We hadn’t actually gone to a bar this time. Instead all of us had crashed into my apartment, and we had just brought home a ton of food, having hit a few different restaurants in the area.

The entertainment system was set to some terrible movies and we all just ate and drank ourselves sick while laughing and sometimes throwing shit at the TV.

Sorry Jun, I’ll clean that up after I promise.

We had all gotten comfortable, and I had started working on Short Circuit again while we all vegged out and ragged on the terrible movie. Some action flick about a guy on a train or something?

I wasn’t really paying attention because it was really just that bad.

“Hey, bored?” Ichi asked from beside me. He had been sipping at a Broseph of all things.

“Not really, this is actually pretty fun, I just want to get this program done asap. I know this netrunner, and she is going on a crazy gig. I’m worried she is going to end up over her head, so I want to make sure I give her something to help keep her alive.”“Huh. I guess that is a worry isn’t it.” He muttered, and the way he spoke. I paused the programming to look at him.

“Ichi?”

“It’s kinda stupid… But now that I’ve said that you aren’t going to let it go anyways. I thought you died there for a while, fighting that Cyberpunk. I mean… When you didn’t pick up.”

“Yeah… Sorry for not responding right away I-”

“You don’t have to apologize Motoko, you were fighting for your life… He actually beat you.” He said with a hint of frustration in his tone.

“I’ll kill him next time. Gonna get some more chrome soon from Vik and we won’t be able to overpower me as easily.” I assured him. Still a little salty at the whole getting kicked out the window thing.

I hadn’t and wasn’t going to consider how close to dying I had come. If I hadn’t managed to grab that pipe, I would have been a Motoko splatter on the ground.

“It just… I wish I could have helped. I mean, yeah I’m not like Jun or anything. Not a front liner, but I should have been able to do something.”

“Ichi, that guy was a pro. Like the sort of guy that kills high level people for a living. Don’t be stressed at not being at the same level. I’m not at the same level.” I reminded him.

“Yeah.” He agreed with a small snort, showing that it was a bitter laugh.

“Well if you want to do more Ichi, then… Let’s get you set up to do more. You already upgraded your van for better defense. We should all probably get better armor and gear.” I said, calling out over the group. Malcolm looked up from his chinese food Lo Mein hanging from his mouth as he perked up.

“Hmm. We can definitely figure out a budget and start doing some upgrades.” Hiromi offered.

I looked to Ichi and he slowly just shook his head, as his face shifted into a smile. “Alright. You won. I’ll stop moping. Better armor and weapons will help. What else could we do?”

“Honestly? We really need a few other things. I was thinking… Some trackers, and mobile cameras? If we are going to make this Section 9 thing work we need more tools.” I offered and I could see Hiromi’s eyes get sharp as she considered it.

“It would open up a lot of gigs we could do. Those kinds of tools are expensive though.”

“I was actually thinking of trying to make some myself. I’ve been working on a few things already… Did I show you guys my silencer I made? I know I showed Hiromi.” I said, pulling free my Lexingtons silencer to show it off.

“Preem!” Malcolm called out climbing over the table, knocking over a few cartons of food as he reached for it. I just rolled my eyes and let him have it.

“I want a silencer!”

“I’ll make you one. But you need to actually get an iron worthy of it. Your Unity is kinda…” I trailed off as I realized.

My chooms really did have shitty gear.

Sure Malcolm and Ichi both had some shotguns and other weapons they would bring along from time to time, but like…

That was baby shit.

We needed real iron especially for my chooms.

“We are going to get some assault rifles, and body armor for all of you.” I decided right then.

“Expensive.” Hiromi reminded me, but I just scoffed.

“Hiromi. Those are free. We just need to find someone who already has them.” I reminded her back and that caused her bright optics to go nice and wide as I reminded her we were loot goblins.

“Heh! Yeah! We need a new gig, clear out some gonks and steal everything!” Malcolm called out cheerfully waving my silencer around in the air.

“Be careful with that!”

“I am!” He said but eventually huffed and handed it back.

“So new gear huh?” Ichi asked, and I nodded.

“We are still young. We should keep working on improving! Skills, gear! We need to keep moving forward so we can be safe doing more and more!” I called out fist raised and a moment later Malcolm joined me arm up in the air while Ichi and Hiromi looked on as if wondering why they were chooms with us.

Of course I reached out and grabbed Ichi’s arm to force his arm up as well, and Malcolm catching on quickly did the same for Hiromi.

“Section 9!” I called out happy. The others had diminished levels of engagement, but that’s fine!

“Oh!” Hiromi jerked back suddenly as she reached into her jacket and started fumbling around, pulling at an inner pocket until she pulled out what looked like a deck of playing cards at first, but as she flashed them to the rest of us I understood.

“Oh! You made more business cards!”

“I did! I finished the design during business engagement and advertising class!” She said looking happy. As she tore a chunk off the deck and handed them to each of us.

I looked it over and whistled. They weren’t made of paper or something, but were thin plastic, indented in them was a silver filigree, but the letters were printed.

Section 9. Investigation. Protection. Bounty Hunting.

And of course a phone number, but also an email, which was obviously one Hiromi made.

“That’s so cool!” I whispered, flashing the card in the light letting the silver letters flash in the light.

“Nova Hiromi.” Ichi said as he nudged her shoulder and I could see the corpo girl preen under the attention.

—--

“Vik.”

“Motoko, hey kid.”

“It’s time for me to chrome the fuck up.” I said, deepening my voice to sound all sinister and then I smiled brightly. “I’m so excited.”

Vik just looked at me for a moment before chuckling and shaking his head. “Is that from some show?”

“Yes, but also no.” I answered, because explaining what Edgerunners was isn’t something I was going to do. “You have it?”

“Yeah. I found what you wanted. You sure about this kid? You wanted to take it slow, but this is a big change.”

“I am. Not just because that Edgerunner, Cyberpunk, trenchcoat wearing gonk beat the shit out of me even!” I explained as I settled into the chair. I tapped my shoulders. “I’ve had my shoulders stretched out, or dislocated a few times now, and it’s getting old.”

“Yeah, This will definitely fix that.” Vik agreed and then he wheeled it up.

It would look pretty sinister if not for where I was. A plastic bag with metal bones. Human bones, rested on the table.

“Titanium Bones, MoorE Tech make. I had these whipped up using your measurements. You sure kid? This kind of stuff will definitely ruin your natural growth.”

“I’m already asian Vik, probably only got a couple inches left in me anyways… Besides, I have my special healing. I’m not sure what the combination of the two will be like. And I have the best ripper in Night City watching over me in case I need to be let out a bit.”

My absolute buttering up of Vik only partially worked as the older man scoffed but was still smiling at me, as he rolled over.

“Well I’ll do what I can to keep you healthy of course, but I’m not a miracle worker.”

Which was a lie and the big smile I was shooting at him, was my answer to that.

“Alright kid, lose the leotard, put this on, now lay back. Now I told you this is going to be a while.”

“I know. I’m all yours doc.” I assured him as I shucked out of my clothes and threw on the little almost paper like gown he handed to me. Vik even did the cute turn around not to look thing. Adorable.

Once I was ‘clothed’ and settled in he turned back around.

“Alright.” He grumbled, as he hooked a few cords into my neuralports, and then hooked a few IV’s into my body. “Let’s disconnect these arms of yours. I’m going to prompt your cyberware for the disconnect.” He said and a moment later I got a notification asking if I wanted to release the connections to my chrome arms.

I accepted, and a sense of coolness went up from my fingers to my shoulders as the nerves disengaged and then there was a quiet noise as the locking system turned off.

Vik pulled away with my arm, and then went and did the same thing for the other.

“Alright kid, that’s everything. Sleepy time Motoko. Just relax, I’ll take care of the rest.”

“Course you will doc.” I agreed, as my eyes grew heavy.

—--

I came too groggily. Blinking my eyes slowly as everything kind of blurred. I honestly didn't feel too good. I was face down now, my face in a hole in the ripper chair and I felt just numb.

“Vaaa.” I tried to speak but my tongue felt kinda numb. So my attempt at calling out for Vik didn’t work.

“Hey Kid. Welcome back. You’re okay. Everything is all in order.” Viks face leaned over and despite being all wooshy I could still tell it was him. “You're on the good drugs kid, I brought you out so you can heal yourself up. Go ahead and go to sleep for eight hours. You can do that can’t you?” He prompted and I could feel my brain sort of slowly shift into understanding.

Gotta sleep so I can heal.

Sleeeeep.

I blinked through my menu and found the right stuff although it wasn’t working and I realized I was trying to push the buttons with my fingers which wasn’t exactly working.

Then I pressed the right button mentally and instantly everything went dark.

Then I blinked.

“I’m awake.” I called out blinking away a bit of gunk, but I couldn’t get up as I tried to rise up.

“Easy kid, I have you strapped down. Let me check you over, this is the first time we’ve done such an invasive surgery. I want to see how your healing handled it.”

“Yeah, okay.” I mumbled around the plastic fluff that was cradling my face.

I almost shivered as cold hands went over my shoulders. The weirdest part was just how normal it felt.

I just had massive surgery. The sort of stuff that would have likely killed anyone attempting it back in my previous life.

“Alright, well let’s get your chrome reattached. Everything looks good, amazing even. Damn kid. That healing of yours is unreal.” Vik muttered, then a few moments later I felt something press against my shoulder

Then with a quiet whirr the locks hooked back in, and a tingling ran down my arm.

He rolled around and did the same to the next one. Leaving me with two arms that felt like I had just fallen asleep on them.

“So, it worked?”

“Course it did, c’mon kid this is baby stuff, any back alley ripper could do this… Not well mind you.” He said with a joke as he finally popped the straps holding me down and I rose up.

Like usual I felt perfectly fine after eight hours of sleep, as I sat up I noticed that Vik had thrown up a opaque plastic sheet to block me off from view of the entrance.

“Had some customers come in, privacy is important.” He told me as he noticed me looking at it.

“Thanks Vik.” I accepted. It was nice of him, most rippers wouldn’t have even cared.

But I turned my focus back on my body. I was still in the medical gown he had given me, but that just made it easier to reach behind me and start poking and prodding at my back.

Not a stitch, or a scar from what I could see.

“Here kid.” Vik brought up a set of mirrors letting me see that my back was as pristine as always.

Despite the fact that he had basically ripped out every bone between my shoulders and replaced them with a titanium replacement.

“I don’t feel any different.”

“I made sure they would weigh the same.” Vik answered, and then he settled the mirrors down and looked into my eyes.

“I’m curious Motoko, so I have some questions. Normally the recovery period would give someone the sense something is wrong, but you bypassed that, so I want you to do some stretches and things. I want to make sure everything is how it should be. Both physically…” And then he poked my forehead. “And mentally.”

“Sure Vik. Whatever you think is best.” I agreed without any fight.

“Alright, go ahead and do some stretches, tell me if you feel anything different. Anything off. No matter how minor.”

I shrugged, and that felt the same so I started stretching. As I ran my arms through different positions I did feel a difference.

“It feels like my arms are more… Attached? Does that make sense?” I muttered as I pressed my palms together and pushed. Normally this would reach a point pretty quickly where my shoulders would hurt, because my arms could put out more force… Or maybe just had less restrictions than my old ones did.

But now? I felt the pressure build up in my shoulder blades but no pain, no sense of tearing or difficulty.

“Well everything in between is a whole lot stronger.” Vik agreed, making some notes.

“Yeah.” I said a little breathless. I really wanted to do some punches or something to see how they would feel.

“I did some muscle and bone lacing as well just to reinforce everything.” He mentioned off hand and I jerked up a bit at that.

“Wait what?” I looked over my shoulders and I didn’t see anything off.

“It’s normal for doing replacements like that. The Lace helps keep everything together, strengthens things, so you are far less likely to pull a muscle. Did you not know?” Vik asked, looking at me curiously, as I shook my head.

“No. I wasn’t really planning on getting any bioware.”

“Ah well. Just think of it as some extra glue holding your stuff together. You aren’t getting Synth muscles, so I wanted to make sure you wouldn’t accidentally pull something.”

With that it reminded me about my system.

What did my system have to say about my current upgrades?

I quickly pulled it open and instantly noticed some changes.

MoorE Titanium Bones (Shoulders, back, and ribs.) *Adaptation Titanium Bones 0/1*

Biotechnica Muscle and Bone Lace *Adaptation Muscle and Bone Lace 0/0*

The bioware cost me nothing, and my new bones were only one adaptation?

Why was that? I mean, sure I wasn’t looking at it all the time like my arms, and I really couldn’t feel much of a difference, but you would think changing out your bones would cause some problems.

Guess not though.

“Kid?”

“Sorry just checking some things. I’m actually feeling pretty good Vik.” I said, even as I returned to poking and prodding my shoulders and back.

“Well let’s go through a few checks and then I guess I’ll send you off. Still amazing to see how quickly you healed up.” He muttered, shaking his head as he rolled around.

Yeah. That healing power was pretty amazing for recovering after an upgrade.

I punched my fist into the palm of my other hand, sending out a metallic noise.

Yeah. That felt pretty good. Certainly better than it had before. I hadn’t even noticed how much I had to hold back to keep myself from pulling my arms out of my own socket or something.

I don’t think I was quite ready for a rematch with Thomas yet, but this was just part one of my plan.

Give it a week or so, gathering up more stat points, and then maybe I would be ready for another upgrade.

With that thought I looked at my character sheet. There were definitely some changes and… Wait! Did I forgot to use my Annihilation perk point this whole time!?

“Fuck!”

“Kid?”“Oh nothing! Bad news, but nothing serious!” I called over to Vik who was preparing more gadgets to check on me with.

Ugh. Okay that perk needed to be picked. Soon.

Level 15

Body 8(16) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 8.

-Athletics 7

-Street Brawler 8

-Annihilation 5

Reflex 8

-Blades 7

-Handguns 7

-Assault 7

-Driving 7

Intelligence 10 (14) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.

-Breach Protocol 9

-Quick Hacks 7

-Programming 10

Cool 9

-Ninjutsu 8

-Cold Blood 8

-Rockerboy 8

Technical Ability 4 (8) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.

-Crafting 4

-Engineering 4

Stat point.

Skill point.

Perks.

Ambidextrous Blades 2

Quickdraw Handguns 2

Gun Nut Assault 2

Parkour Athletics 2

Grappling Street Brawler 2

Drive By Driving 2

Cat-like Athletics 5

Cool Nerves Cold Blood 2

Danger Sense Ninjutsu 2

Wall Breaking Breach Protocol 2

Cyber Security Quick Hack 2

Recoil Reduction. Annihilation 2

Cyber Ninja Ninjutsu 5

Fearless Chill. Cold Blood 5.

Improvised Weapons Street Brawler 5

Parry Blades 5

Robotics wizard Crafting 2

Drifting Driving 5

Rapid Reload Handguns 5

Design Wizard Engineering 2

Rifle Ace Assault 5

Ghost touch Breach 5

Perfect Musical Memory Rockerboy 2.

Debug Programming 2

Siren Song Rockerboy 5

Hacking Wizard Quick Hacks 5

Inspired Programmer Programming 5

A.I. Whisperer: Programming 10

Annihilation 5 *Unused*

Cyberware:

Seacho Electronics Mk.2 *Adaptation Seacho Mk.2 0/0*

Kiroshi Mk1 *Adaptation Kiroshi Mk1 1/2*

Militech Condor *Adaptation Militech Condor 5/7*

Arasaka Smart Link System. *Adaptation Smart Link 0/0*

Arasaka Ex-Disk *Adatapation Ex-Disk 0/0*

Militech-Armalite Ballistic Guard *Adaptation Ballistic Guard 1/2*

Serano Air-Groove Ankles *Adaptation Serano Air 1/1*

MoorE Titanium Bones (Shoulders, back, and ribs.) *Adaptation Titanium Bones 0/1*

Biotechnica Muscle and Bone Lace *Adaptation Muscle and Bone Lace 0/0*

Everything looked pretty good! It was only as I was browsing that I noticed another change.

My Condors! Last time they had been 5/8 adaptation! Now they were 5/7! They had lowered again!

I looked down at my chrome arms and smiled, bringing them up in front of me and waving my fingers.

These were my arms! These were my fingers, and the nicks and dings on my hands were mine as well. Like scars tracing back.

Yeah. I decided. I had definitely mentally recovered from the damage that had been done to me. Which only firmed up my decision to chrome the fuck up even more.

Motoko Kusanagi. Cyborg!

“Hey kid, plug this in, I want to do a sensitivity test.”

“Sure Vik!” I answered, grabbing the plug he handed to me, and refocusing on the checkup I was getting.