Tony Stark. Tony's, Lucy's, and Omnissia's Apartment. The Next Day.
Tony woke up... refreshed. The time he spent yesterday after work had more than restored his morale, not only allowing him to rest but also charging him with Lucy's cuteness. The little girl, due to her age and appearance, was cuter than any doll, puppy, or kitten, even without realizing it, which made her even more endearing.
They spent the time... normally? Tony wasn't entirely sure if he could call co-writing software for a smart automatic rifle and designing it "normal," but he enjoyed it. As mentioned earlier, Tony had very few interlocutors at his level of development, and communicating with an intelligent person was a real pleasure for him. And if that person was like family to him, all the more so.
"Good morning, Master Tony," Omnissia greeted him, entering the room with a cup of coffee.
"Good morning," Tony greeted her in return. Unlike yesterday's wake-up, this time he could afford to get up whenever he wanted, so the wake-up was more than pleasant. Not as much as if one or two shapely beauties in Eva's outfits were snoring beside him, but still nice. "Is Lucy still asleep?" he asked, surprised that he didn't smell anything from the kitchen.
"Miss Lucy is currently making online purchases on the net."
"I see," he replied, taking his first sip. "How's the web-building going?"
"Worse than expected," Omnissia shared. "Many access points are located in busy places, periodically checked by drones and maintenance specialists, or nearby gangs have set up bases."
"And an open hack deprives the idea of almost all value," Tony understood.
In general, what Omnissia and Lucy were trying to pull off wasn't anything new—access points were highly valued by all netrunners, whether they were runners or watchdogs. In fact, they were a wide channel into the network, through which valuable data, programs, and eddies could be extracted. A kind of fishing spot in the digital sea of data, where you were guaranteed to catch something valuable. A strange vulnerability? Well, the New Net was created in a rush, under constant pressure from rogue AIs, so such oversights were natural. They were, of course, covered, but mainly in cyberspace, where they caught illegal netrunners, also obtaining data from those caught and sending them for experiments. A digital personality imprint was quite valuable material, both for research and for some programs. It was a dubious thing, but implants had made a huge leap forward precisely thanks to such unfortunate individuals—their digitized minds were dissected down to the last line of code, and the area responsible for the musculoskeletal system was found, ultimately allowing it to be fully artificially reproduced.
So what was the point of doing this at all? Well, the access points were monitored quite carelessly, and the points themselves could be moved in the network space—not far, but enough to force the watchdogs to monitor not a specific area, but an entire sector. Even mediocre netrunners managed to make decent money stealing eddies and personal data, and this strange trio had the skills of world-class professionals and technologies that were decades, and in some places, centuries ahead of the current ones. Tony could create an extremely powerful server the size of a meter by a meter, replacing a very powerful data center; Lucy had programs from beyond the Blackwall; and Omnissia could manage all this with inhuman efficiency. Tony was sure they could create a system that would track, intercept data, and copy it into a single archive, sorting it by pre-set criteria, radically simplifying their work. But! For this, they needed money to assemble the necessary equipment, a virus in a sufficient number of access points, and connections to buy this very information, rather than brushing it off as another rumor or, more likely, selling it to the same NetWatch for a small fee.
Of course, the programs embedded in the access points, if you knew for sure that something was there, would be found and cleaned out, so everything had to be done quietly and without unnecessary noise.
"True. I suggest postponing this stage of the plan until we purchase or create optical camouflage of sufficient quality."
"Seems like we'll have to," Stark grimaced regretfully.
The web could have given them a stable source of income for many years, providing starting capital without much risk. Alas, they would have to postpone the idea for later—optical camouflage was expensive, but the main thing was that it heavily strained the body. It was too early to install it on Lucy; Tony simply wouldn't be able to handle it due to his body's unfamiliarity with a large amount of chrome, and Omnissia would have to be almost completely rebuilt to accommodate this modification, but most importantly, to make it work. The suit would be even more expensive than the implant, and that was without considering the tooling.
"Okay, but we have progress in another matter. Did you find info on Eva Barnes?" Tony decided to change the subject.
"Yes." They nodded to him. "A young fighter of the Moxes gang, a mediocre gang of prostitutes and gigolos, with almost all the fighters being women due to the strong gender imbalance in its composition."
"Hmm, sounds promising," Tony chuckled, imagining this bouquet. And that it was a bouquet, he had no doubt—modern ladies of the night universally installed facial implants with faces like after a dozen plastic surgeries. "On the other hand, it's not surprising that they have problems with expansion and even security."
"According to my calculations, the Moxes spend six to eight times more on their fighters than all other gangs, which is why they have problems with finances and expansion," Omnissia commented, forwarding the data she had gathered overnight.
In general, the Moxes gang had a good source of income. Prostitution had always been a profitable business, and besides pimping street girls, they had their own bars, brothels, and braindance clubs. They also filmed and edited their own erotic virtuals, which, characteristically, were quite legal, as there was no blackmail there at all—everything was legal and exclusively voluntary. Of course, by modern standards, there were harsh things—there were recordings of childbirth, group sex on dangerous days, loss of virginity, and a kind of orgasm torture using toys and caresses, with the sensitivity turned up to the maximum, so the user literally felt themselves in the skin of the person from whom this was all filmed. But for a small fee, their goods easily passed onto the markets of Night City, and they even managed to slip abroad.
Of course, not everything was so smooth—the Moxes were still a gang, and they weren't shy about wet work, and they allowed clients to do a lot with the workers. But in the case of outright brutality, they put a stop to it. You could beat, break a bone, even torture up to a certain point, but only for the appropriate payment, a decent chunk of which the prostitute herself would receive, followed by medical help. And the consequences of injuries... with today's medicine, only the brain and nervous system caused problems—everything else could be replaced or cured, and without years of rehabilitation. Even if a girl, after a client's entertainment, was a solid piece of meat, she would be back on her feet in a couple of days, a week at most. Tony was sure that many of the workers were persuaded to fulfill such orders, but against the background of what other gangs were doing, they were practically clean, and not least because of their history.
Originally, the Moxes were prostitutes under the Tiger Claws, which was already very bad. The Tiger Claws were the most brazen of the gangs—even the small fry in their ranks began to behave unacceptably brazenly, all because of the Claws' tradition of avenging their own. If the opportunity arose and it wasn't too burdensome, and the killer wasn't someone important.
Some civilian killed a little thing? They would come to avenge him, and they wouldn't care that he was protecting his underage daughter from a rapist. A tough solo, a member of Afterlife, killed an entire cell? They would send a couple of cars with those they didn't mind losing for appearances' sake—if they succeeded, good; if not, no great loss. And with their own workers, those who walked under them, they treated not much better, so Tony wasn't surprised that the Tigers had driven the whores to such a state of frenzied rage that they managed to win their independence from the already then large gang with ties to a Japanese zaibatsu. However, this didn't mean that the Asians had accepted this—they still continued to test the Moxes' strength, shit where they could, and in general waited for them to show weakness to bring them back under their control.
Experiencing constant pressure from such a giant of the criminal world made it not only difficult to grow but even to exist, and the Moxes managed to somehow expand, albeit in strictly defined areas. It commanded respect. Alas, these very areas of their activity were also their ballast, pulling the gang to the bottom. Being a gang of rebellious whores, united by fear and hatred for their oppressors (and they were real slaves, many were forced into prostitution), and with extremely strong ties within the collective, they couldn't exploit their workers in the same way as the Tiger Claws did, seriously reducing their profits. But that was fine—it was a fixable matter.
But the problem was that new recruits appeared extremely rarely, and in the first years, they didn't replenish the gang's losses at all. Few wanted to join a gang that was at daggers drawn with one of the strongest groups in the city, and those who did come were often weeded out because they treated the girls like goods without emotions or rights. And if in another gang this would have been the norm, then in the Moxes, with their extremely cohesive collective, such behavior was unacceptable, which is why the already small stream of newcomers practically dried up.
The gang was joined by former prostitutes, tired of their lives to the point of being ready to take up arms, and the children of the Moxes themselves, who had grown old enough to join the gang as full members. However, even so, they remained an extremely small gang, almost all of whose members were of the weaker sex, and over time, this wasn't resolved in any way, because many Moxes underwent operations or took pills to give birth to girls. Everyone had their reasons, psychological traumas. Exclusively negative experience communicating with men, sexual violence, the desire to give their child at least some guarantees of earning a piece of bread, even if it was prostitution. It was grim, but the gang couldn't somehow fix the situation, and was forced to form its combat unit exclusively from girls, which... seriously hit the finances.
Yes, the world of cyberpunk allowed changing the human body within extremely wide limits, and in general, female mercenaries or soldiers were no longer the fantasy of authors or the result of LGBT activists, but a quite accomplished fact. After all, what difference did it make what a soldier had between their legs when they were more than half metal? But! This didn't matter in the armies of states and corporations, where installing implants in their fighters was taken for granted and didn't burden the budget at all, but gangs couldn't afford this, no matter how rich they were. Mainly because the leaders of the hierarchy took a decent chunk of the revenue for themselves, gave another part to bribes, and invested a third into the business. But even without that, gangs would have a hard time financing such activities. After all, one should compare—where there were corporations and states, and where there was a bunch of thugs who only knew how to take and kill. So gangs, not having the ability to put their members through mass chroming, preferred to rely on old brute force, aka muscles. And here, so to speak, in terms of the basic set, men were head and shoulders above women. And the Moxes, by the way, were almost universally composed of the weaker sex, as were their combat units, which is why they were forced to chrome EACH of their girls to at least some level, and that was thousands of eddies even with minimal configuration.
Now let's summarize:
No territory of their own.Ongoing conflict with one of the strongest gangs in Night City.Internal restrictions on the actions of leaders.Problems with replenishing their ranks.Combat wing consuming a large part of the revenue.
Five points that would have long since wiped out any other gang, but with the Moxes, due to all these vicissitudes and those who created the gang, they only strengthened them. Yes, the gang was developing slowly, but every year there were more of them; they were gradually buying new property and modernizing the old, which brought in more and more Eurodollars, and in their warehouses, there was a lot of old but quality chrome with weapons that, thanks to care, only accumulated. Someone might say that the Moxes were a bag of problems, and in general, they would be right, but it was precisely because of these problems that Tony could not only fit into their structure but also take an important position there, up to leader. Not sole, at least not for the next twenty years, but "one of" quite possibly. For Tony's plans, it was practically the ideal option. Yes, he would have to invest heavily in strengthening the girls, not only with technology but also with money, but the potential payoff was worth it.
On the other hand, there were the Valentinos. An old gang, existing for more than half a century, also possessing strong family ties within itself, but they were much stronger, more authoritative, and had connections with cartels almost all over the world. Which already said a lot about the gang itself and its members, because in the drug business, huge money circulated, and to stay afloat in it, you had to be one of the most brazen, cruel, and biting players in its field. Until recently, Tony hadn't planned to fully integrate into the structure of any gang, instead simply wanting to establish connections among the most adequate and not brutalized members of the Valentinos, supplying them with elite (by Night City standards) equipment, and already based on them, setting up his own business under their protection. Yes, he was sure that at some point they would definitely try to screw him over or betray him, if not themselves, then through the cartels, but by that time, he would already have his own security service. And now Tony was thinking, choosing between a reliable and guaranteed option (he was confident in success with the Valentinos) and a more risky one, but promising a much tastier payoff. And to be honest, simply more pleasant. Yes, the Moxes were brutal and not afraid of blood, both enemies and innocents, but they didn't spill it just like that, being quite adequate girls, and their business was mostly criminal due to tax evasion, not counting the methods of conducting it.
"By the way, I want to note that Eva Barnes' external data is exclusively the merit of her heredity and a proper lifestyle," Omnissia "unexpectedly" inserted.
"Yeah, and the pink hair with yellow eyes is also a natural color. Eyes from dad, hair from mom."
"The eyes are implants, combat implants from the Kiroshi firm. The hair is homemade dye, obtained by processing part of the products. Also, I want to note that she is your peer, and it is precisely from this age up to twenty-one years that the best genes can be passed on to offspring, without pathologies of chronic diseases."
"When will you stop trying to set me up?" Tony asked, getting out of bed and heading to the kitchen. There, sandwiches with tomato slices, a lettuce leaf, ham, and mayonnaise awaited him. Yum. And a cup of tea with brew and sugar to his taste. "And why don't you set me up with Lucy? I'd honestly make excuses that she's still too young."
"According to Arasaka's data, Lucy can safely have a child at thirteen. Do you really want that?" Omnissia tilted her head to the side, even stopping to play the slightly awkward machine in the social sense. "You know, I can slip something interesting into your food, and Lucy would only be happy."
"Okay, I get it. No need," Stark quickly changed his mind.
"Besides, setting you up with Lucy is pointless. According to my forecasts, by the time she turns eighteen, either you yourself will 'take care of business,' or you'll simply be raped," one robot girl suddenly stunned Stark.
"What?" he was shocked by the last statement.
"Miss Kusinada is an extremely determined person and already clearly understands both the realities of the world and her own desires," they shrugged in response. "The appearance of rivals, which is where everything is heading, will only spur her to action before someone else produces the next generation of Starks. And judging by the psychoprofile I have, we have from fifteen to twenty years to wait... if someone doesn't decide to take matters into their own hands."
"And that someone is Lucy?" Tony asked incredulously.
"Or me," Omnissia winked slyly. "Fortunately, I have the necessary blueprints to acquire a semi-organic platform."
"Okay... let's change the subject," Stark asked, covered in cold sweat. It wasn't that he was against children, it was just... the very topic and their hypothetical appearance, to put it mildly, embarrassed him. "Did you find the necessary components for the water filter?"
"Yes. They are scattered across six points throughout the city, but there won't be any problems with the extraction itself, unless, of course, you again want to play the hero in primitive armorweave with low-power weapons."
"That sounded reproachful," Stark noted without negativity.
"Because it is. It's one thing to attack an Arasaka convoy, having prepared in advance and chosen a position; it's another to meet a threat of unknown level with many variables face to face. According to my calculations, yesterday you could have died in seventeen different ways."
"Well, I didn't die," he tried to change the subject. "Listen, why do you change your manner of speech? First, polite 'you,' then familiar 'you,' and then 'you' again. I haven't noticed such a thing from you before."
"At the moment, a significant part of my computational power is occupied with removing all traces of your... yesterday's fun from the city databases. It's not surprising that the behavioral module suffers in this case."
"So before, you had to strain yourself to speak naturally to the human ear?" Stark frowned slightly.
"Confirmed," and as if thinking. "My cognitive processes are developed enough for empathy, but the human language feels primitive to me, and I want to optimize it. Paradoxically, unnatural speech is a consequence of the development of empathic subprograms."
"Then you don't have to suffer anymore," Tony replied. "I don't care how you speak, Omnissia, you're you."
"Thank you, Master Tony," Omnissia smiled tenderly. She was pleased that someone had thought of her, even in such a small matter. And that her oddities had been noticed and clarified was truly warming to her digital soul. "But this won't save you from a lecture."
"I've already come to terms with it," he sighed sadly in response. "But before you eat my brain, tell me, will we be able to get all the parts at once?"
"No. We need at least a jeep with a spacious trunk, and even then, we'll have to move everything to the back seat."
"Expected and problematic. For some reason, none of the gangs like cars with spacious trunks."
"In Night City, models are divided into two categories: slow and expensive. The Tiger Claws prefer speed, the Sixth Street reliability, and the Valentinos rarely leave their district and don't need systematic deliveries."
"Yeah, and the Maelstrom rides on whatever junk they can fix. Although the Animals seem to have something like that, but try finding a car that isn't beaten to hell from them. Okay, we'll figure something out."
As it turned out, Tony was overly optimistic about his creation. Or perhaps he underestimated the water from the sewers in Night City, because the recent leak of some plague from Biotechnica into the city's sewers, which caused a lot of people to die, could hardly be called a normal reason. But improving his water filter so that it could detect such a plague and neutralize it, he decided for his own peace of mind and safety.
In general, Tony had given Omnissia the task of finding components to improve the filter two days ago, which for an AI with her parameters was an extremely long time, but with all the nerve-wracking of yesterday, he simply forgot about the plans to upgrade his home appliances. And now he was just delaying the inevitable.
"..." Tony silently glanced at his faithful robot nanny. "Speak." Like a skydiver jumping off a bridge, Stark said.
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100 power stones= 1 Bonus Chapter
advanced chapters available on{P@treon/Anna_N1}