JACKIE: Hey doc, you free?

VIKVEK: Yeah sure kid, what’s up?

JACKIE: So, I just helped de-vanish a kid, but she got a bit more chrome then she used to. Got her madre with me. You have a moment to check her over?

VIKVEK: Sure, I got time, bring her in. How bad is it? Anything I should prepare?

JACKIE: Worst new chrome is a doll chip. Her arm was silver before she got vanished.

VIKVEK: She got dolled? How old is the kid?

JACKIE: She’s just a nina, doc. Night City did her dirty.

VIKVEK: Damn. Bring her in, I’ll see what I can do. Can’t promise anything though. Dolls are serious stuff.

JACKIE: Thanks. Be there in 30.

JACKIE: Oh, I should warn you. Her madre is a fierce leona.

VIKVEK: Alright? How did you even get roped into this?

JACKIE: La leona feroz is an old partner of V. Got called in as backup for the kids rescue.

VIKVEK: I see. Well, bring her in, I’ll get the bed ready.

JACKIE: Thanks, doc. Be there soon.

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

Barbara finally had her baby back in her arms. Two weeks of worries. 13 days with no sleep and only the horror of helplessly watching her health deteriorate, as her biomon did its best to send for help. She never should have gone on that mission. It was supposed to be a simple infiltration and data planting. Pick up a shard, stick it into a certain server rack, leave. She didn’t think anything of it, but as usual, she checked the contents of the shard. Her superiors didn’t care about the methods, in the end only the result mattered. She never explicitly stated that she always knew exactly what shady missions she was sent on. Operatives weren’t supposed to ask questions, but Barbara knew that trust was non-existent in Arasaka. She had built up a sizeable register of very sensitive data and highly potent blackmail over the years. She could have burned Jenkins herself three times over, but in the end, it was just a form of insurance. A way to be aware of the dealings in counter-intel and cement herself as a useful asset. Although she took care to never be too useful, which was the reason V was Jenkins right hand man and not her.

Barbara thought she was high enough up the corporate ladder to not be expendable anymore, but low enough that she wouldn’t be caught up in company infighting. She had been wrong. The info she was supposed to plant for her mission was gibberish, even after decryption. Just some random junk, cobbled together. There were, of course, some nasty defences on the shard, meant to incapacitate anyone snooping, but Barbara had defused those traps often enough. With the data off of the actual shard, she only had to gain remote access to fulfil the mission, which meant she could leisurely eat a box of noodles while staring hard enough at an external camera. Barbara knew something fishy was going on when the building exploded and went up in flames. Did placing the data trigger a bomb? Apparently, she was not supposed to return from this. But she realized it to late. Lisa was gone, her biomon unresponsive, and all of Arasaka Counter Intelligence was undergoing a deep cleaning. Barbara was on their hitlist. She had feared for the worst.

But then, two days later, she received a ping from her private server. One of the backup protocols had updated Lisas health status. Barbara couldn’t track where the information was coming from, but Lisa was alive! Although it was clear her future wellbeing was uncertain at best. The chaos of losing her job and the stress from evading Arasakas cleanup teams paled in comparison to the crushing anxiety of watching the report of the chemicals in Lisas blood growing more and more dire. Accumulation of heavy metals, the concentration of trace chemicals found in cheap intravenous nutrient solutions rising quickly, placing heavy strain on her kidneys and a growing dose of morphine overtaxing her liver. Over two weeks she could only watch as Lisas health spiralled more and more out of control. She had pinged many people to ask for hints and leads and after 13 days and upping the bounty multiple times, someone answered.

Wakako had heard of a certain high ranking person of her former affiliation branching out into new business territory and acquiring a certain asset. The fixer even had a picture, taken during the initial negotiations. The fucking fossil had known exactly were her baby was. Barbara had wasted no time and called in V, her former supervisor, who had also survived the cleaning. She didn’t exactly trust the man, but Barbara had kept her ears to the ground and had come to know that V had been caught with his pants down. His cyberwear had been requisitioned and all of his assets taken. V had nothing and would be amenable to opportunities and if not, she had enough blackmail to strongarm him into basically anything. V had called in some backup of his own, but Barbara had never heard of ‘Jackie Wells’, meaning he was a no name and harmless. Still she was cautious. Perhaps Mr. Wells was still unknown due to a lack of opportunities, but seeing his aim impacted significantly because of a simple silencer, Barbara categorized him as an amateur. Regardless of his capabilities, she delegated him to guard duty, leaving her with one less variable to deal with. Jackie backing up V could have lead to a nasty betrayal. Years working at Arasaka meant that V, just like her, knew that there were no eternal allies.

The assault had been a success. The Tyger Claws were unable to mount even a shred of resistance. Their safehouse was only staffed with a skeleton crew. None of the gonks present had any advanced chrome. They were little more then civilians with guns. There was a reason the corporations lorded over the world. Competent military training was a strictly regulated market. Sure perhaps some merc or kid could get their hands on some high grade cyberwear with a stroke of luck and become an edgerunner, but running into one in a random Tyger Claw hideout was just impossible. Gangs operated better with quantity over quality. V and Barbara easily ripped through the assortment of rubble stumbling in the dark. Until they were stopped by a third party.

A sandevistan was a highly regulated piece of technology. They were not exactly rare anymore, but encountering one of high military grade outside of corporate special forces was like finding a unicorn. The user they had encountered in sublevel 1 definitely had won the lottery. Common sandis are only capable of slightly accelerating a person, perhaps enough for surprising displays of speed like rapid punching or dodging for example. Moving faster then her high grade Raptor Mk IV eyes could track and practically teleporting around the room? Multiple times? And dodging micromissiles from a smart weapon on reflex? That was cutting edge technology that placed an incredible burden on the user.

Barbara wasn’t sure they could continue as they fell into a standoff, until Lisa clawed her way into the room. Barbara still had shivers running down her spine from when she first caught sight of her. She had thought she lost her. There would have been no more reason to fight on if her little princess had left her and spiralled into madness. She was the light that kept Barbara going. Her heart had stopped when Lisa held her at gunpoint, her Kenshin charging. But Lisa returned to her, she recognized her. She came back from the edge. Barbara could finally hold her light again.

Barbara didn’t want to think of what her baby had endured over the last 13 days. Lisas ‘clothing’ didn’t paint a happy picture. The gold streaks going down her neck from behind her left ear were even worse. She recognized the new chrome. A doll chip. Barbara could only hope that it really did block all memories while active. Burying her face in Lisas hair and pulling her closer, she breathed deeply. At least she had stayed clean. Her hair smelled of cheap soap. A light breeze reminded Barbara, that they where still not in the clear yet and sitting very much exposed in the middle of the street. The sandivistan user was still out there and a netrunner was also on the loose. Barbara made a mental note to track down whoever dared to hack an overheat on her daughter.

(Hey you lugs, stop standing around uselessly! We still have that netrunner on the loose. Wells, give me your jacket, Lisa’s practically naked.) Lisa had fallen asleep at some point. Listening to her even breathing reminded Barbara that she had been awake for a large part of two weeks. She glanced towards the two men. Jackie Wells was making his way over to her while taking off his jacket, while V avoided her gaze and turned back to the apartment building. She narrowed her eyes. V had been... disappointing. Barbara had never directly worked together with the man like today, she was more like his errand girl, but she had expected him to have more grit. She expected more from right hand man of Jenkins, but maybe he was taking his loss of employ harder then she was. It was especially puzzling how V had no backup plans. Working in Counter Intelligence should have instilled a healthy amount of paranoia in the man.

She took the jacket that Mr. Wells offered and wrapped Lisa in the soft inner lining. She could describe Wells as an average mercenary, but he did not skimp on his threads. The jacket was high quality. “So, what now senora? You want to bring her to a ripper?” Barbara stilled. She hadn’t thought that far. Two weeks of sleep deprivation definitely effected her. She deflected his inquiry. “You have a suggestion, Wells?” He hummed. “Well, V also had no ripper, so I showed him to Viktor Vektor. Has a small shop behind Misty’s Esoterica in Little China. Doc’s old, but has steady hands.”

Misty’s Esoterica. A quick search lead Barbara to an address, Urmland Street, a relatively peaceful neighbourhood. She had had very few dealings in that area, only a few preventative recon missions. She would need to dig around a bit for police records and the like, but she could investigate more when they where en-route. With her baby in her arms, Barbara stood up and glanced around the alley. They would need a form of transport. She made a quick call.

A small window with a blue bald man popped up in her vision. (You have reached Delamain Transport Services. How may I assist, Miss Schmidt?) The AIs professional attitude was always pleasant to hear. There were few places left where manners were independent of personage. Delamain did not do politics. Every interaction was ruled by detailed contracts. No backstabbing, except if the contract allowed it. (Good evening Delamain. I require a cab from Pinewood to Urmland Street, four passengers.) The blue man glanced to his right for a moment. (Certainly. A vehicle is en-route and will arrive at your current location in less then 70 seconds.) (Thanks Delamain.) Barbara ended the call.

(Cabs a minute out. V, join us.) (Roger. Where are we going?) (Viktor Vektors clinic.) V turned his back towards the building and came jogging over. (Heh. Jackie run another successful sales pitch?) (Aww, choom, don’t do me like that...) Jackie grumbled at V’s comment and V chuckled. (But seriously, Viktor’s good people. Though I don’t know how he actually makes money. Every time I stumble into his clinic he just sits there watching boxing matches. Never seen him with company...) That sounded weird. Barbara thought Wells had introduced them only recently? V spoke as if he knew the man for a long time. (Na V, you just have that specific type of luck, you know? The one that makes you come just at the right time so there’s no line at checkout. You always just randomly pop into places and never have to wait. You’ll have to teach me that someday.) V stepped closer, still glancing at their surroundings. He had relaxed his grip on the Dian, but hadn’t stowed it away. (Is that type of luck even a thing?) V sounded sceptical. Jackie groaned.

(Oh choom you have no idea! My girl stopped taking me on dates because whenever we go somewhere to eat its always full! C’mon V, don’t let a choom hanging!) Jackie was frowning with his arms crossed before his chest, but his lips kept twitching into a smirk. Barbaras eyes lingered on Wells bare and well trained arms. Taking of his jacket had revealed a low cut red-brown tank top. He was sporting a few Valentino tattoos and his choice of jewellery followed the Valentinos preferred style, even though it was comparably less then most gang members would wear. With trained arms like that, Barbara reasoned that Wells competences lay more in close range combat. V stood beside his friend, both posturing a bit and having a hard time keeping a smirk off of their faces.

(I don’t know Jackie, it takes years of practice and a certain type of talent, you know? I don’t know if you have the stuff for it...) “Jeez, choom, you drive a hard bargain! How about I ask my mama to make you some churros, mh? I rememb...”Barbara shot him a glare and shushed him. (Stay on comms! She’s sleeping.) Lisa had flinched and pulled closer to her when Wells had started to banter out loud. He flinched. (Lo siento senora...) V was uncomfortable with his friend getting chastised, but didn’t want to draw Barbaras ire. They stood around in silence for a bit, awkwardly checking their surroundings, pretending to be busy, when a Delamain car pulled up into the alley. (Come on boys. Let’s get to this ripper. Maybe he even has some chrome to help with your luck, Wells.) Barbara stood up and made her way to the cab. Jackie leaned over and whispered to V. “That, was that a joke?” He sounded unsure.

“What, you didn’t get it?”, V smiled when Jackie snorted. Delamain had opened the backdoor for Barbara, who carefully climbed in, making sure not to jostle Lisa. “Keep your voice down would you Delamain?”, she asked and Delamain answered with his volume nearly muted. “Of course.” V took the other backseat and Wells rode shotgun. None of them bothered with seatbelts. With all passengers seated, the cars engine hummed quietly as the cab pulled back into the street, accelerating smoothly in a way only achievable with the machine precision of an AI. Lisa started mumbling in her sleep. Barbara pulled her cyberdeck up into her HUD and readied one of her sniffer deamons, setting it to dig up info about Viktor Vektor and Urmland Street, before letting it loose on the NCPD’s database. The deamon would search for reported criminal activity in the area and compile a risk report. It would also try to branch out a few leads and attempt to dig up some dirt. It wouldn’t be enough for a thorough background check, but it was better then going in blind. Letting the deamon loose, she focused once again on her daughter. She had a bit of time until it would return with results.

She decided to get the ugly truth out of the way. She shifted her left arm and carefully pulled a cable out of her forearm and gently stuck it into one of the ports on Lisas neck. Thinking about how she had insisted to have a custom setup for her ports and cable in the back of her neck made Barbara smile. She could still hear her voice when she complained about that. “Why would you put the jack in your arm?! Every time you did anything with it you’d have your hands full! Having the cable come from my neck keeps my hands free!” Barbara wasn’t worried she would find anything private. Lisa had picked up on her mothers OCD concerning information security. Anything sensitive would be encrypted or hidden behind extra layers of ICE. With them having setup some for rules just in case something similar happened, like Lisa being hurt and unconscious, Barbara was able to do a surface check with the basic read privileges. The software of Lisas biomon had been practically neutered and she was confused about the noise her arm caused. They had checked multiple times after it was chipped and the feedback from the prosthetic had never been this chaotic. Her cyberdeck from Biodyne was disabled, but otherwise fine and her retinal implants had a second settings profile saved, which was new. She didn’t really have high enough access to do more, but she went ahead and pushed the reinstall for her biomon and an update for her cyberdeck onto a shard that Barbara slotted in a port behind Lisas right ear. Then she looked over the new additions.

The first didn’t feature any actual software, she found it anyway. The pair of ports on her cartoid arteries, right below her jaw, were something usually found on coma patients. They made hooking up IVs trivial and were nothing more then an input valve. They were less then half a centimeter in diameter. Nothing difficult to remove. Probably just something to... keep her upkeep down. Barbara frowned in disgust. The big addition though, was a Doll chip. They were originally made in a military lab as a way to speed train soldiers by uploading behaviours and information directly to the brain. The level of access it provided into the mind made it attractive for the entertainment industry. Having a computer assist or even control the behaviours of actors allowed them to be completely immersed in their performance. Barbara clenched her jaw as she ran a finger along the gold inlay along the sides of Lisas neck. Doll chips also found their use in prostitution. Barbara would have to cleanse night city of Tyger Claws. There was no middle ground. It was either her or them and surrender was not acceptable! Especially not for the fucking fossil that had held back the info for so long! Wakako wouldn’t stay as a fixer for much longer.

She sank further into her thoughts of slaughter as her deamon reported back. Wrangling her thoughts out of the dark, blood filled depths of her mind, she noted that the car was deathly silent. The two men had probably noticed her bloodlust and had wisely decided to remain quiet. Barbara sighed as she pulled out her cable from Lisas neck and leaned back in her seat. Closing her eyes for a moment she took a deep breath. I really need some food and a bed after this. She opened the report of her deamon.

It had calculated the risk as 3 out of 10. Her deamon rarely gave assessments with risks below 4. Barbara also rarely used it. The deamon wasn’t exactly quiet or delicate and could bruise many netrunners feets during its search. The chance that her deamon could put a skilled and angry netrunner on her trail wasn’t worth the risk most of the time. Opening the more detailed breakdown, she went into the specifics. The ripper himself was flagged with 6/10. A long history in boxing, fame and plenty of possible connections made him influential. Although his retirement from boxing and career shift, coupled with his lack of high profile activities in recent years dropped the rating down to 2. A cursory psych evaluation cemented this score. His setup in a back alley didn’t inspire confidence, but a statistically significant mercenary presence had been recorded by cameras in the area. Coupled with the lack of criminal activity or otherwise shifty businesses reported to the NCPD around his clinic, this alluded to Viktor being visited by a clientele that valued discretion. Something Barbara also valued.

His landlord, Misty Olszewski, also scored very low. The woman filled a specific niche with her shop, one that not many catered to. Barbara never understood the appeal of esoteric or energy healing, but it was a big market. Maybe she was a nutjob, but at least she posed no threat. Looking into the other factors her deamon had considered, Barbara snorted when V was listed as a significant unknown. His employ under Jenkins and his recent release from the corporation made extrapolating his current affiliation and potential goals difficult. Jackie Wells was also considered, but had a low rating of 2/10. The breakdown of his abilities and background aligned with her own assessment of the merc. Dangerous in specific situations, but with firm values. His retreat from the Valentinos while maintaining friendly relations drew her attention. Pulling out of a gang on good terms was rare. Barbara decided to treat the man better.

Looking out of the window she watched the night city scenery pull by. It had started raining and large, heavy droplets were leisurely rolling down the windows. The world outside started shimmering and reflecting the light from the countless ads that lined the streets and buildings, casting and mixing colours in puddles slicked with oil. Perhaps the rain would intensify later, but for now it was no more then a drizzle. Night city had a cruel and uncaring beauty. An ice cold mistress to be worshiped, that cared not for its subjects, amoral and untouchable. “We will be arriving shortly.”, Delamain informed them with his muted voice. Barbara made sure Wells jacket was properly wrapped around Lisa.

(Mh, I hope I don’t catch a cold...) Wells mused over comms. (Do you catch colds easily, Mr. Wells?) Jackie rubbed his chin. (No... but I like to worry. Think about the ‘what ifs’, you know?) Barbara didn’t reply. Delamain was coming to a stop before Misty’s Esoterica. “We have arrived. Please allow me to inform you, that you have 127.54 km remaining in your gold membership, Miss Schmidt. Thank you for using, Delamain Transport Services.” Barbara shifted her arms to hold Lisa in a princess carry. “Thanks, Delamain. Be a... doll... and have this car wait here for 10 minutes would you?” She stumbled over the proverb. It suddenly hit uncomfortably close to home. “Certainly.” Delamain accepted her request. Her backdoor opened automatically. (Leaving yourself with an exit strategy?) V asked. Barbara looked at him and they held gazes for a moment.

Barbara turned and stepped out of the cab. Jackie and V glanced at each other and Jackie shrugged. Quickly stepping into Misty’s Esoterica, Barbara was greeted by a young woman closing up her shop. “Hello, welcome to Misty’s Esoterica. Can I help you? I’m afraid I was closing down for the night.” She stood hunched behind a small counter, her small shop stuffed full with buddhist paraphernalia. Her voice was even and calm. A bit further in there was a reclined armchair, where Barbara imagined the woman would do her sessions. “Hello. I am looking for Viktor Vektor.” Barbara stood in the middle of her little shop, Lisa in her arms. Misty studied her for a moment, before Wells came up behind her.

“Hey Misty! Sorry for coming so late.” Misty’s gaze went to Jackie. Her eyes widened a bit when she saw he was only wearing a tank top. She glanced back at Barbara, probably recognizing the Jacket. “Hey Jackie, V. Good to see you. You three here for Vic?” Jackie went up to her, leaning against the counter. “Yeah, we saved senora’s nina from some Tyger Claws. Want to bring her in for a checkup.” Barbara didn’t like how loose Wells was with information, but didn’t say anything. He was the one introducing her to a ripper after all. Misty’s brows furrowed and she looked back at Barbara, concern filling her face. “Come, I’ll bring you to him.” She turned and left out the back. Stepping after her, they came into a small court. Quickly moving through the increasing rain, they went down a ramp and entered a garage. Misty called into the dark space. “Vic!”

Viktor Vektor definitely lived up to the threat assessment of her deamon. Even sitting in front of a small screen on a rolling stool watching a boxing match, Barbara could tell he was an experienced fighter. His face was sporting a 5 o’clock shadow and he was wearing sunglasses. As the former boxer looked up, she could see strong, cyan eyes behind his dark glasses. His brows were drawn together slightly in a serious expression. Or perhaps that was just his resting face. His nose was flat and wide, probably broken a few times during his time as a boxer. He half turned towards them, leaning on the desk with the screen. “Hi Misty. Ah, Jackie. You’re here. And V too.” Wells returned the greeting and V waved. The ripperdoc sat up. “And this must be who Jackie told me about. Welcome, I’m Viktor Vektor.” “Barbara Schmidt.” She nodded towards Lisa without breaking eye contact. “Lisa.”

“Wells fill you in on the details?” Barbara asked. “Only the basics, that she was dolled.” The ripper motioned towards Lisa. His voice was calm and professional and he spoke in a measured pace. “Bring her to the table, so I can check on her? The new and the old? How is she?” Viktor stood up and invited her to step to the medical chair. He walked over and started readying equipment with practiced movements. Barbara carried Lisa over and settled her into the chair, making sure the jacket wasn’t obstructing access to her arm or neck, but still covered her kid. “She’s sleeping. I checked on the way here and her arm was giving some weird feedback.” The ripper paused to look at the pair. “Definitely needs checking then.” He finished up. He had placed an assortment of small tools, screwdrivers and scalpels on a steel tablet next to Lisas chrome right arm and wheeled his stool over.

“Alright, I’ll plug her in and set up some scanning equipment to check on the dollchip and while that’s running I’ll open her arm.” Viktor sat on his stool and pulled a cable out of the medical chair, holding it up so Barbara could see. “How much for your troubles?”, Barbara asked. Viktor paused for a moment. "Well, that depends on what I find. Just for tuning the arm, I guess a hundred. I’m not sure about the d-chip. They are notoriously hard to work with. I don’t chip them out of principle, they can cause a whole host of complications even when chipped properly.” Viktor glanced at Lisa. “I’ll have to warn you that, with d-chips, its not so much if it goes bad, more like how bad.” Barbara took a shuddering breath. She nodded her head. “Go ahead.”

Viktor carefully lifted Lisas head and inserted the cable. With a few taps on a screen to the side, he brought up a bunch of graphs that slowly accumulated data. She saw status and resource usage of Lisas cyberware and some temperature graphs. Once that was set up, he freed her chrome arm from underneath Jackies jacket and went to work. Barbara looked around the room and found another stool that she wheeled to the other side of the table. With a sigh she sat down and watched the ripper work. With steady hands he slowly opened the chrome on her shoulder to check on the nerve connections, occasionally glancing towards the monitors. “Yeah, that is an excessive amount of strain her arm is putting on her.” His brows furrowed with concern. “When was the last time it was checked?” Barbara took a moment to consider. How much should she say? “About two months ago.” She decided to be truthful. “Must’ve healed badly...” Viktor muttered under his breath.

Jackie, V and Misty were leaning against the desk with Viktors boxing match still running. Wells was paying more attention to the match, while Misty seemed to check in on V. The man seemed lost as he spoke in low tones to his chooms. Wells inserted himself, grumbling something that made V sigh, but both him and Misty smiled. Then Misty turned towards Wells and they started... flirting, from the looks of it? Barbara wasn’t sure. She didn’t know either of them well enough. Her attention was drawn back towards Viktor. “Well, this is most definitely a mess.” the Ripper had completely disassembled the exterior of Lisas shoulders and was looking at the nerves and muscles as they met metal. He wore a frown on his face.

“See, here. Almost all of the muscles are twisted to some degree before they meet up with the synth tendons and on top of that, they don’t line up properly.” Barbara had stood up and was leaning over Lisa to take a look. Indeed, the transitions between her and her arm seemed... warped. Some of her muscles were even growing scar tissue. Noticing her frowning gaze, Viktor explained. “Her muscles are trying to smooth themselves out, but with them being fixed against the arms interface, they can’t shift into a natural position, hence the scarring.” Barbaras deepening frown met with Viktors professionally locked brows. “I can fix it, but I’ll have to redo most of this.” Barbara sighed. “How long will you need?” Viktor wiped the back of his hand against his chin. “A bit over an hour maybe... I’m basically reinstalling her arm.” She paused at that. Even with the extra work of cleaning Lisas stump after the accident, it had taken four hours for the Arasaka ripper to chip the arm. Was he overstating his abilities? But the info she found did point towards significant skill... “Suure... “, Barbara drawled.

Viktor gave her a smile. “Alright. Let me just get some local anaesthetic ready and I’ll start.” He wheeled himself across the room. Barbara saw him load an injector gun before returning. On his way back he checked the monitors showing the scans. “Nothing with her head so far, but I’ll let it run.” He fished out two electrodes and stuck them on Lisas forehead and temple. On another screen, he opened another diagnostic. This one looked like some sort of brain activity monitoring. Right now, most of the pictogram was a calm, dark blue, with a few yellow spots appearing and disappearing here and there. “Alright, let’s get to it.” Viktor lifted his right hand with the injector.

Before he got far, Lisa snapped her eyes open and her chrome arm gripped his wrist. With her pupils slowly turning red, she stared at the ripper. Viktor glanced at the screens with the diagnostics, only to do a double take and focus on the readouts. The trio at the desk had noticed the commotion. V and Jackie looked alert as they stood up. Lisa snapped her head towards them and scrambled to free herself from the jacket on her, but paused when Barbara grabbed for her left hand. “Hey, Lisa, it’s fine! I’m here... it’s okay, everything’s okay...” They met eyes and Lisa threw herself into her arms and started bawling. The garage filled with her sobbing and Barbaras reassuring whispers. V and Wells expression soured. Barbara could make out pity, anger, indignity, maybe rage. Jackie especially, clenched his jaw and the knuckles on his fists turned white. Misty took the initiative to give Barbara and Lisa some space. “Come on Jackie, V.”, her soft voice brokered no argument as they left the clinic.

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

It took a while for Lisa to calm down. Long enough for Misty to return with some old clothes of hers. Just a thick shirt and some old jeans. Oh, and also underwear... Lisa didn’t feel like releasing her mom though. It felt like a lifetime ago since she had seen her. I got out of that hellhole. [Yeah, and it was fun! The getting out part, I mean.] Alright, sure. Soo who are you? [Right, we were busy... Well, I’d like to say I knew for certain, but... well I do have two working theories of who or what I am.] The voice sounded younger then she remembered. She had pictured him as someone in their late twenties before. Now they sounded like they were 13. Keep talking. [Yeah so first, the crazy theory. That one has me being Conrad Black, former computer engineer and animator turned soldier, as my home country of Germany decided to reinstate mandatory military service because of escalating aggression from Russia. I died when the place I was stationed at was nuked.]

Lisa needed a while to digest that. Uh huh. And how would you being Conrad let me hear you? God, I’m talking to myself! What the Hell! Am I going crazy?! [Hold that thought! That’s gonna be part of the second theory.] Conrad sounded amused and Lisa could not for the life of her understand why he would be. Hopefully it wasn’t her that was crazy, but him. [So, crazy theory has me reincarnating into your body. I’ve read plenty of similar fiction! Someone gets placed into the body of someone who just died! And then, chaos and plot and story unfolds! So yeah, that’s crazy theory. It has a few things going for it, like me knowing were we are right now and also knowing the two men that just left and the woman that came back with clothes!] Conrad sounded giddy with excitement. She could practically see him grinning from ear to ear like a young kid who knew a secret.

Alright, I’ll bite. Tell me where and who? Conrad gave a laugh. [So we are at Vic’s clinic. Vic’s an old fossil and night city legend who decided to go from boxer to back alley ripperdoc. Good guy and has a ton of dad energy! The two guys before were Jackie Wells and V, two lowly mercs who want to get in the major leagues and play in the deep pool with the big kids and both will die trying! Oh and the woman is Misty. She sells energy healing and divinations and stuff.] Conrad continued in a whisper, like a little kid about to spill a secret. [Wanna know, how I know?] Lisa thought he sounded even younger now, maybe 9. He also started to sound positively unhinged. [This is all a game! An imagined world, where you slip into the shoes of V the mercenary and experience a cyberpunk dystopia!] Conrad laughed. Definitly positively insane. Sooo, you’re saying this is all a game? [Ah, well no. You know of the ‘monkey on a typewriter’ thing? Randomly string enough characters together often enough and you have written every possible story, so if multiverses are a thing, then every random string of characters could exist somewhere! So this is all real, but wherever I come from, someone has written a story happening in this world and I’ve read it.]

That definitely was a crazy theory. And also concerning. If Conrad was supposed to take over her body, Lisa not being dead could be a problem for him. That would mean having a hostile something sharing her head. Wait, I really am going crazy, aren’t I? This makes zero sense! None of this should be possible! I can’t be having another person stuffed in my head, that’s just insane! [Calm down! Easy there, I’m not going to do anything. In fact I can’t, this is still your head after all.] That helped Lisa calm down. This was still her body. These were still her thoughts. She was in control and she would fight tooth and nail for it to stay that way. [By the way, what’s your name? I mean, I heard plenty of others call you with it, but still...] Conrad still sounded like a 9 year old. She gave a mental chuckle. Was the insane voice being polite? Hi, I’m Lisa Schmidt. Top of her class at Arasaka Academy and daughter of Barbara Schmidt, an operator in Arasaka Counter Intelligence under Jenkins and fuck! I’m introducing myself to a voice in my head!

[Oh, Jenkins! Another name I know! He gets murked in some corpo infighting. Hi Lisa! Nice to meet you!] Great, the voice in her head was glad to meet her. Wonderful. Lisa sighed. [Well anyway, I think Vic was about to tinker with your arm. I’m guessing your mom took you here to get checked out? Also, something is suuuuper fucky with your arm!] So mom had taken her to a ripperdoc. Lisa didn’t know why they were at some new place, but she could just ask. How would you know if my arm is fucky? [Huh? Well, I’m in your head, I just checked the feedback.] Great. The voice could access her cyberwear. Lisa had to really try to not think about what that meant and not hyperventilate in a panic attack. Time to distract myself!

Lisa looked up towards her mom. “Where...?” Her mom gave her a light smile. “At a ripperdoc. Viktor Vektor.” She gestured at the man on the other side of the medical chair, still focused on some screen with some graphs. “He was about to check on your arm. He found some twisting in its interface and was about to numb your shoulder so he could fix it.” Ah, that explains the weird gun in his hand. The ripper turned away from his screen. “Hey kid. Glad you’re awake.” He gave a disarming smile. Lisa had to agree his dad energy was off the charts, but he eyed her carefully and with concern. “Sorry to scare you awake...” Lisa blinked. “Its fine. So my arm is fucky?”

Viktor nodded. “Yeah. Need to basically rechip. It didn’t heal properly.” Lisa hesitated. She was unsure if she could trust him. [Its fine! Vic’s a good guy and your mom’s still there. No way she would let him do anything!] Conrad had a point. “Come on, princess, it really doesn’t look pretty...”, her mom coaxed her. Lisa nodded and layed down. “Its fine.” She pulled up her legs and draped the large jacket that partially covered her back over herself. It was warm and made her feel less exposed. She snuck out her left hand to grab for her mom. Viktor took stock for a moment and glanced at those monitors. “Alright, this will sting a bit, but I’ll be done before you know it.”

Lisa spent the next hour simply staring at the ceiling ignoring the doc poking at her right shoulder. She just relaxed for a bit and focused on how her mom was holding her hand, grounding her. She felt calm. Conrad stayed silent, doing whatever strange voices do when they’re quiet. She felt herself grow peaceful. She couldn’t feel what Viktor was doing, but she felt like a ghostly itch she couldn’t scratch was slowly eased. Lisa turned towards her mom. “Why are we here? Where you fired?” She couldn’t think of many reasons why they weren’t with a ripper from Arasaka. Barbara answered with a soft voice. “Yeah. Jenkins got burned.” Lisa felt herself go cold. Shit. You were right. Are you really some person supposed to hijack my body?! [Ah, well. Don’t panic. It’s not widely known info, but not impossible to find. I could just be messing with you and have researched really well.] Dry and analytical, but that was a possibility. Lisa started questioning her sanity once again. You said you had two theories. What’s the other one? [Ah, well... that one could also be called the crazy theory...] Conrad drawled, his discomfort evident in his voice. Not that Lisa could base her impressions on anything else but his voice...

[I think its better if Vic starts the introduction to that one. It’s got something to do with your new doll chip...] Lisa went even colder. My WHAT?! [Hey, hey! It’s perfectly fine! Everything will turn out alright, I promise! I’m sure Viktor already kinda knows what’s going on and he can explain better then me. Let me just say that you are perfectly sane! Lisa is perfectly sane.] Lisa had another close call to a full blown panic attack. “Is everything alright, Lisa?” Her mom looked at her, concerned. Lisa took a deep breath. “Yeah... everything’s... fine...” She settled back into the chair. “Alright, that’s that.” The ripper had just finished. “That was quick. I’m impressed.” Barbara had observed Viktor working and was surprised by the deftness of his fingers and his accuracy. The ripper was quick and precise.

Viktor smiled. “The anaesthetic’ll wear off in a bit, try moving the arm.” Lisa did. She held her chrome arm up towards the lights in the ceiling. Opening and closing her fist felt natural. No pinching, no disconnect. No lag. She didn’t know how to describe it. It was a magical feeling, the chrome arm, for the first time ever, felt like hers. “It feels like my arm...”, Lisa said in wonder. Viktor chuckled. “As it should.” Then he returned to the screens behind her. “Well, let me close up the exterior plates.” Lisa put her arm back down. This time she watched in fascination, as he reassembled the silver and steel with nimble fingers. He also adjusted its length and a few interior weights, so it mirrored her other, flesh arm better. Stretching both hands up with splayed fingers, one flesh, the other, chrome, Lisa couldn’t help but smile. For the first time, she was happy with her shiny hand.

“Alright, so... “ Viktor shifted a bit uncomfortably on his seat and took of his shades. “Now, I have a bit of... not bad news, but also not good news.” His cyan eyes shone with concern and her joy at her arm was forgotten in a flash. “The doll chip in your head...” He paused to gauge her reaction. “Yeah...?”, Lisa answered, uncertain. “So, d-chips always come with complications. They split one right down the middle after all. They are meant to allow deep access to the brain during operation and then delete the memories of the session. I have read plenty of medical reports and thesis on them and the general consensus is, that the memory wipe contains and stops the nasty side effects and consequences of the mind being cut in two.” Viktor paused to make sure Lisa could follow and continued in a soft voice. “The issues and horror stories appear, when the chip doesn’t function as intended. When there’s a hiccup in the code, or its improperly shutdown, that’s when things go wrong.”

Barbara whispered in horror. “I cut power to the floor...” Lisa wasn’t as surprised. She had a new voice in her head after all. Viktor continued. “A blackout would be a problem, yes.” He pulled one of the screens over. It had a pictogram of a brain on it. When Lisa frowned she could see some new areas light up in orange, but the whole brain was separated into three regions. A large one taking three quarters, and another one taking the majority of the rest and then a small one. “This here is what the sensors on your temple and forehead are picking up. It looks like the dollchip is caught in a limbo were it’s technically shutdown, but still running. It’s more obvious when you woke up.” The screen shifted to show a brain with no separate zones. The colours were all dark and light blue. Then suddenly, the colours shifted to orange and two more zones appeared.

“These two other regions are from the bad shutdown.” There was a short silence. “I caused this... “, Barbara whispered, her face as white as a sheet. “Let me say this right now, that this looks worse then it is. Lisa isn’t catatonic or appears sluggish, or went full psycho,”, Barbara flinched, ”without having this scan I wouldn’t be able to tell there was anything.” Viktor paused once again. Lisa could tell that her mom had clutched her hand a bit harder. “So, I have a theory what this”, he gestured at the screen, “is showing.” He looked intently at Lisa. “There’s a new voice in your head, right?” Lisa was stunned. So this is the other theory. [Yeah, basically.] Huh. Not actually that bad. Yet. Her mom didn’t take it as well. “I drove Lisa insane...” Her face had gone white. [Aww, shucks. Barbs gonna guilt trip herself... Hey, can I take over that screen and talk to them?] Lisa snorted, making her mother flinch and earning a concerned gaze from Viktor. Introduce the voice in my head to the world? Proove that I’m crazy but not crazy? [I mean...yeah?] Lisa stilled for a moment. You can access my cyberware. Do you even need to ask for permission? [Well... no?] Conrad sounded uncomfortable. At least the voice in my head knows to respect its landlord. Sure, go ahead. He chuckled.

The screen with her brain on it went black for a moment, before a 9 year old boy appeared on the dark background. Brown hair, wearing a t-shirt saying ‘Don’t call me crazy’. For the first time, Lisa heard Conrads voice not directly in her head, but from outside. It was weirdly comforting to know he was not just a figment of her imagination, not just a voice in her head. Or wasn’t that exactly what he was? It was comforting that others could hear the voice in her head too. “Alright, alright! Don’t get your panties in a twist! It’s really not that bad.” Viktor and Barbara flinched. “Who.. who are you?” Barbara squeezed Lisas hand, already fearing the answer. “Hello world! I’m Lisas mental disorder!” He cutely waved his hand. Lisa sighed. Maybe having the insane voice in her head comfort her mom was a bad idea.

 

#- edits/ corrections -#

Lisa hat flinched -> Lisa had flinched