Chapter 163

I woke up and slowly stretched out. I had decided to sleep after we got home last night, and now I was ready to start the day.

 

More importantly, I was ready to test out my new chrome!

 

Viks time limit was over.

 

I stood up and felt for the mental 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 mechanical 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 movement felt slow, and I knew that this Sandy wasn’t as good at letting me cut through the sense of slowed down time.

 

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 slammed 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 mentioned, and instantly Jun’s worry vanished.

 

“Gonk! Don’t practice new chrome 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 me for a moment longer before sighing, and disappearing. I slowly rose up, and noticed my nose was bleeding. Groaning in annoyance, I was gonna go find something to clean it up but Jun walked in with a towel and a moment 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 me. “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 apartment 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 some 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 chrome on the back of my neck, right where the chip for the Sandy was, gave me a rather uncomfortable feeling in my stomach.

 

There was no heat in the chrome left. The heat I was feeling was my nerves. Probably inflamed 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 some nice Ramen.

 

Unfortunately I didn’t really feel any better after my meal. My neck still felt hot and it was making me 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 home and once more cataloged the feeling.

 

I felt okay. No further heat or pain. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to look into this issue.

 

*Motoko: Hey Vik, not an emergency, but I activated my Sandy for the first time. Want to come in for a checkup.*

 

*Viktor Vector: If something is wrong come 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 me up for a scan. A few minutes of him just mumbling to himself he came back to himself. “Everything looks good.” He determined looking to me.

 

“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 me 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 time limit built into the chrome that fed information to me 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.”

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“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 time I activated the Sandy, I noticed something 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 time conflicting.

 

The Sandy turned off, and I was more ready for the feeling of the adrenaline surge ending as I calmed 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 time to recover you’ll be fine. Bad news? It’s not likely to go away. It’s just how your body responds to the chrome.”

“When I used a MaxDoc, I was fine after, does that mean 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 recommend 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 customer come in before the problem spiraled out of control.” He joked, but there was a twinge of seriousness in this comment.

 

“Well I have the best ripper in Night City checking my chrome. 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 meet during her lunch. So we were enjoying a meal 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 mean, Tank is… I don’t know, special I guess. So can you help? Act as my manager or somet-”

“Yes! I am your manager now.” She demanded poking my chest with a finger. “No music deals of any kind without going through me! I know how you are with deals!” She ordered and I just laughed at her, because she was so serious about it.