Chapter 60

For once cleaning up the place went without any issues. I ended up dragging the bodies away from where I killed them all and pushed them into a corner so they wouldn’t bother the others, while Ichi ran through the base finding loot and gathering it all up.

 

I did take a small break to grab the Scavs laptops laying around. Hopefully I could use a bit of netrunning sneakery and figure out another Scav den.

 

Honestly we probably could use more hands next time we did this, but while everyone did start flagging an hour in, I just reminded them that the more we could drag out of here the more eddies we would have in the end.

 

Boxes of Cyberware. Computer equipment. Ripper Equipment. Bits and bobs from the chop shop that Ichi confirmed would make some eddies if sold.

 

In the end we filled up the truck with the most valuable stuff and left the stuff that would be harder to sell. We all climbed back into the truck and drove off.

 

I finally pulled down the mask once the back of the truck was down and Malcolm and I were both squished into the loot we had gathered.

 

The boy might be exhausted, but there was a shit eating grin on his face as he rested back.

 

We stopped at Hiromi’s apartment again, all of us relaxing from the gig.

 

“Alright Section 9!” I called out once again using my sexy voice. Which had an instant effect.

 

“Stop doing that!” Ichi called back as he blushed a little but Hiromi elbowed him instantly as she threw me a thumbs up. Malcolm just shook his head at my nonsense.

 

“Never. It’s far too fun. Excellent work everyone. Hiromi, Malcolm, did you find anything interesting in the Cyberware?”

 

“Loads of stuff!” Malcolm practically exploded. “I mean it sucks it’s all scav chrome, but holy shit they pulled some preem chrome Motoko. You’re gonna be picking some stuff yourself at this rate!”

 

Malcolm and Hiromis reaction had Ichi and I both looking a little excited.

 

“Okay pull out the box of stuff let’s take a look!”

 

“Not here you gonk!” Hiromi demanded, shaking her head at me. “Let’s put the boxes in the cars and drive it out of here first. There are still cameras.” She reminded me and I bowed my head in acknowledgment.

 

“True. Let’s pull the chrome boxes and load them into our rides, meet up at Viks?”

“I’m gonna pass. You guys know I don’t really need new chrome. My rents would get me whatever I need, Arasaka stuff. You guys take it. I’m gonna start calling buyers. Just let me know what you don’t end up using… Or what you don’t ‘sell’ to Vik Motoko.” She said, looking squarely at me with a face.

 

Hey! I didn’t deserve a face! Besides… Okay fine yeah I was probably going to sell the rest of the stuff to Vik. He deserved to be well stocked, and I know he would do good with this chrome that had a terrible origin.

 

Make up for some of the bad karma of it all.

 

“Oooh hey is that a Mantis blade? Hmm. A Militech Infuser? Never heard of it.” Malcolm said as he pulled out…

 

They weren’t arms themselves, but more like pieces that could be installed in cyberarms.

 

“You want them Motoko?” Malcolm asked looking up at me with a face that was practically sparkling.

“As much as I might, I’m keeping any installs to small things for now.” I told him shaking my head. “Is there any Netrunner stuff?”

“Hmm. I think… Yeah small box of some old decks by the looks of them. Nothing good. Oh here you go.” He pulled out a small case, and popped it open. “Ex-Disk.”

 

“Nice!” I cheered Ex-disk were Neuralware mods that would increase a Cyberdecks RAM. More RAM. Faster punching through gonks security. “Yoink!” I snagged it away which he chuckled at as I closed the little case and put it in a pocket.

 

That would go with me to Vik later.

 

“Odds and ends. What the hell? These are some absolutely ancient Cybereyes. I’d be surprised if they even connect to everything anymore.” Malcolm grumbled as he wiped some dust off the thermos looking canister.

 

“Unless the canister was just used to store it. We’ll pop it with Vik and see if it’s any good.” I reminded him, earning a pleased smile.

 

“Motoko! Smart link!” Ichi called out waving it at me.

 

“What don’t want it yourself?” I asked but he just looked at me.

 

“Only one of us is a crazy solo that clears out entire scav dens on their own.”

 

“Which means I already don’t need it.” I tease but he tossed it at me regardless and I quickly grabbed it out of the air.

 

“Fine, I’ll chip it. Should be easy enough with these.” I mention waving my hands. I guess it was about time for me to start actually interfacing with my guns.

 

“There is still tons more, but I don’t know what all of this is… Viks?” I asked the boys and while I got a response from both boys that reminded me of trying to take a bone away from a wild dog. Slowly we gathered everything together, but got sidetracked by Hiromi.

 

“Change of plans!” She yelled imperiously pointing at me. “You are my bodyguard while we make sales.” Then she turned and pointed at Ichi. “And you need to drive the truck. Malcolm will be with you holding a shotgun. We can start having fun with the loot soon, but I want to get this over with. I already got a sale for some. Let’s go!” She called pointing…

 

At my Quadra.

 

“You already made the sales?”

“I already made some contacts thanks to your Fixer. I was just waiting to know the loot. While Malcolm was loading everything up, I was already putting out feelers. You are allowed to worship my amazingness.” She proclaimed hands on her hips.

 

“Yes oh mighty fixer. Please allow us to help you sell the loot.”

 

“Excellent! Let’s go! Malcolm! Get that stuff loaded into the Quadra. I already know Motoko isn’t going to let us sell any of it before her ripper gets first look. Ichi! Secure the truck I want to get some of this sold off tonight before it gets any later!”

 

Ugh. I guess I’m chauffeur and bodyguard girl now.

 

But at least Hiromi stopped barking orders at me.

 

—–

 

The sales were… Interesting!

 

“No stop trying to rip me off. You wanted the canisters of Flunitrazepam? You pay up for it.” She snapped at the ripper that she was selling the loot too.

 

Of course it was only because Hiromi was Hiromi that the guy hadn’t turned us away for being scavs or something.

 

This was the third shop we had hit. And she was selling the stuff we had klepped. Including the Rippers tools and chair.

 

Apparently Charles had been a naughty boy. He had been making enough eddies with his scav friends he had a lot of top of the line stuff.

 

Hiromi was selling it off piecemeal.

 

We had of course stopped at Viks first, for a surprise sale, and dropped off the boxes of actual Cyberware that he had agreed to look through and pick out the choice bits for us, as well as figure out what everything was.

The author’s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

 

He had even paid Hiromi- I mean us. He had paid us for a new diagnostic tool that he liked the look of.

 

Which made me happy. I forced Hiromi to give him a discount though.

 

She had refused at first, but I put on my sexy voice and told her it was happening, and that had stopped any attempts at refusal.

 

Honestly I had mostly done it to mess with Vik, but I’m glad my mature voice seems to make people listen to me.

 

And then, despite how action packed it was. It started getting late, and we all decided to call it a night.

 

Ichi took his much emptier truck and would store it securely in a garage that Jotaro had originally bought to do exactly what he was doing, hiding loot. A place to store a truck full of expensive stuff until it was sold off.

 

The money was flowing in, although we were keeping it all together for now until we were ready to divvy it out.

 

It was a good haul, and everyone was super happy. Ichi’s money problems would be solved for at least a little longer, Malcolm and Hiromi were happy.

 

And I was just glad my friends were happy.

 

Well that and 5k XP closer to a level up.

 

—–

 

“I’m home!” I called out as I walked inside the apartment. The lights were still on so I knew Jun was in.

 

“Welcome home.” He called out, and I saw his hand wave from his bed as I walked into the bedroom and then into my little room. I peeled out of my new armored suit’s jacket with a sigh.

 

It was funny, I was so used to wearing my leotard and jeans, that wearing something like this just felt weird. The jacket was tossed onto a dresser and then I peeled myself out of the armored top and pants.

 

Honestly they were a useful bit of gear, even if the looks were super basic, the sort of brown base, broken up by patches of the gray kevlar, the only spark to them. They looked super basic. And what kind of merc or edgerunner would I be if I wore something like this all the time?

 

I had only picked it up and wore it so my crew would do the same.

 

I wasn’t that worried about a few bullet holes, but it was a different story for my chooms.

 

Once I was free I grabbed one of my Leotards and slipped into it. Feeling much more comfortable with how free I felt wearing one. Then without bothering to put on any pants I walked back out and grabbed my guitar.

 

I had honestly been pretty bored hanging around as Hiromi sold equipment to fences and rippers.

 

So I really wanted to destress. Flopping onto the couch I kicked my feet up on the armrest of it and just closed my eyes as I started striking some chords.

 

It wasn’t any particular song, no lyrics beside my humming, but I let myself relax and move away from the killing and death that made up most of my day.

 

—–

 

“So you hit a scav den, that was working with a Ripper?”

 

“Yep. From the emails he would do work on some people, and some people would just disappear.” I told Jun the next morning as we ate breakfast together.

 

“Disgusting. He dead?”

“Put a bullet in him myself.” I assured him as I chomped into my XXL burrito.

 

It wasn’t good, but I was feeling lazy and I didn’t want to leave the apartment yet. I would eventually. After school Hiromi was going to try and sell more stuff, but that was later this afternoon.

 

“Glad you didn’t get hurt.” He finally said as he finished his burrito and tossed the wrapper in the trash.

 

“They never even knew I was there. I did get another kill with a guy watching a BD though. That never gets old.”

Jun snorted at my words and patted my head a bit and I winced before kicking at him. “Ow! Stupid chrome gorilla hands go get some real skinn! Do I have to buy it for you!?” I yelled at him as he dropped his stupid chrome hands a bit too hard on my head.

 

He winced a little as he lifted his hands up. “Sorry Imouto… I didn’t even think about it.”

 

“Go see Vik! Moron! Dummy! He’ll take care of you. I know you’ve been avoiding him. Hiromi just sold him some Real Skinn too… Actually did you know it comes in these weird canisters? Apparently you have to like grow it. Well it expands I mean. It’s weird stuff.” I muttered, kinda waving my hands around. Vik had been happy to receive the canisters pretty cheap. Lot of people that couldn’t afford it could use some skin to feel more human.