Chapter 92: Indirect Kiss
Jaguar Base, Training Ground 3.
Rhys, fresh from his solo session in Gym 2, wiped the sweat from his brow and took a long swig of water. He looked up at the figures sparring in the ring ahead.
"Hey, Lucy. Since when did they get so buddy-buddy?"
Rhys turned to the white-haired netrunner beside him. Over the past few days, he'd been training hard, getting used to the Gunblade: Shadowsong. The crew had all seen it. Shoko had even asked to try it out. Rhys handed it over, but she'd returned it after a few minutes with a shrug.
Her verdict? It's okay.
Okay? Just okay? This weapon was basically magic by 2077 standards!
Sure, tech had advanced enough to colonize Mars, but the DataKrash had actually set a lot of things back. Huge chunks of knowledge were lost in the Old Net. That's why corps sent suicide squads of netrunners diving into the Blackwall—to recover lost tech.
So, Shoko saw the gunblade as some relic of old-world tech. Transforming weapons were cool and all, but compared to smart-guns with built-in AIs that could chat with you while you zeroed people? A sword that turned into a gun was kinda... meh.
It didn't even talk!
Rhys figured she just lacked appreciation for the classics. But the real reason was probably that the Shadowsong was soul-bound to him. In anyone else's hands, it was just a piece of metal. It wouldn't transform, wouldn't respond.
Maine's crew, especially Pilar, had given him weird looks when he showed it off. Pilar had designed the damn thing; he knew it shouldn't be able to do what it did. But no one said anything. Compared to Rhys himself—a guy with no chrome who moved like a superhero from a comic book—a magic sword was the least weird thing about him.
Lucy yawned, resting her chin in her hand. Since their talk the other day, the ice queen had thawed considerably. Or rather... she seemed more alive. The cold, distant aura remained, but there was a spark of vitality underneath. She wasn't just a ghost anymore.
"Tigress seems to like Rebecca. Said she wanted to teach her how to fight properly, that Rebecca's style was too reckless. Rebecca got pissed, they argued, and now... they've been sparring for days."
"And Maine?" Rhys nodded at the hulking figure in the ring.
Tigress was taking on both Maine and Rebecca simultaneously. She was only using a fraction of her chrome, but she was dominating. And they weren't holding back. Aside from lethal blows, broken bones and torn muscles were common. But with the base's advanced medical tech—better than Trauma Team Platinum—as long as you weren't brain-dead, they could fix you up in no time. And it was all on Michiko's dime.
"Maine? He just jumped in. Said he wanted combat experience, but I think he's just hoping to scam some free chrome upgrades out of them. By the way, Rhys... let me have a sip."
Rhys blinked, confused. "Huh?"
Drink my water? Why?
"There's a vending machine right there. Tigress gave us unlimited access. They even have that carbonated stuff you like," Rhys pointed out.
"Too lazy to walk. And I don't drink soda every day," Lucy replied flatly.
"..." Rhys sighed, handing her the bottle he'd just been drinking from.
Lucy took it, brought the rim to her lips, and took a tiny, delicate sip. It looked more like she was playing with the water than drinking it. Then she handed the bottle back.
Rhys stared at the almost-full bottle, about to screw the cap back on.
"You're not drinking?"
"I drank half of it already."
"You're still sweating," Lucy observed, narrowing her eyes at him. "Hydrate. Drink more."
"I'm not thirsty. I actually drink a lot of..."
"No. I think you're thirsty."
"..."
Rhys took a sip, watching Lucy over the rim of the bottle. She had turned back to the fight. Her long legs, clad in the tight netrunner suit, were crossed, one foot tapping rhythmically in the air.
After the... incident with Sasha, Rhys wasn't exactly innocent anymore. But when had he started attracting Lucy's attention?
His plan had been simple: recruit a skilled netrunner. No ulterior motives. But this...
Is it my charisma stat? Or are organics just a rare commodity in Night City now?
Rhys rubbed his chin, feeling a surge of narcissism. Maybe I'm just that handsome? In a world of bulky, chromed-up hulks, maybe the clean-cut look is making a comeback?
"FUCK!"
A shout from the ring snapped him out of his thoughts. Rebecca was sitting on the floor, furiously yanking at her pigtails, screaming at Tigress.
"Stop patting my head! Are you just showing off how long your arms are?!"
"No, you're just too short. Your arms are tiny," Tigress grinned, wiping sweat from her chin.
"Go to... go to hell!" Rebecca started to flip her off, then stopped herself halfway.
Dorio, sitting on the steps opposite Rhys and Lucy, smiled like a proud mother. Rebecca was a firecracker, exploding at the slightest provocation. But underneath the rage and the guns, she was a genuinely sweet kid. Tigress clearly saw that. Why else would an elite soldier bother training a street punk?
"Alright, break time. Remember to come back after dinner," Tigress said, ruffling Rebecca's hair.
"Stop treating me like a kid!" Rebecca grumbled, shaking her head violently.
Tigress just laughed and walked out of the gym.
Dorio's gaze drifted to Rhys and Lucy. Her smile faded into a worried frown.
She'd seen them sharing the water bottle. Big deal, right? Just water. Calling it an "indirect kiss" was childish bullshit.
But... this was Lucy.
The girl was pathologically guarded. She usually drank from her own cup, wouldn't touch a glass if someone else had poured it. Her walls were higher than the Arasaka Tower. Seeing her share a drink... that meant something.
And that was the problem.
Sasha.
The kitten might act like a ditz, but she was possessive as hell. Especially about her things. And she considered Rhys hers.
Well, not my problem, Dorio thought, looking at Maine. I'm really starting to act like the mom of this group, aren't I?
In Shoko's command room, Tigress scanned her retinal ID and walked in. She plopped down in the chair next to Shoko, squeezing in.
"Are you really not going to remove that daemon from Rebecca?" Tigress asked seriously.
Shoko, who had been napping, blinked awake. "It's fine."
"It's a tracker. That's basically malware," Tigress insisted.
Shoko looked at her, amused. "You really like that kid, don't you? Seeing a bit of yourself in her? Want to shield her from the rain because you got soaked?"
"Don't deflect. I'm serious." The Dangerous Girls were family. Tigress didn't pull punches with Shoko.
"Seriously, it's harmless. It's just a location tracker. Think of it as... a baby monitor?" Shoko explained. "It's sophisticated, custom-coded, but it doesn't hurt her. It just lets someone know where she is."
"Like a parent worrying about their kid. Or a corpo exec worrying about their asset."
"But she's just a merc. Who would waste time coding a custom tracker for her? We scanned her with Naomi's best gear, and even we almost missed it. We thought it was just driver software for her implants."
"Netrunning and medicine are two different worlds," Shoko yawned. "To you, it's complex. To me, it's an interesting toy."
"The code... it's definitely from someone on her crew. Lucy and Kiwi are both good, especially Lucy. She's got Arasaka-level skills, just lacks field experience. Kiwi is... rough around the edges, self-taught and specialized. And didn't they have another netrunner? Anyway, whoever put it there didn't mean harm. Leave it."
Tigress sighed. "Fine. You're the expert."
She was about to say something else when Shoko suddenly sat up straight.
"Huh?"
Shoko tapped the air, bringing up a large screen. It showed a pixelated, 8-bit view of the Jaguar fortress.
"What is it?" Tigress asked, alert.
Shoko swiped, changing the view. A pixelated figure was sneaking around the perimeter of her digital fortress.
"Someone's trying to hack us," Shoko whispered.
Instantly, alarms blared throughout the base.
WEE-OOO WEE-OOO!
Tigress's eyes narrowed. Arasaka?
"Interesting. Trying to hack me? Let's see who has the balls..." Shoko smirked, silencing the alarm. She zoomed in on the pixelated intruder.
The intruder was navigating the maze of her firewall, a custom-built world of cartoonish sprites and hidden traps.
Shoko stretched, cracking her knuckles. She spun her chair to face her massive console.
"Come on then~"
She was interested.