JS: I have a job for your group.

R3CYCL3R: I’m listening.

JS: I need a Doll.

R3CYCL3R: Not something we usually do. You willing to spring eds?

JS: That depends.

R3CYCL3R: Any preferences?

JS: Young, pretty, unchipped.

R3CYCL3R: Unchipped? That’ll cost you extra.

R3CYCL3R: Tell you what, we picked something up today, not much chrome, but I’ll snap you a pick.

JS: ...

JS: Yeah, that’ll work. Drop her off at the usual?

R3CYCL3R: Sure. Well chip and ship. 10k

JS: Good. Make it quick. 6k

R3CYCL3R: Got a client with ... preferences? Or just ... creative need? 9k

JS: 8.5 and she’s ready this evening.

R3CYCL3R: Preem.

#--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Huge four armed statue stands tall between skyscrapers and megabuildings, two hands outstretched holding large balls. Dense clouds cover night city in a drizzle. Holographic cherry blossoms sway in false winds, petals vanishing into glitters of nothing as they drift. Sunk into the ground, sheltered from the rain by a glass roof, a trio sit in a booth enjoying some sushi.

“I’m telling ya, damn shame they closed the rainbow cadenza and filled it with this shit.” One word to describe the slightly overweight man would be ‘old’. Grey hair, worn out leather jacket that looks just as old as him and wearing a t-shirt of a long forgotten band.

“Aw, come on Karim, the sushi ain’t that bad. But yeah, the rainbow was fire”, Rugged and in NCPD uniform, the large framed woman sits across from Karim Noel, wistfully slurping some noodles. Her sweaty black hair wrangled into a tight bun. Her hands covered in callouses keep brushing a few stray hairs that managed to escape behind her ears. Her unkempt appearance and athletic frame accentuate her angled, sharp face. Black eyes like two obsidian orbs taking in all her surroundings carefully, swallowing every detail, like an abyss swallows light. From a glance she looks asian, but plenty of people in night city do, the cesspool of a city mixing and matching many different heritages until nobody truly knows their ancestry. Night city devours all anyway.

“You two sound so old right now...”. Hidden behind the police woman sat a girl, young enough to be at the end of puberty, but old enough for night city to start treating her like an adult. Her style and features almost copy those of the NCPD officer, though her face is a bit softer and her black eyes are backlit by a soft pink glow. Unlike most people in night city who fully replace their optics, she only has a retinal implant. Her right arm made of shiny metal pokes hesitantly at the sushi in front of her. The chopsticks click against her metal fingers as they shift, not quite capable of grabbing the rice topped with synthfish.

Karim laughs. “Ha, you’re both so young! I can still remember how I met your mom here when she was even younger then you kid! Stumbled right into the Rainbow into ...”, “And knocked your drink right outa your hand. I know! You tell that story every time!”, With a scowl the girl places the chopsticks as Karim and her mom chuckle. Slowly she lifts a piece and moves it to her soy sauce plate, but at the last moment her metal fingers slip and the sushi falls into the soy sauce. She clicks her tongue while Karim eyes her with concern.

“You alright there kid? Can’t remember you havin’ that shiny arm the last time.” He throws a glance towards her mother, but she just keeps eating her noodles, ignoring him. The girl sighs while she picks up her chopsticks. “Just night city being night city”, she mumbles. Her mother smirks, “Stray bullet can’t keep my little hellion down”. Her daughter throws her a look. “More like stray arm cannon”.

Karim lets out a quiet whistle. “Damn Lisa, what you run into? A Psycho?” He raises an eyebrow, his lips pulling into a teasing smirk. Lisa pauses and looks straight at him. “Yes, actually.” Karim froze. “Damn, what’s this city come to”, he mumbles before looking back into his noodles.

They eat a while in awkward silence. Lisa manages to pick up her sushi, now drenched in soy sauce. She winces a bit at the absolutely soaked sushi.

“So how’s it been going for you, Karim? Anything new happen? Still being avoided by all trouble?”, the NCPD officer smiles. Karim was maybe one of the few people that reached their 70s in night city without needing to chip their arms or legs. At least in his wealth bracket.

“Nope. Still as boring and quiet as ever.”, he smiles. “Still manning my stand selling samurai treasures. Not many still remember them, but their t-shirts do look rad so a few of them young’uns buy’em even though they probably never appreciate the songs.”. He eats another mouthful of noodles. “How’d you find the albums I gave ya last time, Lisa? Can’t help but notice you also have a silverhand?”, Karim carefully prodded and his smile grew wider as Lisa looked to the side hiding a small blush. He was glad he didn’t blunder again.

“Their fine”, Lisa said, still looking to the side. “Fine enough that she could sing the whole album by now”, “Mom!”. Lisa turned towards her mother, outraged, who chuckled and gave her a challenging smirk. “You know, I think I heard you sing Never Fade Away in the shower yesterday ...”, she trailed of. Lisa clicked her tongue and jabbed her mom in the shoulder with her chrome right arm. “Oof! Your right hook got a lot meaner”, “It better be!”. Lisa frowned and returned to wrestling with her sushi, determined to ignore the two adults.

“You know, I got a few other songs from samurai if you’d like. I know you don’t have the hardware for vinyl, but I do hav’em sharded.”, Karim smiled at the young silverhand fan. “Pfff. Maybe ...” Lisa once again manouvered some sushi to the soy sauce, this time without slipping.

“Anyway, Barbara, I did pick up a few tidbits here and there. Might be interesting fa you to know”.

“Oh, do tell, Karim.”, Barbara smiled as she leaned on the table. Lisa sighed, as the two adults got into their little talk. But she didn’t listen. Her hand was still giving her a bit of trouble. Getting used to new chrome wasn’t easy, but having a violent goodbye made the process harder. At least she could now reliably shuttle sushi with chopsticks. Baby steps, I’m getting better. She sighed as the ate the next piece. Whether the Rainbow Cadenza had been a nice club or not, she liked the sushi place.

#----------------------------------------------------------

A while later Barbara and Lisa were walking along the streets of night city. Heavy pillars segregating the cars from the pedestrians, the street and pavement slick from the light drizzle. The rain had abated somewhat, no longer noticeable, just some moisture in the air. The NCPD woman was carrying a few shopping bags filled with bits and bobs and a few groceries, proudly carrying herself, uncaring for the rain. Lisa had pulled the hood of her oversized jacket over her head and buried her hands deep into its pockets. Her skinny jeans were fashionably ripped at the knees and her sneakers were well worn, but still in good condition. They kept a healthy distance from the street. Drivers in night city were almost always speeding and puddles were plentiful. Most cars would speed up to splash pedestrians just for shits and giggles. At least the pillars kept the cars off the walkways when one of them inevitably spun out on wet tires and went out of control. Or at least they should.

“So how was school? How was your first day back in class?”, Barbara asked in a careful, low voice. Lisa had been joining class remotely since the accident. Lisa kicked a piece of scrap across the pavement.

“Was fine.”, she mumbled. A few cars passed by. “How is Hanna? Had fun meeting your friends again?”

Lisa clicked her tongue. “Mom, you know they’re not my friends.”. They once again sank into silence.

Barbara took a deep breath. Arasaka Academy was the best learning institution available short of private tutoring, but corporate culture meant that all students were raised to be borderline psychopaths. Not caring for personal connections or family, every person only evaluated for gains or losses. Their humanity broken and extinguished, remade into perfect pawns for the corporation.

“Just a few months left, Lisa.”, Barbara comforted her. “Please, only graduate and you can do whatever you want after.”. Another stretch of silence. They came up to an intersection. The sound of motorcycles in the distance quickly grew louder as a group of tyger claws came rushing down the street. Their high pitched, overtuned rides whined in protest as they shot past the red lights of the intersection, hollering and blasting music on full tilt. Most bikes carried two people. Faceless men racing each other, their inputs straddled behind them, whooping and hollering, spurning their drivers to push their machines to the limit.

Barbara with her uniform drew jeers and got flipped a few times as the gang raced by and then, just as quickly as they came, they blasted off, never slowing down on their chase through the city. The lead motorcycle turned at the next intersection, wheels screeching as they frantically grasped for traction on the slick road. Most of the tiger claws were able to wrangle their bikes around the corner, some in a graceful drift followed by a spray of grime and water. Others just barely avoiding a complete slide out, their bikes jerking as their tires desperately searched for grip. A few crashed though.

The mildest slide out just wobbled once before slowing down and safely took the corner before speeding off, while the more severe slipped just before hitting the sidewalk. Their bike caught the low curb, throwing its passengers into the air, their momentum arcing them above the pavement before heavily colliding with the smooth cement ground and slamming against the corner of a building. Screams of pain and the screeching of metal followed.

A few Bikes slowed down to hastily check on the wrecked driver and his passenger, a few even turned back to check on their chooms. The gangs of night city were a tolerated plague. Their dealings caused much destruction, but whenever they were not waging wars in the streets they mostly kept to themselves. In a sick twist of fate, the gangs were probably the only place in night city to find trust and real connections. Camaraderie and a sense of unity was a rare and expensive commodity here, paid for in criminal dealings and protection money.

Unbothered by the insults and the self caused accident, Barbara asked Lisa in a soft careful voice. “And how’s your arm treating you?”. Lisa sighed. Her hood cast a shadow on her face, the slight glow of her pink eyes standing out against the dark depths, were her black hair blended into darkness. “Its ... hard. Different.”, she said quietly. “It just doesn’t feel right”. A few cars passed by, traffic returning to its usual pace. Barbara turned to her daughter with a concerned gaze. Lisa had been subdued and easier to anger since losing a part of herself. Cyberpsychosis was a gradual process. A strong mind could abate the erosion, but a tortured mind could just as easily endure it. Barbara wasn’t quite sure how strong or enduring Lisa was. She had seen the steel in her eyes that her daughter could muster, but Lisa had also brought home plenty of exhaustion from school. Exhaustion that was only mounting now that graduation was only two months away. Losing an arm had added significant stress, but Barbara was proud that Lisa had clawed her way back from the accident. She just hoped that things would be quiet for a while, with no more nasty surprises. She liked to focus more on how much Lisa had grown from the challenge then to remember the difficulties. And while the steel and determination that Lisa had found made her happy, Barbara worried that more challenges could be to much. Every endurance had a limit and breaking those limits was like playing russian roulette with a rocket launcher. Shortlived, dangerous for the environment and always ending with a bang.

#-----------------------------------------------

The duo trudged up the steps to megabuilding H2. Other then the racing tyger claws, their little walk back from Cherry Blossom Market had been uneventful. There wasn’t much to be said about the megabuilding. It was a monolith of steel and concrete. Home to thousands of people across 100 stories, hosting parking space for only a fraction of its inhabitants, but most people worked in the sublevel factories of the building anyway. People could be born, grow up, work and expire in an unfortunate workplace accident in a megabuilding without having to ever take a single step outside. Having so many people cramped into such a small space was a logistical nightmare, but megabuildings were partially self sufficient. Entire floors were dedicated to farms or water treatment, reducing the need for goods from the outside. The maintenance staff was chronically overworked though, with them being responsible for the machinery of multiple megabuildings at once. Of course, meddling from the gangs of night city or a corporation or scavs didn’t help. At least the water treatment had priority so the showers worked, but most of the time, street vendors were the only way to find anything warm to eat.

Reaching the top of the stairs and making their way to the elevator, the pair was stopped short by a stubby, large bellied man. His bald head glistened with sweat and his rasping breath and fidgeting hands clear signs of his nervousness as he approached. “Miss Jaeger, I’m afraid there’s an issue with your utility bill, again.”. He shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. Barbara sighed as she towered over the small man. “I am pretty sure I already explained the issue when I pointed out our neighbours upstairs had a recent change in behaviour. I have already sent many lengthy complaints about the sound of heavy construction and the loud music that blasts through the walls 24 hours a day. The power line to our apartment also just so happens to run through the ceiling. I do wonder if, perhaps, someone could have tapped it. Our power bill has seen an uncharacteristic rise since the change. I am quite certain about our electricity needs, you see, we have trackers on all power outlets, Mister Higgins.”. Barbara levelled a sharp gaze towards the megabuilding manager.

“Even still ...”. Mister Higgins wrung his sweaty hands, his gaze darting from left to right. Lisa gave him a glare. “I thought mom had already ripped your balls of last week when you tried this. How about you go sick security on the scavs that moved in above us, dickhead. They’re done with the interior design change by the way and I’m pretty sure the loud music is meant to cover up the screaming? Why exactly haven’t they been exorcised yet? You in on this or something?”. The manager sputtered and glared at Lisa. “Hey now listen you brat, I ...”, “Lisa, why don’t you bring the groceries up while I have a nice chat with Mister Higgins here. I’m sure we can clear up this misunderstanding. Maybe you can even start microwaving dinner?”, Barbara interrupted the outrage of the building manager, catching his gaze in her own impassive glare. The manager froze like a deer in front of headlights. Lisa clicked her tongue, but didn’t say anything as she took the heavy bags from her mom and lifted them easily with her chrome arm. She took the few steps into the elevator.

“Make sure to be thorough this time, yeah?”, Lisa snarked as she sent the elevator to floor 54. Barbara’s lips twitched and she threw her kid a bemused glance, before the elevator grates closed and Lisa was lifted up into the bowels of the megabuilding.

#----------------------------------------

“..... Aaaaaaahhll pleasure!”. Leaving behind the disgusting moaning from the ads in the elevator, Lisa steps out onto the 54^th floor. Walking into the dark, dirty hallway, she held her breath when she passed the pissed on trash lining the walls. Some homeless bum was camping out at a vending machine, that supplied most of the light in the hallway. The lights in the ceiling were either dimmed from age or outright broken.

Getting wolf whistled usually didn’t concern her. Usually she would just continue on. Scum wasn’t worth her time, but this time she stopped. Lisa had been on edge for quite a while and the lecherous gaze the homeless bum was sending her just rubbed her the wrong way today. Her pink eyes shifted to orange as she bored her gaze into him, tearing his ICE apart like wet paper. Arasaka academy had extensive courses on netrunning and offered complimentary ICE-breakers, but this gonk hadn’t updated in forever. Soon the bum grew restless sitting next to the vending machine, Lisa simply boring into him with her gaze, face hidden in the shadow of her hood. 

“’aight! Sorry, sorry! Didn’t mean nothin’ by it ... “, He cracked, shifting his eyes whichever way let him avoid those piercing orange eyes. From one moment to the next, his vision turned black. He shrieked and backed up further against the wall as Lisa left him behind. “Please! ‘M sorry! Don’t ...”, she tuned out his pleading. The quickhacks she had were pretty ugly things. They worked, but were horribly convoluted and riddled with bad coding. That reset optics hack wouldn’t last. Lording over some gonk wasn’t the reason the academy provided them, but nobody was checking.

With a quick glance, the sliding door to their apartment drew open. Stepping inside, Lisa sighed. Home. Safe. Though safe was debatable at this point with the Scavs moving in upstairs. Usually they avoided high profile corporate people, but being the exception wouldn’t be fun. Attending Arasaka Academy, being the best in her class and being the daughter of someone in Arasaka Counter Intelligence qualified as sufficiently high profile, although her mom was undercover in the NCPD at the moment. Still, Lisa hoped that her moms mission would come to an end soon. While necessary for the cover story, living in megabuildings didn’t appeal to her.

Lisa deposited the bags on the kitchen counter and glanced through the tiny apartment. It was standard for megabuildings. Just one large room with a couch circle sunk into the floor, with a table and a tv in the wall. Shelves lined the walls in that corner, but they were empty. The duo didn’t bring any personal items. They didn’t have many personal things to begin with. With Barbara being assigned to new missions every few months, they moved often and lugging around a large amount of stuff would quickly grow annoying. The names she carried over the years blurred together. Today, she was Lisa Jaeger, tomorrow at the academy she would be Lisa Schmidt again.

The wall next to the couch corner was taken up by a large window with a wonderful view of the skyscraper on the other side of the street, and next to that was a large bed recessed into the wall. The bed could be lifted up against the wall to make more space, but it wasn’t really worth the effort. Right now the space under the bed was used as her mothers armoury. Next to the bed was a small niche with the washing machine and the bathroom. Right next to that was a small desk with a computer. Then the entrance door, followed by a small kitchen with a closet and a dining table. Between the kitchen and couch corners was the door to Lisas room. The door provided a bit of privacy for her that her mother respected. Walking into the teenagers room unannounced was something she had trained her mother to avoid.

Slipping out the microwave meals from the bags, she unpacked them and popped them into the small oven. Sitting on one of the chairs on the dining table, Lisa popped in the shard she had gotten from Karim last time. He had given her another today, but she still had homework to speed through and didn’t want to be to distracted. Speed reading some material about asset acquisition, securing and transferring of funds, accounting, and the daily dose of practice ICE, she leaned back into the chair, staring into space as her vision was filled with the end questionnaire. Just a simple multiple choice test, something an algorithm could quickly grade, ended with a short freeform question about her opinion on the most important factor in each subject and a short argument for support. Theoretically there would be extra points and attention for creative answers, but Lisa wasn’t there to please. She went to the academy for the piece of paper she would get upon finishing.

She had almost finished up and went through half the samurai album, when the oven dinged. Saving everything before clearing her vision, she stood up and arranged the microwave meals on a pair of steel plates. Just some noodles with some meat alternatives wrangled into unidentifiable scrap, combined with a sauce with some pieces of fake vegetables. Nothing that one would eat for its appearance, but still something at the upper end of instant foods concerning nutrition. It also contained a comparably very low amount of chemical additives. It was from a relatively new non-profit called LionsShare. It was kind of their thing to label their food with every ingredient and also with a majority of ingredients it didn’t contain compared to their competitors. The larger food corporations would soon bully them out of business or absorb them, but for now they were relatively clean of aggressive and/or false advertisement. Lisa would know. Her mom had spent some time investigating them.

While Lisa was waiting for her noodles to cool down, Barbara came through the door, sighing. “Home, sweet home.”, she said as she looked around and quickly changed out of her NCPD uniform. After tossing it into the washing machine and a quick shower, she sat down across from Lisa who had just started eating. Today at least, their upstairs neighbours were quiet. After eating half of the noodles Barbaras fork froze midway as her eyes glowed orange. After another moment she quickly finished the bite and got back up.

“Sorry Lisa, just got a late night call.”. She made her way over to the bed and flipped it onto the wall. Lisa didn’t bother looking as her mom got ready for whatever required her presence. Arasaka wasn’t above calling their operatives at ungodly hours, but at least they paid well for the extra work. Especially in CI. Voluntary unpaid overtime wasn’t really push able when someone worked undercover 24/7.

“Something different or job related?”, Lisa asked while shipping the next load of noodles. “Different. Something gang related. Someone found something interesting”. Now in full tactical gear with bulletproof vest and combat harness, complete with a silenced Nue, she grabbed her smart sniper rifle and made her way to Lisa.

“Can you put the food in the fridge? I’ll finish it later.” She hugged Lisa from behind. Lisa hummed. “Stay safe? Don’t come back to late.”

“Of course, little hellion”, planting a quick kiss on Lisas head, Barbara made her way to the door. “I’ll ping you when something changes.”. She smiled. “Good night, sweety. Sleep tight.”. The apartment door closed and she was gone. Off on another impromptu mission for Jenkins. Taking a deep breath Lisa worked on finishing her noodles. The fake vegetables and substitute protein tasted bland, but not bad. It would be just another quiet evening searching the net and a bit of tinkering. She had recently rigged an old laptop to be a secure proxy, but it still needed some work. It especially needed an upgrade to its bandwidth.

Humming along with Never Fade Away, Lisa was simply content with the knowledge that everything would be fine. Her mom was a competent netrunner and infiltrator. She had no reason to worry, having a child limited the risk of the missions she was assigned. Sometimes the large corporations looked out for their own, though that required being of sufficient value. Tomorrow would be another day at the academy. Even after 5 years with her classmates, she could never remember their names. The only reason she never messed up their names, was that she had written herself a small HUD that would supply the names of relevant people. Somehow nobody had caught on yet that she didn’t give a rats ass about any of her classmates. Everyone was absorbed in her amiable-but-hard-to-approach mask of a straight-A student. She chuckled at the thought of revealing her spiel once she left.

#----------------------------------------------------

ABERNATHY: Update on mission Leroy-05.

OP1: Hen sent to slaughterhouse. Chick available.

OP2: Pickup arranged. Loose ends tied.

ABERNATHY: Do not disappoint. Another failure will not be tolerated.

OP1: Roger.

OP2: Roger.

#--------------------------------------------------

The trains from megabuilding H2 over to the corporate plaza are always packed in the morning. Getting a spot to sit was a rarity. Lisa had seen fights brake out over spots freed by people leaving the train. She was leaning against one of the doors, facing the interior of the train. Looking out of the window was overrated. Nothing but high-rises covered in ads with anything further being covered in smog. Today was a quiet train ride. Her homework had been finished in the morning and she had little to do besides people watching. Large burly men in cheap suits stood beside mid rank corporate drones dressed in high class suits. Anything above mid rank would be chauffeured with an AV and the traffic in the morning was practically a gridlock, forcing all kinds of people to rely on public transportation. It was one of the few things were lobbying actually aided the general populace. The corps wanted the streets clear, so they could ferry their high priority deliveries on them. The horrendous parking situation only exacerbated this. Having a car and a parking space was a ridiculous luxury in night city.

Though this time people watching actually proved interesting. Somebody was popping shards from people. This chick with white hair simply stood behind someone for a while before one of their shards would eject. She would snatch it out of the air and move on to the next. Just another reason to have your back to the walls. The chick had been on a roll so far. She had made her way through half the carriage already with nobody noticing. It definitely looked like an intriguing way to earn money. Pop a shard from some unsuspecting corpo-drone for a payout, while probably causing large amounts of trouble for said drone. Lisa knew that the chances of the chick being caught were practically nill. So long if she had control of the cameras that is. Every carriage was strictly surveiled, but if she had looped the footage that wouldn’t be a problem.

Lisa continued watching the white haired chick pop shards, wondering how large of a payout she would get in the end. Or was she simply information gathering? Her corporate training told her that this was a wonderful way to gather intelligence. But it likewise required a skilled netrunner to pull off. Some of the corpo-drones would be sponsored with military grade ICE, so ejecting their shards could be risky. Another risk factor would be the corp surveiling the trains having a netrunner of their own guarding their system and cameras, though with how she knew corps there was only a single netrunner to guard all the trains in night city, at best. So, very low chances she would draw attention.

The chick passed by Lisa, completely ignoring her. If she had noticed her watching it didn’t show. A while later the chick was through the carriage and crossing on to the next. Just to be safe, Lisa checked on her ICE and her system. On first glance she found nothing, but investigating closely, she found a tracker buried deep in her file structure. She frowned. Rude.

Now, should she delete the tracker or just disable it? She wasn’t worried the chick had found anything. Everything relevant was kept on a shard that she had in her pocket. It was just a good habit to keep as much data as possible offline in this day and age. Whatever she did with the tracker, it was probably a good idea to wait until Lisa left the train. Didn’t want to tip the chick of she knew. It could also be quite interesting to analyse.

#-----------------------------------------

The rest of the train ride was uneventful. In the end, Lisa decided to disable the little bug that was so rudely placed in her system. Maybe she could learn something when cracking it open, or even turn the tables and track the tracker. Yeah, that sounded like fun. Turn the tables on the rude white haired bitch that dared fuck with her ICE and...

Lisa took a deep breath as she calmed herself a bit. Her shiny metal arm gave her more trouble then she had told her mother. Maybe the Arasaka Ripper hadn’t done a clean job. She wouldn’t know how it should feel, but the itching and false feedback was a bit much. It had been her first time chipping anything really and if a single arm gave everyone this much trouble, well. Cyberpsychos should be a lot more common if that were the case. Once her mom would be back she would ask for a non affiliate ripper to give her a checkup. It wouldn’t be the most insidious plot they had covered in their Espionage lessons, to chip somebody wrongly and have them go insane. And Arasaka made it to the top because it was the most cutthroat corp out there. Maybe her mom had some enemies and they pulled some strings, but she wouldn’t put it past her classmates to try something to pull her down from being first in class.

And speaking of potentially backstabbing classmates, here comes Cassandra, one of her ‘best’ friends. Lisa plastered on a small smile as she saw the blond walk up to her, dressed in the uniform of their academy. “Hey Lisa! How are you today?”, “Quite fine. And you? No trouble on the way here I hope?” Cassandras smile widened. Lisa couldn’t actually see anything else of the girls face. She had configured her optical implants to fill the blonds face with her name in bold letters. It didn’t even hinder their inane conversations. They walked side by side. Arasaka Tower was just down the block.

“No, the roads were quite free this morning. I trust nothing happened in the train? They can be filled with all kinds of people.” Read: no worries, I can afford to be chauffeured, unlike someone poor like you who has to take public transport. Lisa smiled. Just another knife hidden in the dark. Now, how do I deflect that without returning the insult and  frustrate her as much as possible. She had the perfect comeback, but before she could open her mouth, a masked figure came up behind Cassandra.

One gloved hand covered the girls mouth, another quickly injecting something into her neck. Before Lisa could scream out or call for help, a large hand gripped her jaw from behind and something slammed into her neck. The world quickly spiralled into darkness.

#--------------------------------------------------

The world was spinning out of control and her head felt fuzzy. A high pitched ringing was droning out any sound. The ground against her face was hard and cold and she could feel drool dripping from her mouth. Trying to move did nothing, trying to speak did nothing. All she could do was look into a dark, shadow filled room from her spot on the floor. There wasn’t much in terms of furniture. Actually there wasn’t any furniture. The room was bare, tapestry ripped and hanging from the walls in ribbons.

(Fuck, Alexei! What drugs are you on! Why did you bring in not one, but TWO fucking Saka twerps! Are you out of your mind?!)

The ringing was slowly abating. The shadows in the room slowly separated into shapes. She recognized legs. Many legs. Maybe 200 legs?

(But boss! Think of the payout! They must have nice chrome worth a ton of edds!)

No 200 was to many. Maybe 10? That seemed more like it. Thinking was so hard. Her head felt as if it had been stuffed with the smog that blanketed the city, every thought fleeting and dissolving, leaving nothing but diffuse shapes and hiding everything in an ugly yellow mist.

(And they also have parents! Were do you think their parents work you stupid fuck?! At a corner store?! Fuck!)

Through the ringing she could hear voices, but she didn’t know the language. Maybe russian?

(Come on Ivan, sure they have rich parents, but there is no way they will find us. We sharded them, there is no way anyone can track them.)

There were people screaming at each other. Probably whoever those legs belonged to. The shadows had receded a bit further now. There were 4 pairs of legs in the bare, dilapidated room. Lisa could smell old concrete and stale air.

(Fuck, Alex, shut up! You had one job! One fucking job! Wrangle the newbie and show him the ropes! And the first thing you do is klep corp runts?!)

(Hey, com’on Ivan. They are bound to have good chrome.)

(They don’t have shit, Alex! The black haired bitch doesn’t even have eyes! All she has is that bland arm! You think that’s worth the effort?!)

(Not really, but the other one is chipped plenty! Lower arms, ankles, the stuff in her face, she has it all!)

There was also the smell of dried and fresh blood. And puke. And something else she didn’t know how to place. Sweet and sickly, but much worse than when some poor sucker croaks and is only discovered months later. The voices had stopped arguing. They were definitely speaking russian.

(So you just klept the black one because she was there?)

A pause in the argument. Lisa still couldn’t twitch a finger.

(Fuck, do you think I don’t know who you took just because it was convenient?! It’s my job to have an eye on anybody high profile! Do you WANT to fuck us?! The black haired bitch is fucking top of her class! Saka is bound to have eyes on her! You know to keep your hands off the dangerous shit, Alex! Why did you take her?!)

(Fuck, Ivan! She was there and was convenient! We process them and nobody will know in the morning! And we walk with a shit ton of eds! Think of the eds!)

(Think of the eds, Alex? Are you serious?!)

The legs were moving. Back and forth, swaying and weaving between each other. Lisa squeezed her eyes shut before she became even dizzier.

(Fuck, Alex! This smells! You take a side job? Who paid you to take her! No way you just happened to pick her up!)

(Fine, alright! I got money to vanish her! You want in or what? Its no different then usual, its gonna be over this evening, even!)

The ringing in Lisas ears had vanished into a dull throb. Her head was pounding like a gonk with gorilla arms was laying into a sandbag. The shuffling had stopped and she could see that all legs had stopped moving.

(Alex, your fucking us all!) (No, wait! Ivan!)

The bright flash and loud bang made her flinch. The ringing returned with a vengeance and the legs were swallowed by shadow once more.

(Fuck! Drag that out, we need to leave! Pack everything up and tell everyone we’re movin’!)

One of the legs was gone when her eyes recovered. The ringing took longer. She could now feel the cold of the concrete seep into her face.

(B-boss, w-waaht do we do w-with them?)

(I’m thinking! Fuck! Alright, alright. Just leave’em here. They’re still drugged. Get out before anyone can tracks us. Fuck! That won’t work! Saka won’t just overlook this! Shit!)

There was some shuffling, the legs moved around a bit, and more angry russian noises. The argument became more and more heated. Until the legs stilled. Silence hung in the air. Fear was the first thing Lisa could think of. Kidnapped, unable to move. There wasn’t anything she could do.

(Alright, I got something. Take the blond, the devil of Kabuki is going to take the heat for the other.)

(He want her or something?)

(Yeah, something like that. Lets hope he doesn’t recognize her. Wait. Lets make sure of that, ruff her a bit. He shouldn’t recognize her from the pic. Also, we had Doll chrome somewhere, right?)

(Yeah, its in the pile we kept back from the last shipment.)

(Good. Chip it in. Properly! I want her functional so she brings everything down on Shobo. Rig her biomon to start pinging after ... lets say two days. Should be enough for us to get away.)

(Sounds good.)

(Alright, KLARA! YOU CATCH THAT?)

(GOOD. GET TO IT. DELIVER TO SHOBO AT THE USUAL THIS EVENING.)

More shuffling. The legs moved, getting to work doing something in different rooms. One pair moved towards her. Her panic spiked. It rose in her throat with every step the legs took. Every step carrying them closer. They crouched down right before her. Lisas heart was hammering in her chest. She wanted to run, to scream. Someone mumbled before something pricked her neck once again and the world went dark.

#-------------------

Corrections/ edits:

Her style and features almost a copy those of -> almost copy those of

At least the pillars kept the cars of the walkways -> kept the cars off the walkways

She had seen fights brake out -> Lisa had seen fights brake out

Mayber she could learn -> Maybe she could learn

but much worse then when some poor sucker croaks -> but much worse than when