A month after Sophie’s first meeting with the Mox, the girl was cruising around the city in the Mizutani Shion she stole from Tasha. She’d asked for help in ensuring the car couldn’t be tracked and Rita had immediately offered assistance. Ultimately, she, nor any of the other Mox, could find anything that would allow Tasha to track the car down. It was now her mobile home, allowing quick getaways and giving her a roof over her head until she could get money for a proper apartment.
Since she had the car, she was driving through the city, intent on completing the first system issued mission she had received. Visiting every district of Night City. She had visited everywhere but Watson in the last month, mainly due the presence of Maelstrom, the gang that freaked Sophie out the most now that she was living in Night City.
After all, who wouldn’t be freaked out by a bunch of spider eyed, borderline cyberpsycho gangers who enjoyed filling kidnapped people with mismatched implants. They were a group Sophie wanted nothing to do with in her current state. She would only consider getting involved with them in a couple of years, when her Chronos Sandevistan was finally accessible.
Chronos Sandevistan: Unavailable (Reach eight years old or install more cyberware) (God)
It had frustrated the girl to no end over the last month, having such an incredible piece of technology installed yet being unable to use it until she got older. She consoled herself by thinking about the Unification War that would occur around the same time as her 8th birthday. At least it would be available by then.
The car rolled into Watson, meandering its way to Little China. At the same time, her system chimed, informing her of the quest's completion. Eagerly collecting her rewards, she watched her M-Coin total rise by 600. Wait. 600? Aren’t there 7 distri- right, Dogtown doesn’t exist until the end of the Unification War. She appreciated the extra money as well, but her attention was quickly drawn to the true reward of the quest. The weapon crate.
Sophie had distinctly felt her lack of weaponry over the last month. Unfortunately, she simply didn’t have enough money to spend on them and she wasn’t confident in stealing from one of the gang. The other issue was that she had no training in handling weapons. Thus, she was desperately hoping for a gun. At least it was fairly simple to use, in her mind. Inwardly praying for something like a Unity pistol, the weapon crate opened to reveal…a katana.
“What the fuck!? What am I meant to do with a katana?” Despite being upset, she carefully held it in her hands, running her fingertips along the blade. “Well, at least I won’t need to buy ammo for it.”
After admiring it for a few minutes, Sophie set about trying to find a place to hide the blade. Unfortunately, it proved harder than she expected. Due to her current stature, the katana was around the same height as her, meaning she wasn’t able to tuck it away under her clothes.
“Why couldn’t it have been a knife??” The small thief’s aggrieved voice complained as she gave up trying to hide it in her clothes. Her Stealth (Basic): Lvl.3 luckily included some methods for hiding weapons. One method was viable, but she’d need some help. Inwardly complaining, Sophie quickly rang Rita.
“Hey, if it isn’t my favourite little thief! What can I do for you? You lookin’ for more work?” The cheerful voice of the Mox bouncer entered Sophie’s ears.
“Not today Rita,” her abashed reply caught Rita’s attention. “Any chance you or any of the Mox have an old bag available for sale? Something around the size of a uhh, katana? Just as a reference obviously.”
Silence answered her before being broken by Rita’s cackling. “Kid, did you beat up and rob some of the Claws? Where did you get a katana from?”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“No! I’m not that stupid! I’ll lose any fights I get into with my noodle arms! I just found it, I swear!” Flustered, Sophie tried to come up with an excuse but was interrupted.
Still laughing, Rita replied. “Sure honey. I’ll check with the girls. I’ll send you the detes if someone’s willing to sell. I gotta go now, I got some punks causin’ trouble. Look after yourself kid.”
Sophie sighed as the call disconnected, then smiled. Rita had been incredibly kind to her since they met and Sophie enjoyed the older woman’s presence. It helped that she was also her first friend in Night City. The thought of friends brought her mind back to the present. Hopefully she’d gain an extra two friends by the end of the day as her car stopped outside a diner in Little China.
The small girl jumped out and immediately started making her way down the road to a very familiar store. She poked her head in the door and immediately saw a messy bob of blonde hair. The girl stood in front of a weird shrine thing, her back to Sophie. Seeing that, the thief knocked softly on the entrance wall. The girl jumped in fright, turning around and revealing Misty Olszewski, the proprietress of Misty’s Esoterica.
The younger version of Misty, one of Sophie’s favourite in-game characters, brought a smile to her face.
“Hi! I’m Sophie.” She stuck her hand out, looking at the older girl expectantly.
Gingerly shaking the offered hand, Misty replied, “Hi? I’m Misty. It’s nice to meet you Sophie. Can I do something for you.?”
Sophie ignored Misty’s confusion and replied, “Yeah, I want to be friends! I heard about you from the Mox and thought your whole spiritual thing was interesting! Can we be friends?” Misty recoiled from the intensity in the small girl’s eyes, then rubbed her own at the illusion of steam puffing from Sophie’s nose, similar to a bull. Then she smiled gently.
“Of course, I’d love to be friends with you.”
That was how Sophie obtained her second friend.
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Over the next few days, Sophie would visit Misty every afternoon to hang out after doing some odd jobs for the Mox during the day. The elder of the two girls didn’t seem to mind her constant presence considering her store didn’t get many visitors. Finally, after nearly a week, Sophie encountered the other person she wanted to meet.
The two girls were sitting together, Misty elaborating on tarot cards and Sophie telling stories about her day. They were interrupted however, by an older man who wandered in the front entrance, hands full with a massive box. Misty quickly got up to help but he refused, instead eyeing the young girl that returned his stare.
“Who’s the kid?” He spoke to Misty, despite not breaking eye contact with Sophie.
“This is Sophie. I met her about a week ago and she’s been coming over every evening since.” She turned back to the thief, “Sophie, this Dr Viktor Vektor. Just call him Vik. He’s a Ripperdoc, so if you need any work done in the future I highly recommend him. He’s just started renting the basement behind the store.”
Sophie grinned. “Nice to meetcha. Say, you got any eyes for sale?”
He laughed and said, “Y’know, I think we’ll get along just fine Sophie. Come on down and I’ll show you what I’ve got in stock.”
Misty watched in amusement as her small friend followed the older doctor down the stairs.
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“So Doc, what have ya got?”
“Well, it depends on what you’re looking for. You have anything in mind?” He set the box he was carrying down and Sophie peered inside. A jumble of random cyberware entered her eyes, all looking clean and pristine.
“Well, I’m a thief for now. Got anything that could help me with that?”
“Hmm, let me check.” Saying that, he quickly disappeared and Sophie heard him rummaging around out of view. A few minutes later, he reappeared holding a canister.
“Now, I gotta be honest with you. I’m not too keen on someone as young as you getting much chrome. However, looking at you, I suspect you wouldn’t listen and I’d rather be the one doing your installation and maintenance. Don’t want you going to some back alley Scav ripper. Promise you’ll come to me for your chrome?”
“Sure! So, what have you got for me?”
“Well, these are basic Kiroshi Mk.1’s. They’ve been out for a few years but they’re still pretty solid. They’ve got built in scanners and zoom functions, which might help with your…activities. It’ll be 3000 eddies for both. That doable for you?”
Instead of answering, she transferred the money, the older man cracking a smile at her actions.
“Alrighty, let's get started. On the chair please.” Sophie followed his directions, chattering about what kind of design she was going to pick.
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Sophie walked to her car, happy about her brand new eyes but deeply saddened by her empty wallet. As she walked, she practised using the zoom function and scanner. Vik had also entered an NCPD wanted list to the eyes, meaning she wouldn’t accidentally target dangerous criminals. As she slipped into her Shion, she decided she wanted to show off to Rita, quickly setting a course for Lizzie’s.