No chap on monday due to more dental butchery.
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The Catrunner
Her ICON glitched and sputtered in and out of coherence as she narrowed her digital eyes with focus, and almost faltered as the massive blood red wall of data in front of her reacted, growing bigger and bigger to her mind despite her not moving at all.
She felt the pressure in her head spiking but still soldiered on, uploading strings of data in an attempt to keep herself hidden from the wall's true consciousness for as long as possible until there-!
Her perception shifted, and for just a second she could see behind the wall, and got a full front face view of all the horrors watching and waiting beyond.
'It really does look like something straight out of eldrich horror.' The stray thought hit her, just before the wave of ohgodohshitohfuck!
She felt a string of attention, the merest beginnings of becoming noticed, and immediately pulled back, activating her backup daemons and swarming the tiny breach as she flickered out back into the safe net.
She didn't even notice her ICON falling on its ass as her connection stabilized.
"So you live to annoy me for another day." The acerbic and echoey voice of the Magos' ICON greeted her "How felicitous."
"Ah, c'mon, M. No need to be so worried." Sasha pouted at the other netrunner, grabbing onto the distraction with both her metaphorical hands "I knew I was ready and I was right!"
"Its still Magos to you, Yakovleva." The red shrouded ICON didn't so much as twitch "And I reiterate that the whole rite of passage you all seem so obsessed with is incredibly fucking stupid. Poking AI is a gonk move, no matter the kind of thrill it gives you."
After seeing what she had, she wasn't exactly too eager to disagree.
Still, it was quite a thrill now that she wasn't halfway to a panic attack...
"Ah but how can we learn to keep away if we don't see it for ourselves?" She asked a bit playfully, having gotten over her instinctive fear of her... teacher? in the past few months "Also didn't you say you did it too at one point?"
"Because idiots wouldn't have taken me seriously if I refused." Magos scoffed "And I needed the credibility back then."
'Yeah... that sounds like something you'd say.' She grumbled internally and quickly moved on "Still have a ways to go though... I barely managed a second before I had to get out of dodge. Wonder how much of a peek you got?"
"The absolute bare minimum. I got out of there the moment I 'passed'." He responded without even a second of hesitation, a warning look in his digital eyes "I don't need to get hit with a nuke to know its bad for my health."
"Is it though?" She tilted her head.
To which he turned silent, briefly looking into the distance before shrugging "Depends on the distance I guess, point still stands though."
"You are too cautious, M.-"
"Magos." He corrected tersely before she could go on.
'I'll get through to you one day!' She swore in her mind "Yeah, fine." She huffed and turned back to the wall of data "But really, you got me all curious. How far could you push this thing if you really tried?"
He didn't answer immediately, staring off into the Blackwall like it owed him money for ten long seconds.
"Far enough." He settled on much to her annoyance.
She sighed "Yeah, shouldn't have expected anything else..."
"Play stupid games, win stupid prizes." He said just as flatly "Let's get back to the EdgeNet. You can get all the praise and headpats you want from the rest of the gonks. I fucking hate this place, and have biz to conduct in a few minutes anyway."
'You aren't getting out so easily!' She narrowed her eyes "When's the next lesson then, oh chrome sensei?"
"Next lesson?" The robed ICON turned to face her, completely ignoring the nickname, much to her disappointment.
"Well yeah." She felt a mix of confusion and panic start to set in "You still got a lot to teach me, right?"
"I do?" Magos tilted his head "But Yakovleva, you just passed your baptism by fire, didn't you? What could poor old me have to teach such a proven netrunner?"
Wait... "Well yeah but-"
"But what? I promised 'Becca I'd show you the ropes, and you have reached the level of passable by my standards." He spread his arms wide "Why you even dragged me all the way out here to prove it."
All of her thoughts ground to a halt there as she realized something. He was wasn't petty enough to do her like that... right?
"Yes, yes I am." There was nothing under the hood aside from the eyes but she could swear he was grinning at her.
"We'll talk about it later." He said, giving her a bit of hope again.
But before she could get another word in, he clapped his hands and they were no longer standing in the nook under the Blackwall but back in the colorful cafe, drawing the attention of every single guest the moment they appeared.
They all looked at Magos and she could almost swear she heard him sigh before he spoke up in a dead tone "She didn't fry. Yay." Before promptly sidestepping a rushing fox woman avatar as cheers and congratulations came from the others in voice and text form.
Yoko Tsuru seemed briefly confused as their ICONS tumbled through each other before shrugging and hugging her "Congratulations Sasha-chan!" She grinned "I knew my cute little student wouldn't let you die. He learned everything he knows from me, yaknow?"
As she watched Magos' retreating form twitch repeatedly in annoyance, Sasha finally allowed herself to relax as the realization she actually succeeded finally set in.
Let him stay a grouch if he wanted to, she didn't care. She was in the big leagues now!
MagOS
"So yeah she isn't a complete liability anymore." I said to the other actually competent netrunners who had joined me in the private booth "Do with that information what you will."
"High praise coming from you." Nix's lifelike avatar smirked "I'll see about forwarding some work her way."
'She could use the experience.' I thought "As I said, its up to you. But we aren't here to discuss Yakovleva."
"Right." Nix's relaxed expression twisted into a frown "Pacifica."
"And the newest iteration of the Vodoo boys, yes." I nodded along "I've suffered multiple attempts on my own servers from their proxies for a few weeks now, but they are skilled enough to stop me from frying them through just their probes. It is starting to get... mildly irritating."
"What's this?" The literal silhouette that was B@D's avatar twisted into a posture of teasing mockery "The big bad Magos can't just fry whoever annoys him?"
I just stared at the serial annoyance blankly.
"Let's not get into this again, please. I'd like to finish this discussion today if possible." 8ug8ear sighed "Wakako is already driving me up the wall with her demands to find out what they are looking for."
"Rogue is also starting to get worried." Nix added "The previous Vodoo boys were barely relevant to anyone, but the Haitian refugees changed that when they took over."
"Right." I grunted "The shift from aggressive junky to clandestine AI cult was quite abrupt. And knowing how those usually end up, it wouldn't surprise me if they are already poking their noses where they shouldn't be."
I had already confirmed they were poking at the Blackwall but who wasn't at this point?
"Afraid Netwatch is going to get involved?" B@D asked.
"Completely certain more like." I responded flatly.
"I'll see about getting Rogue to contact some folks she knows in the org." Nix said after a brief pause "If we can confirm Netwatch is getting involved that will pretty much tell us everything we need to know."
"I'll see about things on my end too." 8ug8ear nodded.
"And if we do end up confirming it?" I asked "What then? Do we leave it to the good agents to do their jobs, or do we deal with the problem directly?"
"Don't be a nerd Magos." B@D claps their hands "Of course we are getting involved!"
I stare blankly for a while before realizing that was all they had to say "...why?"
"Because I'm curious." They shrugged "And those weirdos probably have some preem tech if they can fuck with us without frying. Just think about all the loot we could klep!"
"That is tempting." Nix mutters.
8ug8ear just sighs.
"They could-" I begin and quickly reiterate as the silhouette perks up "could, have something interesting. But that still isn't enough for me to go on a wild goose chase."
"They will keep bothering us until we stop them." Nix reasonably points out.
"It could also be a trap." I add.
"I doubt it." He shakes his head "The only reason we are even aware of them is because all of us here are skilled enough to detect their data mining. They are trying to lay low, not lay out bait."
Yoko knew about it too, but she flat out did not care until shit started burning.
"If you are sure." I concede the point "But I still don't see why we shouldn't just let Netwatch deal with them. It is their main purpose after all."
"Because they aren't that good at it." B@D cuts in "Not everyone is as nova as we are, M. and the gonks could take years before they get their asses moving. And our AI loving friends don't look like the type to take their time."
"Not to mention potential corpo involvement and sabotage." 8ug8ear says "The investigation could drag on even longer if they get bogged down by conflict of interest."
"And let me guess." I say with a growing headache "None of you are about to frontline this shit?"
"Bug and I will be gathering info from our end." Nix says "And neither of us are all that combat oriented."
"Not to the point of a walking tank anyway." 8ug8ear huffs.
"I'll be helping too!" B@D declares.
"Really?" I give them a flat look "You think I need your help netrunning?"
"Two heads are better than one and all that." They wave me away "Also I can't do anything else."
"Right..." I frown before sighing in defeat "I guess I needed to stretch my legs anyway. I'll see about getting into contact with Mr. Hands while I am at it. Its his territory, technically, and his help could be useful."
The silhouette begins dramatically clapping their hands.
Which leaves me feeling an immense surge of pettiness as I suddenly I point up at them "But if this is all a waste of time I am doxing your ass as punishment."
"Uhhhh..." They suddenly turn veeery still "Can you please not?"
"No."
---
My consciousness returns fully to the real world and I feel my Biopod inject me with a tiny dose of nanites just in case of potential strain like I did every time I deep dived for longer than an hour.
It was a bit wasteful but I made them from literal biological scrap so it wasn't like it actually cost me anything.
The headache of dealing with Sasha would have justified a dose by itself anyway.
I tried giving her a chance at first, but no matter what I tried she still kept to her reckless idiocy whenever given the chance, like she had some idiotic point to prove that only she was aware of and the words 'cautious approach' were heresy of the highest order.
At least she was competent now, in her own gonk way, so I could say my promise to help her stop sucking ass was completed.
If she wanted any more tips she would have to pay for them, just like everyone else.
'That will teach you to drag me back in front of the fucking Blackwall you ape...' I grumbled before quickly shaking the thought away and getting up from my special-built netrunning chair I shoved into one of the unused closets of my home's upper floor.
I did not strictly need too use one but it provided some minor comfort and expediency when disconnecting from the net, so I built it anyway. It made for an interesting afternoon.
There was also that one incident where I forgot about my RealSkinn and dumped all the heat through my 'preem as fuck death breath implant' and melted my mouth off that we don't talk about. Ever.
Jesus fuck was that uncomfortable with the added pain receptors.
Holding down the shiver at the memory I strolled through the refurbished hallway, silently enjoying all the improvements we made now that money was flowing in steadily.
Fine carpets, pleasant lighting, perfectly maintained paint, and all of the things one could only dream of when living below the sixtieth floor of any megabuilding.
And then there was the iguana terrarium.
Because of fucking course mom got herself an iguana once some gonk smuggled it into the city without having any idea of whom he was supposed to sell it to.
And so it naturally fell to my bored mother, who recently began working as a personal guard for Regina, much to my irritation, to buy the 'poor little thing' before someone ate it for lunch.
Let's just say that appearing as the buyer made my first ever meeting with Padre an interesting one and leave it at that.
The iguana was a lazy little shit more than content to just waste its days away in the perfectly maintained air of its tiny little house, staring down imperiously at us pathetic peasants who had to actually work to survive.
Truly, Gorlock the Destroyer was above us mortals in all things.
I'll give you three guesses as to who gave it that name.
Huffing in amusement I tossed the beastie some kibble granules and went downstairs to my workshop, a workshop that was starting to look more and more like an overcrowded storehouse with all the 3d printers, prototype cybernetics, and finished products stacked on top of each other.
I'll probably have to get a proper complex before the year was out, but on the positive end that meant I still had months left to procrastinate!
Something I was done procrastinating with though was my next upgrade, and I approached my main work table and the half-assembled Biopod-adapted cranial implant spayed out on top of it.
The Cyberdeck-Kerenzikov hybrid was a bitch and a half to finalize, and I had already gone through a dozen 'final' iterations before inevitably ending up dissatisfied with the result and going back to square one.
It didn't help that I was trying to stack even more features on top of my already ambitious plans but meeting those things face to face again in the Blackwall corridor even if it was only for a split second reminded me of just why I couldn't take half measures when it came to this particular implant.
I needed to be prepared, and yesterday.
Thankfully I managed to narrow down the factors limiting my progress to a simple issue in the quality of materials.
Less thankfully, the materials I needed were not all that easy to get.
Simply put, the fine microscopic components I needed to assemble the final design required a sufficiently resilient conductor, the kind that was only found in the hands of the highest echelons of the big name corporate research divisions.
And the black markets.
Of which Night City just happen to have one...
"Well, I did always want to pay Dogtown a visit." I muttered to myself, rubbing my artificial beard "And I no longer have the fullborg excuse either."
Hah, as if I looked any less dangerous now to anyone with proper Optics.
Fuck it, shopping trip it is!
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The cult has already taken all of your stones. We will now accept your due praise to the machine spirit.
14 glorious chapters await for those wise enough to seek them upon the forbidden Patreon (at patreon .com/ Rastislav156)
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