Chapter 24

Driving my newly painted black Quadra Type-66 was nice. The fact the city was almost shockingly quiet meant I couldn’t enjoy it.

I had already made a few texts. Hiromi was bunkering down with her parents. Apparently school was canceled until the state of emergency was over.

Ichi said he would be working for Shobo, running supplies. He had even asked if I wanted to join him.

I hadn’t answered back yet.

Because Jun…

Normally with something like this I would have settled into the apartment and just ignored it. As bad as it was going to be, I wasn’t a member of the Tyger Claws. I wasn’t a member of the Maelstrom. Their gang war had very little to do with me directly.

But Jun would be out there. Somewhere. Alone. Probably throwing himself into murdering Maelstrom.

The temptation to join with Ichi, to maybe run into Jun on Ichi’s resupply runs…

It was tempting.

So as I drove home I made a call. The same call I made every day, in hopes I would get an answer.

Like always the call wasn’t answered.

Fine. I would just have to join Ichi and run around the city in the middle of a gang war to find my idiot brother! That would show him!

I was practically gnashing my teeth as I pulled into the parking garage. Taking up my space… Jun’s space. No, what should be our space, but wasn’t.

Stupid Jun!

I stomped into the apartment suiting up in my new Edgerunner outfit. Every bit the Motoko Kusanagi that I wanted to be. I loaded up, grabbing what weapons I thought I would need. I loaded up the Tactician I had grabbed from the kids so long ago, really annoyed that I had passed on the Satara that I had let Ichi have. I could have used a Tech Shotgun right now.

Stupid Maelstrom. Stupid metal faces.

I was just about to give Ichi a call to let him know I was on my way when someone called me.

*Ringing*

I blinked, almost dropping my Tactician.

*Jun!*

*Motoko.*

Jun had actually called me!

*Jun! Where have you been! What have you been doing!? Are you okay? I have a car now! If you need me to pick you up just tell me! Do you need rescuing?! Tell me what Strom I have to go flatline and I’ll be there in a few minutes!* I rambled a bit at him.

*Motoko. Enough. I want you to stay home tonight. Lock the door. Don’t leave until I tell you.*

*Wha, Jun! I know it’s going to be crazy tonight, but I’m worried about you! I haven’t heard from you in… Forever!*

*I’ve been busy Motoko. Now promise me you will stay home.*

*No! Not unless you promise me you will actually come home! Jun! Yo-*

*Motoko! I don’t have time to baby you! Get in the apartment and don’t leave! Do as I say!* He yelled, although the audio wasn’t actually verbal so it couldn’t really get that loud.

But I got it loud and clear. Jun just snapped at me.

*Jun?*

*Do it Motoko. I have to go.*

*Wait! Jun!* I called out but the call was over.

“What the fuck.” I cursed as I looked around my brain seemingly unable to process for a moment. The desire to slam a phone on the hook filled me, but was unfortunately impossible. Stupid future where was a century old landline when you need one?

I finally heard from Jun only for him to basically tell me to stay out of it? Well obviously I didn’t want to get involved in this shit, but Jun was being stupid!

I picked up my shotgun glaring at the Tactician for a moment before breathing out a breath letting the frustration go with it.

Jun was still alive. Obviously he wanted me to be safe… I just wanted him to be safe too.

I put the shotgun on the dining room table. Having to push aside all the junk I had been tinkering with.

Fine. I would stay home tonight. For now. But I would be keeping an ear to the ground just in case.

*Ringing*

*Hey Ichi, I can’t go tonight. Jun wants me to stay home, but do me a favor. Send me some updates throughout the night. If you need help, or something crazy starts happening let me know?*

*… Yeah. Alright. I’ll call you if we need an extra gun. Stay safe Motoko. Everyone is saying it’s gonna get crazy for a while.*

*You too Ichi. You’ll need it more than me tonight.*

——

Angry tinkering followed. I took apart my Carnage and with the knowledge I had from Gun Nut, and a lot of extra scrap now lying around the house…

Okay so maybe it was a good thing Jun wasn’t home.

I basically started fixing the parts on the gun that often had problems. The cocking handle got stuck because they put a plastic doohickey inside a shotgun designed to be as unsmooth as possible.

So I took it out and basically made my own. Using a bit of scrap metal and a hand held cutting torch that was in the tool box I cut out a new part. So I had to fabricate a copy of the doohickey that kept the shotguns pump handle from just falling out of alignment and letting you actually pump the shotgun.

After a few minutes of struggling to get it right, I managed to replace the plastic piece.

With that while pumping the shotgun still felt like I was fighting an angry squirrel, but it would keep working for a lot longer without just breaking down. As the plastic had a tendency to just shatter with the forces the Carnage put itself under.

Technical Attribute XP had been flowing in, as I basically just went to a weak point in the carnage and just… Fixed it. My anger crafting actually worked out as when I finished installing the part I got the alert.

*Technical Attribute Leveled up!*

I blinked as I took in the new information. I looked at the toolbox. The toolbox that had tools that I hadn’t used because I had no idea what they were.

Still didn’t know what all of them were, but I knew a little more now. Enough to know that I had a better solution than what I had just done.

Angry repair shop lady’s toolbox had been my source of fixing stuff so far, but I realized she really hadn’t screwed me over as much as I had thought.

Well I didn’t know the price of the tools yet, but I knew how useful some of them were. One was literally a miniature 3d printer of sorts.

Except it could print metal.

Put something that wasn’t absolute top of the line metals into the hopper, it would break down the metal and then print out whatever design you needed…

That had potential!

I picked up the device that was about as big as a loaf of bread and settled it flat onto the table.

Pulling out my connector port and hooked it in, and within a few moments thanks to my Kiroshi I was able to basically upload a schematic of the doohickey I needed. I didn’t have to think about dimensions, or tolerances. As the Kiroshi’s scan of the plastic version handled almost all of that, with a bit of my own knowledge adjusting it, until I had the schematic of the doohickey I needed.

I put in a bit of steel into the hopper, and watched as the device quickly began producing the part I needed.

Future tech!

I smiled as I already got another crafting alert.

Doing something new earned a faster level up I remembered. I grinned before an explosion outside dimmed my happiness.

That wasn’t the first explosion of the night.

Nor would it be the last. I stood and peeked out the guard blinds. I couldn’t see the source of the explosion, too far away, but the noise didn’t end. Gunshots. Explosions. I had turned off the news when the reports started coming in.

I was tempted. An urge was there to just head out into the night. There was a lot of XP I could gain out there. Stopping crimes. Killing borgs.

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But I didn’t.

I was sneaky, but it was one thing to sneak through a den of sleepy scavs, and another to sneak up on a group ready and looking for a fight. So I stayed inside, and had to deal with the fact that I decided not to head out.

If I was a hero I would go out. To save even a few people.

If I was a villain, I would go out. To kill and get more loot and power.

But I wasn’t either of those things. I had walked past plenty of homeless people in the city before. I hadn’t stopped to save them.

I had killed people, but I like to believe I had done it for more than just the XP. More than just my own personal benefit. I had killed on a job, or because I wanted to stop the scavs.

So I wasn’t a hero or a villain. I was Motoko, and Motoko would listen to Jun. At least for tonight.

But tomorrow? Well. That was a whole other day, and Jun had better be prepared.

—–

The news chattered away as I continued to tinker. Crafting had been leveling fast as I messed with my equipment. My Unity was given a going over and I even replaced some of the older parts. It had been a weapon Jun had got for me more for personal protection than for running through Scav dens.

So I did some work on it, messed with the trigger, replaced the spring, even took a few minutes to design an extended magazine and make one.

I was no longer limited to twelve rounds! I now had… Fifteen! Whoo!

I giggled at my own pleasure at such a minor improvement overall, but it did give me a nice alert.

*100 Crafting XP Gained.*

So that was nice. But while I was cozy in my apartment the city was burning. Often literally.

The news had a few reports about the Pacifica thing, and while it was obviously heavily propagandized there was a hint that all the positive reports were bullshit. Considering the cordon was still active.

So I waited. I did get messages from Ichi through the night. He was nice enough to give me little updates. Thankfully all he was really doing was transporting ammunition and staying away from the bad war zones. So he and Malcolm were tired but fine.

Hiromi had taken to sending me paragraph length texts about how bored she was.

So she was fine.

Nothing yet from Jun.

So I just continued to tinker. I had plenty of parts right now. Lot’s of scrap to mess with, so I just went to work. I did some adjustment on my weapons sights, making sure they were more accurate. Repaired damaged parts, and cleaned all my weapons.

Since I had so many now, and they were all previously owned by scavs, or Raffen some were quite messy.

And so I spent the day. Working with my hands and blocking out the world. Enjoying the feeling of bringing life back to my equipment.

*Crafting skill level up!*

The alert came mid afternoon, and I sighed, Crafting 3 meant I was once more at my Tech Attributes cap.

Once again I was stuck trying to level Tech rather than the skill.