Cyberpunk Edgerunners IF: Going to the Moon with Kiwi, Not Lucy - The Night the Fool Got Caught in the Net

Two in the morning. An old logistics warehouse on the outskirts of the Watson district—Chromejaw's gang hideout, steeped in the smell of heavy oil and rust that should've been long gone. Thick clouds hung in the sky, blurring even the neon glow into a hazy smear. Two hundred meters from the warehouse, David Martinez crouched in the shadow of a derelict car, eyes locked on the front entrance. Beneath his mother's yellow bomber jacket—her keepsake—his heart wouldn't settle. His first real infiltration job. A gang of around forty on the other side. "[serious]...Two guards out front." A pair standing by the entrance. One had an assault rifle slung over his shoulder; the other was lazily puffing on a cigarette. David touched the back of his neck. The military-grade Sandevistan implanted along his spine gave off a faint heat. Neural transmission speed boosted up to twelve times normal—insane cyberware. Risk of cardiac rupture if used continuously, but right now, it was all he had. "[excited]Alright... let's clean this up in one go." The moment he activated the Sandevistan, the world decelerated as if someone had slammed the brakes. Everything around him fell into slow motion. He could see the cigarette smoke dissolving into the air, slow as cotton candy. David ran. In a frozen world, he alone could move freely. The sensation always sent a thrilling shiver down his spine. At the same time, he felt a searing pain spreading from his spine toward his heart. But right now, he couldn't afford to care. First target. He circled behind the man with the assault rifle and drove a knife-hand strike into the side of his neck. The guy crumpled to the ground without ever knowing what hit him. Second target. Before the cigarette could even fall from the man's lips, David buried his fist in the guy's gut. The gangster folded in half, collapsing without a sound. "[laughing]Heh, too easy—" But mid-sentence, static ripped through his brain. Someone had cut into his comms. "[cold]You weren't actually planning to go in through the front, were you?" A woman's voice. Cold, utterly devoid of emotion—like ice. "[surprised]Wh-what the—!? Who is this!?" "[sarcastic]Your support. A netrunner they call the Ghost of Watson." The Ghost of Watson—. David's heart leaped, and this time it wasn't the Sandevistan's doing. The rumors he'd heard at the Afterlife. A legendary hacker who'd single-handedly stolen data from megacorps and was currently at war with three different gangs. "[excited]You're the Ghost! I've been wanting to meet you! Let's fight together!" "[cold]Huh?" He could've sworn he heard a deep sigh from the other end of the line. "[cold]I'll pass on any plan that's just an idiot charging in headfirst. Turn back right now. This warehouse has way more security than you're imagining—" "[angry]No way!" David shook his head as if to cut the connection. Turn back? Not a chance. This was his first big job. And on top of that, a chance to team up with the Ghost he'd admired. No way he could show a lame side of himself here. "[excited]I'll show you!" David kicked the warehouse door open and dove inside. The interior was dim, a few dying fluorescent lights flickering erratically. Old containers were stacked high, and narrow passages stretched out like a maze. The air was dusty, thick with the mingled smells of machine oil and mold. He reactivated the Sandevistan. The world fell into slow motion again. Security drones hovered throughout the passageways. Three—no, four of them. Small, round bodies fitted with surveillance cameras and compact machine guns. David kicked off the floor. First step, he dodged the drone on the right. Second step, he swatted the one near the ceiling out of the air. The third drone opened fire, but the bullets only grazed his hair. In a world of slow motion, he could even see the trajectory of the rounds. Whether he had the luxury to watch them was another matter entirely. When he destroyed the fourth drone, the back of his neck burned with agony. The price of continuous Sandevistan use. His heart hammered like a frantic drum, sweat stinging his eyes. "[angry]Not... not done yet...!" He pushed deeper. At the end of the passage stood a heavy-looking metal door. A plate on the wall beside it read "Classified Storage." David grinned. "[excited]Found it—the classified chip!" In that instant, Kiwi's voice cut into his brain again. This time, she almost sounded agitated. "[scared]That room's a trap. Don't go in." Data she'd sent flickered at the edge of David's vision. A structural schematic of the warehouse. Beneath the storage room, a large empty space. A pitfall. "[sarcastic]It's fine. I've got the Sandevistan—" He opened the door and took one step forward. The floor split open beneath him, left and right. "[surprised]Whoaaaaa!?" His body was hurled into the air. He tried to activate the Sandevistan, but there was no footing. Gravity dragged him straight down. He slammed back-first onto the concrete floor three meters below. He couldn't breathe. Sparks scattered across his vision. "[angry]Sh... shit...!" He tried to stand, but his arms wouldn't move. Metal rings had extended from the walls—electromagnetic locks, clamping his wrists in place. Even with the Sandevistan active, he couldn't muster any strength. Completely neutralized. A door banged open. Three gangsters entered the dim room. All of them were huge, loaded with chrome implants. One was a buddy of the guy David had beaten down in the street market before. The right side of his face was still swollen purple. "[sarcastic]Well, well. The Sandevistan punk dropped right in." The biggest of them peered into David's face. His breath reeked of booze and synthetic cigarettes. "[cold]You really did a number on my brother the other day." David clenched his teeth. He had no comeback. "[sarcastic]Without that Sandy, you're just a brat." The second one rummaged through the pocket of David's jacket. He pulled out a small silver key. The key to his mother's apartment—her keepsake. "[excited]Ooh, a cute little good-luck charm." "[angry]Stop! Give that back!" David shouted, but the gangsters just cackled, tossing the key to the floor. Then they ground it under the sole of a boot. The horrible screech of metal scraping against concrete echoed through the room. His vision went red. "[angry]Don't you fucking dare!" He thrashed with all his strength, trying to tear free of the electromagnetic locks. They didn't budge. A gangster punched him in the face. He felt the bone in his nose crack. The taste of blood flooded his mouth. Another blow—a kick to the gut this time. The contents of his stomach nearly came rushing back up. "[sarcastic]Let's take our time enjoying this. Start with the finger bones—" The gangster raised a fist wrapped in brass knuckles. That was when it happened. *Click.* Every light went out at once. Pitch black. Nothing visible. "[scared]Wh-what the hell!?" "[angry]Blackout!?" The gangsters' panicked voices filled the darkness. Slipping through the gaps in their confusion, Kiwi's voice resonated directly inside David's skull. Clear, as if she were standing right beside him. "[serious]Close your eyes. In three seconds, jerk your head to the right as hard as you can." David did as he was told and shut his eyes. One. Two. Three. He threw his whole body into jerking his head to the right. Wind sliced past his ear. The next instant, the electromagnetic locks clanked open. Kiwi had forced a full system shutdown of the entire facility. "[serious]Now—left! Run two meters and hit the deck!" His body moved before his mind could catch up. Two meters to the left, then flat on the floor. Bullets passed right over his back. The gangsters were firing blindly into the darkness. "[serious]Kick the right wall!" He kicked the wall with his right foot. The recoil slid his body sideways, and he heard rounds slam into the spot he'd just occupied. "[serious]Three steps straight—now roll right!" He rolled across the concrete floor. He felt his jacket fraying. But a second earlier, another hail of bullets had struck where he'd been. Without Kiwi's instructions, he'd be Swiss cheese by now. She was—from cyberspace, she was watching everything in this room. The gangsters' positions, the direction of their muzzles, their next moves. She calculated it all and navigated David through it. "[scared]Shit, where is he!?" The gangsters were in total chaos. In pitch darkness, they couldn't tell friend from foe. Kiwi's audio nav was only audible to David, so they had no idea what was happening. Everything unfolding exactly as she'd calculated. "[serious]I've unlocked the emergency exit. Now—run straight for fifteen steps, then duck at the end!" David sprinted with everything he had. Fifteen steps. Gunfire and furious shouts rang out behind him. He ducked at the end, and the emergency exit door swung past just over his head. Beyond the door, thrown open with force, the neon lights of the Watson district were waiting. He burst outside. The cold night wind felt good against his face, wet with sweat and blood. He could still hear the footsteps of pursuers behind him, but once he melted into the darkness of the night, it was his game. David ran from alley to alley, turning again and again, until he finally shook them off. Before he knew it, he was beneath a railway overpass. A freight train rumbled overhead, *gogogo*. As if hiding within that roar, David slumped against a concrete pillar and sat down. He was out of breath. His whole body ached. The nosebleed still hadn't stopped. (*Incredible... such precise navigation.*) Awe came first, but fear surged up right behind it. If he'd just listened to her from the start, he wouldn't have fallen into the trap, and they wouldn't have taken his mother's key. All of it—his own stupid, reckless charge. "[gentle]Are you okay? Can you move?" The voice came not from inside his head, but from right in front of him. David looked up. In the dimness beneath the overpass, a woman stood. A black bodysuit encased her entire figure. A two-tone bob cut of pink and blue shimmered eerily in the neon light. Her bangs hid her right eye; the exposed left was an ice-blue cyber-eye. A mesh pattern of mechanical lines ran from the corner of her mouth down to her jaw. On her left wrist, a faintly glowing monowire. She was much younger than he'd imagined. And far more beautiful. But more than anything—that left eye was unbelievably cold. "[sarcastic]You're... the rumored Ghost of Watson...?" It took a full five seconds for the words to come out. "[cold]That's right. And you're the idiot who charged in with nothing but a Sandevistan and fell straight into a trap." Kiwi stated it flatly. There was no mockery or contempt in her tone—just a sense of stating pure fact. That, somehow, hit David even harder. "[whispers]...Can't argue with that." As David hung his head, Kiwi let out a single sigh. "[cold]I've already filed the full report. I told the client the classified chip was a dummy. The real one was sold off by Chromejaw ages ago." David looked up, stunned. "[surprised]Wait... so the job was a failure!?" "[cold]Yes. The moment you fell into that trap, your mission was over. I confirmed it from the data I pulled off the security drones." She continued. "[cold]But I planted a decent backdoor while I was at it. I copied all of Chromejaw's gang's transaction data and slipped a tracking virus into their bank accounts. We'll be able to monitor their every move from here on out." In other words, even after David had screwed up, she'd kept working alone, cool and collected. David clenched his fists. He felt pathetic enough to punch the ground. But doing that wouldn't change anything. "[gentle]...Why did you save me?" Kiwi averted her gaze, just slightly. "[cold]A calculated decision. If I lost you back there, I'd be short one bullet shield for future operat

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Episode 2

Name: Cyberpunk Edgerunners IF: Going to the Moon with Kiwi, Not Lucy
Author: Novelia

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