I woke up and slowly stretched out. I had decided to sleep after we got ho last night, and now I was ready to start the day.
More importantly, I was ready to test out my new chro!
Viks ti limit was over.
I stood up and felt for the ntal toggle for the Sandy.
I flipped it on, and winced as I felt my body react.
Nerves lit up on fire, adrenaline spiked. Biological, and chanical responses activated and suddenly everything was slow.
I moved, running towards my bedroom wall, but it felt like I was moving through molasses.
Yet, I was still moving fast. Even faster than I could have before my movent felt slow, and I knew that this Sandy wasn't as good at letting cut through the sense of slowed down ti.
I nearly reached the wall and made to stop, only for my feet to slide a bit on the floor.
I blinked stars out of my eyes.
"What the hell was that!?" Jun demanded as he burst into my room.
Had I? I blinked again. Yep. I had slamd into the wall so hard I knocked myself silly.
"I'm okay!" I called out arm up in the air from where I was laying on my back.
"You don't look okay. Your nose is bleeding. Motoko, what the hell?"
"I uh, miscalculated my Sandy." I ntioned, and instantly Jun's worry vanished.
"Gonk! Don't practice new chro in the house! Look at the wall!"
I didn't want to look at the wall, thank you Jun. If I can't see the hole in the wall where my head smashed into it, it doesn't exist!
Jun looked down on for a mont longer before sighing, and disappearing. I slowly rose up, and noticed my nose was bleeding. Groaning in annoyance, I was gonna go find sothing to clean it up but Jun walked in with a towel and a mont later he was gently holding my head and pressing the towel against my nose.
"Ow."
"I know it hurts, you might have broken your nose."
"I don't think so." I muttered, it didn't hurt like I broke it.
"Well that's good." He said and then glared at . "This was dumb."
"Sorry."
He nodded at my apology, and that was that.
—--
I huffed a Maxdox after Jun stopped fussing and I was fully healed. But I had learned my lesson.
Sandy are difficult to use.
I considered dropping my one stat point into it, but my neck was also still super stiff, and I was tempted to drop a point into that for comfort.
So instead I didn't do either. I got dressed for the day and left the apartnt before Jun could notice my sudden healing.
I walked the streets for a bit. Heading down towards Jig Jig street. While I walked. I did so testing.
I activated the Sandy and just tried walking. I could feel the hitch in my step as everything grew slow and my steps had to be forced to keep pumping through the thick air.
I turned it off, and the feeling left my heart beating and a warmth in my neck.
I walked on. Just cataloging the feelings the Sandy left in its wake. I shivered a bit as the heat from its activation didn't really go away. A hand pressed onto the chro on the back of my neck, right where the chip for the Sandy was, gave a rather uncomfortable feeling in my stomach.
There was no heat in the chro left. The heat I was feeling was my nerves. Probably inflad from the forced acceleration the Sandy caused. Needing to find out how long the effect lasted, I finished my walk to the Sakura Market, and ordered breakfast slurping down so nice Ran.
Unfortunately I didn't really feel any better after my al. My neck still felt hot and it was making a little nervous. Yet before I went running to Viks to get checked out, I decided to pop another MaxDoc.
Instantly a sense of coolness ran down my spine and I stretched and adjusted myself. Throwing the used inhaler into a nearby trash can, I headed back ho and once more cataloged the feeling.
I felt okay. No further heat or pain. But that didn't an I wasn't going to look into this issue.
*Motoko: Hey Vik, not an ergency, but I activated my Sandy for the first ti. Want to co in for a checkup.*
*Viktor Vector: If sothing is wrong co in kid, I'm at my office now. It's a slow morning.*
*Motoko: Yeah, okay. I'm on my way over. I'm okay though, I just want a check up.*
And with that I had the first stop today.
—--
"And you said a Maxdoc removed the feeling?"
"Yeah. I thought the Sandy was just overheating at first, but after a few minutes the feeling didn't go away and the Sandy cooled off."
"Not unusual. Probably just put a lot of unusual stress on your nervous system." He mumbled out as he set up for a scan. A few minutes of him just mumbling to himself he ca back to himself. "Everything looks good." He determined looking to .
"That's a relief." I exhaled shoulders slumping.
"Well it looks fine now, so your healing obviously helped, but I would like to get a scan of you while you activate that Sandy of yours." He said, and I threw him a thumbs up.
"Sure, just tell when."
"Go for it." He answered instantly, turning to look at a screen, and I activated the Sandy.
Instantly everything slowed down. I blinked my eyelids felt heavy and slow at the motion.
I could basically 'feel' the cooldown on the Sandy tick down. A sense of energy or ti limit built into the chro that fed information to through the Neural Link.
Then it deactivated and I gasped as I realized my heart was beating fast from the adrenaline surge,
"Alright, do you feel the heat again?" Vik asked, and I focused on my neck and nodded.
"A little? Maybe? I think I didn't really notice it until I used it twice."
"Alright, let's do that then. Go ahead whenever it's ready, kid."
I nodded, feeling the Sandy's cooldown finish its long cool down cycle and then I activated it again.
The experience was truly unique. Each ti I activated the Sandy, I noticed sothing new. How air felt a little heavier making it harder to breathe. But it was actually just my sense of touch and my sense of ti conflicting.
The Sandy turned off, and I was more ready for the feeling of the adrenaline surge ending as I cald myself and just let my adrenaline fade away.
"I would bet you are feeling that now." Vik muttered as I shivered, my neck hot.
"Yeah."
"Well good news and bad news. Good news, this is pretty normal. It's nerve strain, pretty common with reflex boosters. As long as you give yourself ti to recover you'll be fine. Bad news? It's not likely to go away. It's just how your body responds to the chro."
"When I used a MaxDoc, I was fine after, does that an I can keep doing that?" I asked, normally I wouldn't want to abuse my body's limitations, but only being able to use a Sandy twice sounded pretty useless.
"Honestly? I don't know kid. I wouldn't recomnd it. Better to not risk it, but your healing is so unique, and filled with unknowns to start with. Be careful."
"I will. Thanks Vik. I appreciate the check up."
"Honestly, it's a nice change of pace, having a custor co in before the problem spiraled out of control." He joked, but there was a twinge of seriousness in this comnt.
"Well I have the best ripper in Night City checking my chro. Seems silly not to ask him for help."
Vik to my delight did a little scoff at my words, but his ears got a little red. I thought about teasing him, but no. I didn't want to embarrass him.
Thanking him once again I headed out.
I had a lunch date after all!
—--
"What!? Oh my god, Motoko! Eeee!" Hiromi rambled and squealed in happiness while we sat across from Arasaka tower in the City Center park. I had asked Hiromi if we could et during her lunch. So we were enjoying a al I had brought with.
"It was kinda awkward more than anything. But Denny liked Tank… I don't know if I want to sell it though? I an, Tank is… I don't know, special I guess. So can you help? Act as my manager or sot-"
"Yes! I am your manager now." She demanded poking my chest with a finger. "No music deals of any kind without going through ! I know how you are with deals!" She ordered and I just laughed at her, because she was so serious about it.
"Okay okay. You win. I'm a bit of a gonk with eddies, I know."
"Good. Then I'll reach out after class, I'll need to do so research as well!" She said before turning to her food and stuffing so noodles into her mouth with the energy of soone in a rush.
I felt a little uncomfortable though. Hiromi already did a lot of work for . Acting as a Fixer for Section 9, even doing all the selling and buying for Section 9.
And all of that on top of going to school. Taking classes, howork and schoolwork.
I reached out and pulled Hiromi into a hug. Ignoring her surprised noise as I pulled her in while making sure she wasn't going to drop her food. "Hiromi. Just don't overwork yourself okay? Definitely not for , and not for sothing this silly. I've been throwing a lot on your plate and I just want to make sure you don't get too stressed okay?"
"Wha-t-this is nothing! I can do all of this and more! You can rely on !" She stuttered before nearly jumping to her feet in her eagerness to assure , but I wasn't happy to hear that. I frowned at her, and then reached out before she could get away, chro palms trapping her cheeks so she had to look into my eyes.
"Don't overwork yourself." I demanded and she nodded slowly looking almost embarrassed at my firm tone.
At least she understood now. I would be really mad if she made herself sick or sothing over this!
"Okay. The music thing can wait, it's not really important." I said flippantly, but Hiromi whined in her throat.
"I'll deal with it tonight! Do you have any idea what that number ans?" She asked and I shook my head and she sighed. "It ans that I now have a contact in the music industry. When I call, the manager will try to trip up, I'll haggle, and we'll end up with lots of eddies, and a new na. A contact I can reach out to speak to for any information in the music industry. Contacts are better than eddies Motoko!"
"Well just… Don't work on it too hard." I said, not really understanding how a business deal would turn into contacts in the future. But that was Hiromi's thing so I would take her word on it. "I an… It's a lot of work for nothing."
"Nothing?" And then Hiromi surprised , by instantly pushing into my personal space, her face reddened but she did it anyways poking in the cheek with her face really close. "I'm taking twenty percent off the top." She said almost sinisterly and then settled back onto the bench with a cackle.
Hiromi around eddies was scary!
—--
With the music issue passed off to Hiromi, and my chro settled and functional, I made a call.
*Kitten! What's my little Kohai calling about?" Sasha said cheerfully, although it did sound a little forced.
*Well you asked to netrun with you last ti. Just got my final checkup from my ripper, if you still want so company?*
*Yeeees! It's so boring! The only thing I'm allowed to do is Netdive or watch TV! Okay! You co over and use the bath?*
*I'd much rather just head to my place, and we can et on the net? My chair is way more comfortable.*
*Pfft. That's right you are so prissy about it! It's kinda cute! Very moe-moe point! Okay fine you can have your senpai stuck with crappy ice baths while you get your fancy equipnt, it won't matter. I'll show you what a real netrunner is like, chu!*
Did she just kiss noise at ?
*Right?*
*Hehe! Okay where should we et? Should I give you my lobby code? Did I clean it up! What if I left dirty laundry laying around!* She fake gasped at that, and I couldn't help but laugh.
*How about we et at the Roundabout? Yoko is a choom of mine.*
*Ugh. The foxs den? Paaaass. Here I know a fun net club. I'll send you the IP. et at the bar yeah?*
*Sure.*
*Preeem! Now I gotta go get dressed up for our date! Bye!*
*Wha- It's not a d-* The call ended.
"That cat is going to be trouble." I whispered to myself, suddenly feeling like I had just invited a stray cat into my ho.
—--
Plugged in, I dived into the net and landed in the casual atmosphere of my lobby, stretching my body. I took a mont to feel the slight differences that new chro brought with.
Sure, my cyberdeck was the sa, but a new neural link did make a difference.
My old one was a civilian model, sothing kids would get. My new one wasn't state of the art, but it was vastly improved.
But now wasn't the ti to enjoy the slight difference in latency I could feel. I stepped out of my lobby and into a search engine and then I was across the city in a blaze, connection after connection, until I appeared in a blink on a busy digital street.
The server was sowhere in Charter Hill, and there was a ton of traffic through the streets. Mostly business traffic, large massive data streams that were more like trains to my senses than a normal user's connection demanded priority in the air above.
But I wasn't going up there. No, the IP that Sasha had given tugged my attention down. I was at the top of a set of stairs that led down into darkness.
The IP matched, so I took a step, and then another. Deeper into the darkness. I ca out upside down which was an irritating fact, stepping 'up' out of what had been down a mont before until I was level, and then I stepped off the last step that ended in empty air.
I felt the world flip around, and I was right side up, landing on digital concrete. I was in an alley now. Faux trash cans, and dumpsters lined the sides, with fire escapes leading to nothing looming overhead. But it was a single difference that caught my eye. A warm yellow light, like from a lightbulb streaked across the alley from a small round window in a door, indented into the side of the alley.
I walked over and even as I approached I could hear laughter, and noises like you would expect before walking into a bar.
Soone went to a lot of work to get that track right. Digital as it was. I opened the door, and the noise changed, soft strobing electronic music, and another set of stairs.
This server Sasha invited to was seriously deep in the net. Down again, this ti into a warm burgundy carpeted entrance.
"Welco to Elysium." A woman greeted , sitting behind the counter. Her eyes hidden behind a magazine. Like an actual paper magazine. A glance closer showed it was just a file she was reading, made to look like that, but it was still weird.
"Thanks. I'm here to-"
"Ah-ah-ah." She interrupted. "That's none of my bizz. Go on in. No trouble, or I introduce you to Elysiums darkest Black ICE. All the other rules should be self evident if you found the server."
I nodded in exchange and walked through the door, instantly I was blasted by heavy music, the entire server set up so the music felt like it was right there.
It was actually kind of overbearing, but I powered through it and looked around. The club actually looked less techno than what I would expect from a runners club. Instead everything was more old school. Hard wood and warm colors. The lights actually looked like lightbulbs giving the place a warm glow.
But it was obviously fake. The facade peeled and cracked in the dark corners. As data shone through.
The server was old. That was what I ca to realize as I looked around. Unlike Yoko's club, this was the sort of place that had been around for a long ti.
But I shook that off and headed for the bar. I frowned when I realized there was no Sasha. Had I beat her here? I shrugged it off and took a chair. A bartender behind the counter wasn't actually a person, just a daemon watching over everything.
It would definitely agro the mont soone caused trouble.
I hadn't managed to sit down for more than a few monts before a back door of the bar opened and out ca a giggly Sasha.
"Yay!" She cheered happily bouncing around. Her appearance and cheer caused a few of the netrunners sitting in booths around the bar to groan and feign outrage at her.
"Kohai!" She cheered, noticing and bouncing over.
Instantly I realized the difference between Sasha in real life, and Sasha on the net.
She was happy here. Or at least faking it way better.
"Sa-"
"Nenene!" She demanded a finger hovering over my lips, not that her finger would have reached anyways. "I'm Mysterious Neko-Nyan!
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