko! When what? You didn’t know how to sing like a week ago!? What happened?” Hiromi asked, marching forward and grabbing my arms and shaking me a bit.
“I learned! I realized I didn’t know how to sing at the camp, so I made sure to spend some time learning! Turns out, I’m pretty good at music in general! I just needed some practice.” I told her. Lying my ass off. Thank you Gamer system! I would be a talentless hack without you! Please forgive me for not telling anyone about your wonder!
“Ugh!” Hiromi coughed like someone had just punched her in the chest as she took a few stuttered steps back until she hit the truck. “How can she be so perfect at everything!? Ichi!”
“Don’t look at me Hiromi. I’ve grown completely used to Motoko making me look like a gonk at everything.” He said, sighing as he walked over and joined her beside the truck, both of them just sort of staring off into nothing. Hiromi at the ground, Ichi at the roof.
“Rude.” I muttered to myself.
“I don’t know ‘Toko. This is kinda crazy.” Malcolm spoke up, still standing beside me as he looked over our chooms. “I mean it’s one thing to be good at fighting. Or sneaking. Or singing, but you are just good at all of them.”
“I just practice a lot!” I argue, feeling awkward, that I was basically cheating in my ability to learn new things. “Besides! We aren’t here to pick apart Motoko’s hobbies!” I remind them, pointing at the truck. “We are here to make some eddies!”
“She’s right.” Ichi agreed, coming back to reality at the mention of money, as he stopped staring at the ceiling like a zombie. “Alright Section 9, on your feet, let’s get this taken care of. Hiromi that means you.” He said.
“Eh!?” I couldn’t help but gasp out as I pointed at Ichi. “W-w-what did you just say!?” I demanded shocked!
“Section 9. It’s what you called us yesterday, remember?” Ichi said and then to my horror!
He smiled!
“You! You’re teasing me!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. C’mon Section 9! Let’s get moving!” He called out and the traitors all followed after!
My Chooms! Betrayal!
“H-hey You can’t use that! Section 9 is… It was just a joke!”
“Nope we all decided. Section 9 it is. C’mon Motoko load up. Hiromi needs to show up in a preem ride to make the sales.” He reminded me as Hiromi already settled into my Quadra.
My chooms were teasing me!
I slipped into the Quadra as Ichi and Malcolm started driving off literally ignoring me as they left.
“You guys are being mean.” I complained to Hiromi as I started following.
“Aww. Is a little teasing too much? Well now you know how we feel after you keep changing your voice.” Hiromi mentioned poking me in the side.
“I thought it was cool.”
“It was very… Cool. Yes, but don’t tease us if you can’t handle getting teased back.” She said, reaching up and pressing a finger against my cheek. “Where did you even get Section 9 from anyways. Some TV show or something?”
“Ah! Eh.. Umm. Nooo?” I denied.
Nailed it.
For some reason my denial didn’t seem to convince Hiromi though!
“Gonk.”
I pouted and refused to say anything else about Section 9 as we drove to another Ripper that was willing to buy some stuff.