Chapter 3: The grand escape! Sort of...
Heading to the corner of the room to the right of the vault door, I immediately summoned my bow. I made a quick mental note that the action felt completely natural and even instinctual.
Drawing back the bow string caused an ethereal arrow to materialize. Again I made a quick note of how natural this all felt to me. I was also slightly amused that both the bow and arrow were pink like I was.
Giving my head a quick shake to focus, I waited with baited breath. I did not have to wait long as the door swung open and my first target stepped into view. Time seemed to slow down greatly as I focused on the first Netrunner.
As I let the arrow fly, I noticed myself getting more and more fatigued keeping up this slowing effect, so I relaxed my concentration. Time was quick to snap back and my arrow struck true. Directly in the middle of the side of his head. I also made note of the tiny drain I felt when I shot the arrow itself, which I concluded was most likely my mana draining to fuel the arrow.
The man released an agonizing scream before his body began to glitch and he disappeared. The two remaining Netrunners and myself kind of froze at the spectacle of his death. One of the Netrunners yelled out in confused awe, "What in the fuck was that?! That hack ignored his ICE like it wasn't even there!"
At the mention of ICE I recalled that my race, while digital, did not interact with the digital world like one would expect. I was willing to bet this was one of those cases; my attacks were real and not "hacks" or "packets of data" that looked like an arrow. Snapping myself out of my stupid daze, I quickly drew the string back on the bow and took aim.
My movements caught their attention and the same Netrunner yelled, "Shit, it's moving again! I'll try slowing it down with some junk data, you try-"
He never got to finish his plan before he was struck dead center between the eyes with an arrow.
And like the one before, he released a painful scream before his body glitched out heavily and then winked out of existence.
The last Netrunner raised her right hand at me and made a finger gun while yelling, "FUCK! I need reinforcements! It is completely ignoring our ICE!"
Since this was the last Netrunner, I wanted to see what exactly would happen if I were to use [Possession] on her. I dodged the 3-D red rectangles she was "shooting" at me a few times before I used my wraith speed to nearly instantly close the distance to her. The drain from using this ability was exponentially larger than shooting an arrow, but the effects spoke for themselves.
As I reached for her face with my left hand I thought, 'It was not joking at all when it said extreme speed. I am so glad all of the abilities I've used so far have felt purely natural, as if I've been using them my whole life.'
As my hand connected with the side of her face I couldn't help myself as I yelled, "Suffer me now!"
Pink light erupted from her eyes and mouth as she released a blood-curdling scream. My world went dark for a few moments before I felt myself opening my eyes. Well, her eyes; I was back in the "real world" and I had taken over her body. I released an unintentional groan as I sat up, her body was stiff and sore. She clearly had not moved from her netrunning chair in several long hours.
As I sat up, I felt something detach and leave the back of my (her) head. It felt very surreal, and mildly uncomfortable if I was being honest. As I unconsciously reached behind my (her) head to feel the port a sudden female voice surprised me, "Nikki! Jesus fuck, what happened Nikki?!"
As I turned to the voice, it seemed to belong to a man dressed in a very slick black suit. Oddly though, he was wearing sunglasses indoors… And had a female voice. I would be lying if I said it didn't send me for a loop.
Just staring at him dumbly really seemed to upset him (her?) as he quickly yelled, "Damn it Nikki! I said report! What the fuck happened?! How did Project Blacklight flatline two of our finest Netrunners?!"
Snapping out of my stupor I quickly answered, "It shot the two of them with what seemed to be an arrow?"
He frowned as he asked, "An arrow? What do you mean by an arrow? I don't care how your stupid gonk mind interpreted the attack as, what was it using? What type of data, what was the full purpose of the hack? How did it pass through their ICE as if it wasn't even there?"
I just shrugged my shoulders and said, "No idea. It happened so fast that we got no readings. Or at least, I never got any. You said the other two are dead?"
He folded his arms across his chest with a sigh and answered, "Damn it… And yeah. Mike's entire left side of his head exploded outward like someone shot a Burya right next to his face. Kent is much the same, but with the front of his face."
He released another sigh before he asked, "How did you escape? Or better yet, why did you run?"
I shook my head and said, "I didn't run. It did something to my connection that kicked me out. Where is it now?"
He cussed up quite the small storm before answering, "Fucking useless gonks! Incompetent! Useless! FUCK… We don't know. We lost track of it as soon as you disconnected. We're looking for it now, it can't leave the network at least since it's closed."
I nodded my head and asked, "Should I dive back in?"
He shook his head and said, "No, forget it. You already failed once, and I am not keen on having your lack of talent be a further smear on my rep. I'll be writing you up, and sending a formal complaint to H.O. For now though, get the fuck out of here."
To keep up appearances I frowned heavily before sighing and nodding my head. He gave a single hard nod before saying, "Good. Now fuck off."
He quickly left the little cubicle-like area we were currently in with an annoyed huff. As I stepped into the hall and looked around I silently complained to myself, "Too bad I don't have access to my host's memory. I have no idea where the fuck I am supposed to go!"
As I turned to my right and started to walk towards a set of doors, I couldn't help but stealthily look around in awe. There were hundreds of large cables leading up from cubicles all over the floor. And if each cubicle was like the one I awoke in, then each cable bundle is one Netrunner. I let out a quiet whistle as I thought, 'There has to be at least 200 Netrunners on this giant floor alone! They really underestimated me by only sending a tiny squad of three… thank fuck.'
As I left the area and entered the next room over, I heard someone call out the name of my host, "Ooooiii!! Nikki! Wait up!"
Turning around I see another woman with dark skin and yellow hair, of all colours, running down the aisle and waving at me. Tilting my head a little I asked, "Yes?"
She ran up to me and started to breath heavily before leaning over and trying to catch her breath. She raised a hand to signal me to wait a few moments as she collected herself. Several seconds later she still had her hands on her knees but she seemed to recover enough to ask me if we were still on for tonight.
Naturally, having no fucking idea what she was talking about I said yes. She looked up and beamed a bright smile at me and said, "Awesome! Remember where I live? Or do you need a ride?"
I gave her a sly smile as I said, "I would love a ride, actually."
She straightened herself out as she stood and with the same bright smile said, "Preem! Let's go get changed, and we can leave!"
I simply smiled and gave a nod while I motioned for her to lead the way. As we were making our way to the apparent locker/changing room she asked, "So Nikki! When did you change your eye colour to pink? Got tired of the green?"
My eyes widened a little at the revelation that there are indeed a few, or at least one, physical changes when I take over someone. She turned to look at me and then squinted her eyes and stared for several long seconds. Then she smiled and while turning back to the front she said, "I like it! Pink really suits your red hair surprisingly well! But I thought you had an older model of optics installed, and they couldn't change their colour?"
I cleared my throat a few times before answering, "So did I, actually. I only found out this morning because I was fiddling with the settings while I was in the shower."
The girl, whose name was still a complete mystery, nodded her head a few times and then said, "I get you choom. I've also discovered some interesting things about my chrome while in the shower. I'm actually glad I am not the only one who tinkers with their settings while bored! Hehe!"
I am glad I'll be following her after we're done changing, because I have paid exactly zero attention to the layout of this building as we made our way to the locker rooms. As we entered said room, a new problem was quick to rear its ugly head. I had no idea where the fuck my hosts locker was, and even worse I had no idea what her combination was!
My internal panic was put on hold momentarily though when I noticed another glaring problem with this locker room. There were no lockers! It was just one long blank wall! So I did the only thing I could think of, I watched the mysterious girl.
She walked up to a seemingly random spot and placed her palm against the blank wall. Suddenly there was a blue light that scanned her whole body before a very distinctly computer-sounding voice echoed out, "Welcome back Employee 849-ASA-345-NTR-444 Tanny Klenz. You have been logged out. Hours worked have been logged, and we hope you had a productive work day. Your next scheduled shift is tomorrow at 8 AM. Have a good evening."
With a mental shrug I thought, 'When in Rome…'
Walking up to Tanny's right, I took a position that was a metre or so away from her and placed my hand on the wall. After I was bathed in the same blue light, the same A.I. voice spoke up, "Welcome back Employee 843-ASA-455-NTR-443 Nikki Lanners. You have been logged out. Hours worked have been logged, and we hope you had a productive work day. Your next scheduled shift is in two days at 8 AM. We hope you have a wonderful weekend. Have a good evening."
Then there was the sound of parts moving and metal shifting before a large rectangle shaped locker without a door appeared. Peering inside I was able to see several of my host's effects: street clothes, a purse, and a belt hip holster with a handgun nestled safely in it. A quick side glance told me that we did not in fact get any actual changing rooms beyond the one we were currently standing in as Tanny was already ass naked from taking off her Netrunner Suit, and was in the middle of getting her undergarments on.
With another mental sigh, I quickly followed suit and it wasn't long before I was fully dressed and threading the belt holster through the loops of my jean pants. I was kind of amused this Corpo didn't have a fancy dress and instead had rather relaxed and normal clothes. Looking into the mirror to check out my state of dress, I had a small shock that had me almost instinctively reach for the door that didn't exist for my locker.
While my host was indeed reflected, sadly she wasn't the only thing reflected. My digital self was superimposed over her form! Or rather, her right side was basically me! My ghostly pink self was overlapping with her entire right side, and it was very easy to see details of my own body. I had a soft yet sharp looking face, with an equally sharp looking gaze and eye formation. You could see the tip of a long elven ear poking out of my soft, silking looking hair. I had no idea what colour my hair or eyes were as I was still very much a pink ghost in the end.
I seemed to be wearing some kind of head band of sorts, two thin bands no more than half a centimetre in thickness or so flowed against each other in a wave sort of pattern. The clothes my true self was wearing looked to be the same sleek gear that the elven assassin of the Shadow of Mordor game used. But again, it was pink in colour and had the hood down.
{IMAGE}
I was broken out of my self inspection by an arm suddenly snaking its way across the back of my shoulders and pulling me into a half hug. I involuntarily froze up at the sudden hug and was having a mini panic attack when Tanny excitedly said, "Look at you! Look at us! We're some badass bitches! I am so glad you listened to me and ditched the fucken Corpo suit. You look so much hotter without that stick up your ass~."
Her beaming smile and body was reflected back at us along with my own, but she made no mention of the obvious ghostly side causing me to calm down. Giving her a sly smile I say, "Well, when you're right, you're right."
She barked a laugh while slapping my back and said, "You bet your finely honed ass I am! Now let's go sister! IT'S PARTY TIME!!"
I didn't resist her pull as she started to practically drag me away in an excited mood. It didn't take us long before we found ourselves in a park garage several minutes later. Honestly, the longest part was the massive elevator ride up, it seems we were several floors underground.
As we came upon what I assumed was her car, I couldn't help but whistle as I instantly recognised it. It was one of my favourite types from the game: Quadra Type-66 640 TS!
Tanny let out a giggle while she opened the doors remotely. As we both got in the vehicle she said, "You react the same way every time you see my ride, and it never gets old! When are you going to get your own?"
While I thought, 'No fucken idea' I said, "Whenever I save up enough EDs. These are not cheap after all."
She started up her car, which was a bright neon blue by the way, with a nod of her head and said, "Don't I know it. This baby put me back over 100k! And then another 50k for all the mods and customizations I got done to her. But she's worth every Eddie. Hope you're ready Nikki, I got us a PREEM XBD for tonight. Hal over in counter ops managed to klep a copy of the the scroll from an operative that was testing some of our newer tech."
Raising an eyebrow I asked, "Oh?"
She smiled wildly as she stepped on the gas and ripped out of the parking lot and floored it even more once we were on the long empty road. As our speed reached over 200 km/h she said, "Hell yea! Something called the cyber skeleton or some shit. Real hush hush bleeding edge RND. To bleeding edge though, it has a 100% chance of inducing cyberpsychosis within minutes of installing the thing. But DAMN if it doesn't turn you into a fucking one man army for the duration of your episode."
Nodding my head I said, "Sounds intense."
She nodded her head several times as she started to bounce a bit in her seat from excitement, "Hell yeah it is! The Cyberpsycho took out three of our battalions. They even had tanks, Nikki! Tanks! It was like he was playing with toys Hal said! I can't wait to check out the XBD!!"
I then heard a soft chime and I started to smile as well, but for another reason. Returning my eyes to the road but focusing on something else I said, "Yeah, sounds super preem. Can't wait…"
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~Quest complete!~
Objective: Escape Arasaka RND!
~Complete~
Hidden objective: Destroy all of Arakaska's research data on you.
~Failed. No rewards or Penalties given.~
Total rewards: 1000 EDs. Freedom! Skill: [Inspect 1]
Convert EDs to store points? [Y/N]
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[author] Here is the next chapter~! I wrote it while I waited for over 2 hours in a lab for them to even start taking my blood.. ugh, I hate dealing with people in real life! I is most drained, I sleep now, night night~♥[/author]