Chapter 223

Judy Alvarez

 

“Alright time to do this.” She popped the can of Shock Volt, washed down three wake me ups, and sighed as the cool warmth of caffeine washed through her.

Her heart pounding in her chest was the best part.

 

Then she pulled on the wreath and started up the new BD.

Slipping into a new skin, especially from a raw Virtu was usually a bit rough, new emotions, feelings, thoughts and everything odd random twitches, the way people held themselves, it all felt so different.

 

But not with Motoko.

 

Oh it felt different, but there was none of that random irritation.

 

Cool surety washed through her, her arms would definitely be prickling. Judy-Motoko peaked around the edge of a container.

 

Scav. The target was already being attacked and he never even knew, she felt a rush when technology simply gave way to her, and a dozen golden lights shot from the man, filling her vision with every threat.

 

So many. Judy hesitated in shock, Motoko didn’t, washing away her surprise with cold sinister confidence.

 

Absolute surety of action.

 

Motoko sent a message informing a choom of the numbers, and then ran a chrome hand across her cheeks.

 

Judy was smiling.

 

Oh shit.

 

That wasn’t just eagerness but the cold delight of a murderer about to get her fix.

 

A new hack was sent up going by so fast Judy couldn’t even see the text scrawl across her own eyelids, but she knew it was functioning because there was no hesitation.

 

A moment later Motoko moved, and Judy once more learned what it felt like to not be a lazy bitch.

 

Leaping up onto the container and then across in a rolling move to keep her out of sight of the scav, leading to her sliding down into the container with an almost eerie lack of noise.

 

No scraping of chrome hands on the container, no echo when her boots hit the ground.

 

Silence.

 

It caused a shiver up Judy’s belly. As she realized what was about to happen.

 

A knife was pulled free from behind her back, her Kiroshi didn’t even glance at it, the cold surety that everything was exactly as planned as it plunged into flesh, and Motoko moved, hand over mouth muffling the faint gasp as the scav died.

 

Dragging him off the chair and hiding him didn’t even take a momentary thought, simply instinct confidence.

 

Then she peaked out, and something shifted.

 

A car, Quadra Type-66, but a Nomad style, rough and tumble… Motoko’s car? That’s right she had said someone-

 

Motoko moved, like some kind of beast down a fall that Judy would have refused to do without even slowing, without making a noise as she slipped into a crouch hiding herself behind the small walkway barrier and moving just as fast as Judy could standing upright.

 

“I said six kay, that’s all I’ll do.”

 

“It’s a fucking modded to fuck Quadra! She’s worth more than that!”

 

“She’s also klepped. Six Kay.”

 

The Scavs were talking to a gonk. Street rat, the sort that klepped cars and sold them to any dealer that could get them. Judy knew the type.

 

Motoko apparently killed the type.

 

There was no hesitation. Motoko moved to follow the kid, and Judy felt a rage, but it wasn’t hot or bubbling, simply cold arithmetic.

 

The kid stole something important. Motoko would take something in return.

 

The kid died after a very short chase. Another sliced throat-

 

“Fuck!” Judy pulled off the wreath and slumped back, she was breathing heavily, and coated in sweat. She rose and nearly face planted. Fucking!

 

Fuck Motoko! Fuck that little teenager that makes Judy’s entire body feel like something disgusting and rotting.

 

The Virtu was intense, and already Judy knew that she’d not even touched a tenth of it. She wrapped her arms around herself and just let the shakes dissipate, even though it annoyed her how her normal flesh and blood hands felt so wrong after the surety of Motoko’s chrome arms.

 

“Jude?”

“Aaaeeee!” She shrieked at the sudden words and felt herself move.

Or try to.

She’d felt the instinct to move like Motoko, to shift herself and ready to attack, but she wasn’t Motoko, just Judy.

 

“Ow.”

“You alright?”

 

“I’m fine Carmen. Just fine.” She grumbled, as she pulled herself from the floor. The wreath on the floor made Judy stop and pick it up and put it back on the chair. She’d get back to that.

 

Later.

 

—–

 

“Seriously though, that’s crazy.” Malcolm said as I once more deflected a bullet.

 

“It’s… I’ll be honest, I was hoping I’d be a bit better at it.” I had a definite limit to the amount of bullets I could parry even with the Sandy.

 

“You seem pretty fucking good at it already, choom.” Malcolm offered but I shrugged.

 

Could deflecting a bullet save my life? Definitely! But could someone with a rifle, or an SMG still riddle me with bullets? Yeah that was a problem too.

 

Also I had some worries about certain kinds of weapons. I was fairly confident I could do it for most tech weapons, but what if they were overcharged? What if it was a sniper?

 

As awesome as it was, and it was.

 

Deflecting a bullet with a sword was the most weeb shit of all time, and I loved it, but there was still a worry about how useful it was.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

 

At least that’s what was running through my head, before I remembered that having the ability to block a couple bullets, even if not everything was already better than 99% of people. Sure there were edgerunners that could do it, but not many, and not many would have the confidence that I did.

 

So, it was an additional layer of protection in some circumstances.

 

It was awesome, and more importantly.

 

I nodded and Rebecca cackled as she pulled the trigger and once more a shriek and burst of sparks later the bullet hit the wall behind me.

 

“Fuck yeah!” Rebecca cried out along with the gasps of delight from everyone else.

 

It was a great party trick.

 

I flourished my blade before doing a quick check over it, but it was fine. I’d angled the blade correctly to deflect the bullets and not just let them destroy the edge. Then I sheathed my sword.

 

“Okay I think that’s enough for now.”

“Duuuude! You have to make a BD of that.” Malcolm called out waving at me, and I grinned.

“That’d be cool.” I agreed and walked over to plop down on the van. Fujimura’s men had come and gone, and cleared out a good chunk of our stock.

 

We’d grabbed a lot of random stuff from the scavs, medical beds, and surgery equipment, and Fujimura had been interested, unfortunately there hadn’t been a lot of completed chrome crates. They must have already transported most of their goods.

 

It didn’t matter. I was just happy to make some eddies, everyone was happy and I had gotten to show off my cool new trick.

 

“So what’s the plan?” I asked, and Hiromi just continued to kick her legs happily. She’d relaxed after I’d proven I wasn’t crazy for having my choom shoot at me.

 

“Well that’s most of it. There isn’t too much left, we can put it in storage and piecemeal it out, so we don’t have to push for big sales right now.” Hiromi explained looking behind us into Ichi’s truck.

 

Honestly I wish we could have grabbed everything, there was a lot of useful bits in that skyscraper, but Barghest had been very interested in us even after we had the guys come and check us out.