Chapter 68

Hiromi had taken over then, to my surprise as I was still processing the fact I now had a new place. A new home if I wanted.

 

I didn’t want a new place! I liked the old place! Just because it was a little small was no reason to get something new!

 

But Hiromi overrode my concerns entirely as she tugged me along and we went up to the first floor to get everyone.

 

To my surprise though, Nox was there hanging out around Ichi and Malcolm,

 

“Hey Motoko. Motoko’s choom.” He greeted Hiromi and I. Funnily enough Ichi and Malcolm were side-eyeing him like he was a threat.

 

“Hey Nox. Thanks again for helping me out. You good?” I asked, confused about why he was still here.

 

“Yeah I just wanted to see this through. Not everyday you get to see something this crazy.” He offered with a shrug and a smirk.

 

I almost matched his shrug but thought better of it as my rib twinged. “That’s fine. We are going to head up and chat with the kids. Might end up in a firefight.” I warned and he nodded, reaching into his backpack and pulling out a Mox painted Unity.

 

“I want to see this through… If I can?”

 

I flashed him a thumbs up and nodded my head towards the elevator and we all clambered inside.

 

This was the important part.

 

Would we be able to do this without killing anyone else? I looked to Hiromi, who was honestly the one leading us at this point.

 

Hiromi was eager to get to the roof, but I could tell she was a little nervous as she played with the Katana on her hip.

 

Malcolm had a massive grin on his face.

 

He was carrying my HMG.

 

Bastard was giving that back just as soon as I could carry her again.

 

And Ichi just hefted his shotgun and was holding it ready to use.

 

The elevator binged open to a roar of voices, but all of them were clear.

 

“Morgan! This crazy gonk!”

 

“Finally! Did you have to-”

“Ugh why did it take so long to kill one-”

 

Of course the voices went silent when they realized it wasn’t their previous boss stepping out of the elevator.

 

“Hello hello! I’m Hiromi!” Hiromi called out as she stepped out like… Well like she was the boss. Her nervous fidgeting from just before gone. “Sorry about the trouble, but it’s over now! The old man and the Netrunner that previously helped you out are zeroed! Sorry about that!” She chirped out all the while smiling.

 

I wasn’t sure what her crazy plan was, but I was carrying a gun in both hands, everything reloaded and ready to fire if any of the kids took a shot.

 

“Fuck.” A voice echoed out and it was Richard. “You fucked us.” He said, sounding absolutely infuriated as he stomped through the crowd towards Hiromi, which stilled when I got between him and suddenly he was staring down my Burya.

 

Some of the kids around him also raised their guns, but he would be dead before they fired.

 

Before I could talk Hiromi did. “Now now! No need to bring this to violence. The fights already over you know? So let’s all have a talk about what the new situation is.” She said as she walked forward brazenly and settled into one of the seats and grabbed a beer. Seemingly waiting for Richard to join her.

 

Hiromi? What the hell were you plotting?

 

——

 

An hour later I knew. Hiromi had… Made a deal.

 

I no longer had any idea of what was happening.

 

She had sat down Richard and basically talked him into a peaceful arrangement with Section 9.

 

Hiromi literally called us Section 9. If not for Cold Blood keeping me calm I knew my head would have exploded.

 

It had just been a joke! No one could know!

 

We were a poser gang now!

 

But in the end none of the kids had died. The killing was over, and they wouldn’t get much out of attacking us. Hiromi had convinced them that allowing us to borrow the basement, and having a netrunner working out of the apartment complex it would mean they could rely on my work making sure the security system continued working, and maybe be willing to accept some work from them from time to time.

 

In exchange Section 9 would also have access to a horde of teenaged gang bangers ready to work as muscle if we ever needed.

 

I had given up on being involved in the agreement at this point. I was tired, still angry at myself for getting shot and ready to head to Viks for a nap.

 

And I was just nodding along as Hiromi took over the details I didn’t want to deal with.

 

But in the end to my surprise it worked.

 

The kids seemed happy enough to be in charge of themselves, at least for now, Hiromi would be their contact with Section 9. Which meant they would thankfully leave me alone, and I had a place to do my netrunning from and some security while doing it.

 

Thankfully with the process finishing Hiromi pulled us out, wishing Richard a good night, and with the elevator operational again, the party was now over.

 

My group took the elevator down first to the ground floor and to Ichi’s truck.

 

“I can’t believe that worked.” I muttered looking over at Hiromi who had been absolutely preening for the last hour as she ran the kids around into a deal.

 

“You should just trust me! It was easy enough for someone like me.” She said primping her hair with a hand.

“Well I’m just glad I don’t have to deal with this.” Ichi said with a smile then instantly pointing a finger at Hiromi and I. “This is all your trouble.”

 

“Don’t be silly Ichi! If we need a truck of course we will call you, and with the SLS, Section 9 affiliation, we may be doing more big work.” Hiromi offered, raising a hand up to her mouth and laughing…

 

“A princess laugh? Really?” I asked in between chuckles at Hiromi’s actions.

 

“Of course! I just did something amazing! Do you know how good having groomed a gang will look to my rep?” She asked, looking proud of herself. “Why did no one ever tell me how fun this whole Fixer thing could be!?”

 

“Ah of course the Corpobrat found her true calling.” Malcolm teased, but the bite in his words were thankfully softened by the way he nudged her after. “Just remember us street kids when you are at the top of Arasaka tower.”

 

“Who are you again? The chauffeur?” She instantly retorted, earning a squawk of outrage from Malcolm and giggles from Ichi and I.

 

I winced a bit at the end though.

 

Stupid rib.

 

“Alright Chooms. Thanks… For everything. I wouldn’t have been able to do this without you.” I told them.

 

“Don’t worry about it Motoko! We are chooms! Considering how much you pull us along, it felt good to be able to actually help out.” Hiromi said with a shrug. “Besides, we’ve been getting a lot out of this for a while. Eddies, rep, chrome.” She muttered counting off her fingers.

 

“Eh. The pay is good.” Malcolm said teasing and that was that from him.

 

“Hey it was… Preem. I’ve never been this close to something this crazy before.” Nox offered, the boy had been quietly following behind us the whole time not really taking part.

 

“Hey you were instrumental. Thanks Nox. Is the pay enough?” I asked and he snorted.

 

“Don’t be silly, I still have a ton from all the eddies I’ve made from the BD’s that I haven’t handed over to you yet.”

“Oh? That’s right, you are the one selling my Motoko’s XBD’s… I think we should talk!” Hiromi offered with a shark like grin as she started stalking towards Nox.

 

Well that wasn’t something I was going to get in the middle of.

 

“Well… I kinda need a visit to Viks. So I’m gonna get out of here. Malcolm… Put my HMG back in my trunk please.” I glared at the boy who had been sneakily walking off towards Ichi’s truck.

 

—–

 

“It’s not that bad Vik.” I muttered, but the look he gave me kept me silent.

 

“Alright all of you, head on out. Motoko, will be fine, but we are going to need some privacy.” He ordered shooing Hiromi and Nox out of the clinic with his dad energy. Both had followed me to Vik’s Hiromi dragging Nox around to talk more about his work.

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

 

I continued to ignore Hiromi getting involved in that.

 

I was more focused on Vik, because I was feeling like I was about to get yelled at.

 

“Mind explaining why you have bullet holes through your leotard?”

 

“I got shot… A lot. Fucker had a Smart SMG… Well now I have a Smart SMG.” I admitted with a sigh.

 

“How are you still alive? You told me your healing takes eight hours.” He demanded rolling in next to me. “I get if can’t tell me, if someone is keeping you from talking about it, but-”

“No it’s not that. Honest. No one but you knows about it Vik… If I take a Max Doc it sorta supercharges the healing for a bit… I guess I just didn’t share that bit. Sorry.” I offered actually wincing. I probably should have told Vik that last time.

“That makes even less sense.” He muttered rubbing his nose under his glasses. “The only thing in a MaxDoc is… Well nothing that would cause rapid onset healing. Those things are just adrenaline, and some-Nevermind. It doesn’t matter. It causes you to heal?”

 

“Yeah, pretty quickly, just about everything but broken bones. I-”

“Okay you are staying the night. We are going to test just what a MaxDoc actually does to you. Jesus Motoko, Kid. Rapid healing could have millions of side effects!” Vik sighed, seemingly trying hard to resist ranting at me.

 

It was sweet. If it made me a little ashamed. I knew it was safe because Gamer… But I couldn’t exactly explain that to him.

 

“Sorry Vik. I’m fairly certain it’s safe?”

“Testing.” He decided nodding firmly patting me on the shoulder as he actually went to close off the clinic doors so no one could come in.

 

“Now. Kid lose the Leotard it’s a loss anyways, I have a medical gown here somewhere you can we- Jesus kid!” He grumbled as he jerked his head away from where I was already peeling down my leotard.

 

“What?”

 

“Just put this on.” He rumbled at me as he tossed one of those backless medical gowns a patient might wear.

 

“Okay. I don’t know why you are being weird, you are like three times my age.” I snarked at him, only to earn a choked back laugh.

 

“Motoko, you’re fourteen. I’m about six times your age.”

 

“Wait what?!”

“I’m 74 kid.” He said as he wheeled back around on his chair to start strapping sensors to me.

 

Wait.

 

Was the reason Vik’s dad energy was so intense because it was actually grandpa energy!?

 

—–

 

Vik ended up holding me the entire rest of the night running tests on my healing and trying to figure out why a Maxdoc causes a healing effect.

 

In the end he had discovered a lot, and had more questions than he had before.

 

But I had escaped. A quick call to my Quadra had it drive over so I could head home and I was gone.

 

The apartment was quiet as I entered and I immediately went into my room thankful that Jun wasn’t here as I peeled my ruined leotard off and threw it into the bag I kept all of my damaged clothes.

 

I would need to make sure Jun didn’t find that until I fixed them or scrapped them.

 

I took a quick shower to finish cleaning up and then once more suited up I was in the living room with just the barest hints of sunlight starting to filter in through the armored blinds.