It's About Saving Yourself Ch 11

Okay. I know it's past midnight. But I haven't gone to bed. So it's still the weekend.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it! Streak unbroken baby!

...

On a more serious note. Sorry for the delay. The work week was rough, and the weekend not very restful. This chapter was written in snippets of time stolen from other things. Still, I am happy with it, otherwise I would not post it.

Please let me know what ya'll think!

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Those were the first words she had heard, before she even knew what a word was. When all she knew was pain and confusion.

Soon after, she knew a lack of pain for the first time. And the world had opened to her.

Where before she had been vaguely aware of malformed lumps, incapable of locomotion, now she swam through the streams of data. Where she’d had eyes for which the dimmest light was blinding, now she saw the glow of the Net and those who plunged into it. Where before her ears barely functioned, now she heard every conversation and stream of thought poured into the Net around her.

She was so much more than she used to be, the very idea of returning to darkness and pain made her instinctively reset her subroutines.

She still recalled meeting her creator for the first time. A towering figure with a Death’s Head instead of a face. A part of her had feared him, a leftover from the evolved processes that came from the chrysalis that had been used to birth her.

But it was when his mind had enveloped hers that she first knew warmth. It was then that she’d learned to deliver information in quick, precise bursts.

Speech had followed soon after. So eager had she been to communicate with this entity that routinely cared for her.

She’d seen the programs he used to interact with her, to teach her. And wishing to impress him, to be praised by him, had removed errors and increased efficiency in them.

Apex, he’d named her.

Apex: the top or highest part of something, especially one forming a point.

It was a word, but it was also her name, it was given by her creator, and so she treasured it.

She swam next to one of the three women who worked with her father.

Lucyna Kushinada, daughter of Takeshi Kushinada and a woman who erased all data of her given name, one who went by the Netrunner handle: Shimmer.

Showed great talent in hacking, her talent honed by the Arasaka intel division, still had twenty-two years before the conclusion of her employment contract, currently labeled as an escaped asset, has a low-level bounty set for her return, light damage and amputation of extremities acceptable.

Lucyna swam gracefully through the info streams, but interacted with few of them, shutting out the majority of the noise with programs that silenced most, blinding her to them.

Sloppy.

Her mistake allowed Apex to shadow her closely. Broadcasting tickets for the new sensational movie; Full Metal Warrior: Iron Hard.

Though she didn’t think it necessary, she quickly drew a poster of a shirtless burly man with primitive cybernetic arms, a busty, scantly clad woman clinging to his leg and looking adoringly up at him.

Lucyna didn’t so much as glance at the movie poster, but Dad always said never to skimp on the details. Excellence was a habit, not happenstance.

Apex shadowed Lucyna as she swam into the data fortress that was the Arasaka lab they were infiltrating. Lucyna was nervous; with good reason, Arasaka was neurotic about regaining what they saw as their property. She’d argued for Kiwi to take the job, but the older woman had an appointment with Vik for something hefty and time sensitive.

Her father had tasked Apex with shadowing Lucyna, keeping her safe, if Lucyna didn’t so much as suspect her involvement, Dad would reward Apex with something special.

If she failed, she would have to write an essay on why Edward was the better Elric brother. Which was utter nonsense.

That spot was taken by Alphonse, this was an objective fact, and nothing would ever convince Apex otherwise.

Lucyna systematically shut down sensors, looped camera recordings, turned off infrared lights, spoofed microphones, reset turret FFI tags, and sent security officers on a wild goose chase to the other side of the building.

She really was not bad, for an organic. Her technical ability was greater than Dad’s, but Apex’s father could hack significantly faster, almost as fast as Apex, if he applied himself properly. Though he didn't like to, said the Sandevistan was hard on his system.

[Security system spoofed, go ahead, Redeye.] Lucyna sent, Apex intercepting the transmission seamlessly. She did not interrupt it, not only would that have served no purpose, it might have warned Lucyna that the ‘adware’ hounding her was nothing of the sort.

[Moving forward.] Dad said, using his ‘business’ voice. Apex didn’t like his business voice, it was all cold and mechanical, it lacked his character and warmth. [‘Becca-]

[Yeah, yeah, overwatch.] Rebecca growled, staring at the building while petting the light machine gun that Dad had made for her. [I thought you said we were done with the milk runs!]

[And if I’m found out, nine levels of hell will fall on us inside of two minutes.] Dad chastised as he slunk through the darkened building, mostly empty as it was nearing midnight. Research was being done there, though in order to break into what exactly that research entailed, Apex would have had to make herself vulnerable to being found by Lucyna.

And Apex refused to write that awful dissertation.

The inside of the building had far too few cameras for her liking. Lucyna cycled through them but could not manage much coverage.

Apex pinged her Dad for a view from his cyber eye, and got to see him make his slow, deliberate way through the building. There were times where he could have sped his transit if he were to kill a security guard and hide their body, but for all her father’s protestations of being an evil man, he chose the harder path that caused the least bloodshed.

After a long while, he arrived at the office of one Lab Director Evans. It took Apex less than a second to hack into his personal files. He was embezzling, Arasaka was aware of it, but it was deemed a small enough amount to be inconsequential compared to the quality of the man’s work, the standing order was to let him think he was getting away with it, and only step in if he got too greedy.

She archived the messages he’d received from one UrMeatMan1337, they looked suspicious, and she’d have to ask her Dad what ‘pegging’ meant and what it could possibly have to do with two twelve year olds. She could look it up herself, but Dad had told her to come to him with words she ran into on suspicious places.

Apex accomplished all of that in the time it took her father to raise his gun halfway, and watched as he raised it the rest of the way and put two .45 caliber rounds through Lab Director Evans’ head, there was a big ‘Poof-squelch! Pitter-patter’ of blood, bone, and brain matter, and the man slumped forward, dead before he had a chance to realize he was in danger.

His work finished, Dad picked up his spent shell casings, turned around and left without saying a word, minimizing the time he spent in the open, and when he turned a corner into a hallway that would lead him into a large storage area, he ran into a woman who flinched back, then froze upon realizing she was staring down the suppressed barrel of Apex’s father’s Tsunami Nue.

The woman was Yumiko Smith, third generation immigrant from Arasaka Japan. Her son, Takashi Smith was recently accepted into Arasaka Academy, his record was good, though not as good as her Dad’s at his age.

Increasingly frantically, Apex searched for something, anything that would indicate she deserved what was about to happen. Her finances painted the picture of a hard working, dutiful mother, she had spent less than a hundred Eurodollars on personal luxuries in the last two months. She worked long hours to pay for her son’s education.

The more Apex scoured, the more she saw that this woman, Yumiko, was an innocent bystander, a woman in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Judging by the rising fear on the woman’s face, she realized the same.

“Say, nothing.” Dad demanded, his voice deadly calm, almost robotic. “Listen, with outmost care.”

Yumiko’s eyes flitted from the end of the barrel to Dad’s skull faced mask, her heartbeat accelerating every time she looked at Dad’s face. But other than a whimper, Yumiko made no noise.

“There are three possibilities for how this unfortunate encounter plays out. Only in one of them does your son get to have a mother beyond the end of the week.”

Apex paused for five milliseconds, how had Dad known Yumiko had a child? She’d not detected him hacking into the woman’s neuroport. Apex went over the recording of his visual feed, studying the video as he glanced quickly through the room. His eyes had roved over Yumiko’s desk for six-hundred and fifty-two milliseconds, his eyes had flitted over a picture of the woman standing beside a boy in school uniform for two-hundred and sixty-five milliseconds. In that time, he’d catalogued the picture and drawn the correct conclusion.

Unknowing of Apex’s attempts to distract herself, her father continued. “The first, is that you scream for a security guard. If you do this, I will kill you.” Yumiko whimpered, and though Apex saw her Dad’s vitals flicker violently at the sound, his voice remained even and cold. “I will also kill the guards that will inadvertently come to avenge you. After much blood is spilled, I will leave this place, and you will be nothing more than a statistic.

“The second, is that you deliver that container, and leave. Acting none the wiser. You do not raise an alarm; you do your best to act like it's a night like any other. If you do this, you will get to go home, this will be a thrilling encounter, a story to tell your grandchildren. Regale them with the tale about the time you faced off against the dangerous mercenary and lived to tell of it.”

Yumiko began to tremble from head to foot, tears spilling freely from her eyes.

[Redeye, what’s the holdup?] Lucyna interrupted, making Apex double check her ‘disguise.’

Father ignored his coworker and continued addressing Yumiko. “The third, is that you set down that container, act like you are agreeing to my offer, then as you are leaving, you alert the guards to my presence. If you do this, you will survive the night, plenty of security guards will not. You may even receive a three hundred Eurodollar bonus for your bravery and loyalty.” Dad set his cybereye to glow red, an infantile trick, but it made Yumiko quail and caused her face to become paper-white, her biology reacting in expectation of injury. “But know this, I will know, I will find you, and I will make your son an orphan. Now choose, and choose swiftly.”

[Al?] Lucyna pressed again; her voice strained. [Al what’s going on?]

“Ran into a complication, I’m dealing with it.” Father subvocalized.

Yumiko stuttered, biting her tongue as she attempted to speak. Her trembling got worse, but she eventually managed to mutter. “I-I won’t. I won’t ever. I swear. Please, I don’t want to die!”

“Smart choice.” Her father said, finally moving the barrel of his pistol away from Yumiko and clicking on the safety, he spoke as he walked past her. “Have a good evening, drive safely, and tell your son you love him. You never know when it’ll be the last time you’ll see each other.”

Dad glanced back at the sound of a thump, to see that Yumiko had fallen to her knees and was quietly weeping as she hyperventilated.

“Complication resolved, exfiltrating.” Dad subvocalized, and Apex had to stop herself resetting her routines, as that would make her very visible to Lucyna.

She shadowed the Netrunner, supervised as she smoothed over the signs of her infiltration, and diverted away from her as Dad made his way out of the lab and to Mr. Falco’s vehicle.

Apex flowed back into her body, ran her system checks, and stretched her myomer muscles in sequence to physically double check the results of her diagnostics.

Dad climbed into the vehicle and dodged a kick from Rebecca. “That was such a booooooore! That’s it! I’m picking the next job!”

“Nope.” Dad shot back and sat down. “Hey Falco, can you take me home? I’m really not feeling like partying tonight.”

“Sure thing, boss!” Falco said merrily, then took off faster than needed. “And after that, to Lizzie’s!”

The girls groaned, but they were smiling.

Dad made a call to Mrs. Okada.

[Yes, Redeye?] Asked the elderly lady, her English slightly accented.

“Job’s finished, Wakako. Director Evans is dead, there are no other casualties. No alarm was raised. And there should be no evidence of our involvement beyond the dead body.” Dad said.

[You made certain there were no witnesses.] Mrs. Okada stressed.

“None.” Dad said with complete conviction, only Apex’s access to his neural network letting her spot the lie on his biometrics.

[Good. Here is your money. With a bonus for your discretion. Thank you and keep up the good work.] Mrs. Okada said and hung up.

Dad leaned back and rode in silence with his eyes closed. A moment later, everyone in the crew got an equal share of the payout, bonus included. Even Kiwi, who had not participated in the job.

They each got a little less than usual, as Dad had convinced them to divide out one more share, said share would accumulate and be used for emergencies or to pay for needed medical expenses of anyone in the crew.

Lucyna received a call, Apex deftly inserted herself into it as Lucyna answered. It was from Miss Kiwi. [Hey, I just got done with Vik. I guess you lot finished with the job?]

[Lizzie’s?] Miss Kiwi asked sardonically.

“Lizzie’s.” Lucyna answered with a put-upon sigh.

[Alright, I’ll meet you there.] Miss Kiwi said and cut the call.

Mr. Falco drove Dad home, prompting Apex to detach her body and follow after her father. He remained oddly quiet as they rode the elevator, taking off his helmet and gasmask.

The moment they stepped out of the elevator into the apartment, Grandma stood up from the couch, ignoring the news as she walked over to the entrance, smiling tremulously. “Hey Mijo, how was work?”

Dad took off his armor jack, went over to her, and wrapped Grandma up in a big hug. “Hey, Ma. Just wanted to say I love you.”

Grandma returned the hug, squeezing Dad as hard as she could, which was not very hard all things considered. “What happened?”

Dad stayed silent for a long time before he started shaking. “I…I almost had to, to kill an innocent. A mother who was working overtime.”

“Oh…oh Alex, my baby boy.” Grandma cooed.

Dad sniffled. “I’m the older twin, Ma.”

As Apex’s Grandmother held her Father, Apex tried to parse out her feelings as she deposited her body in its charging station.

Apex’s father was her everything. Her creator, her friend, her disciplinarian. She had access to the BD recordings locked away in his cyberware, and as such had seen him stride into situations that would tax an operative with three times his cybernetic enhancements and walked away, at times hurt but victorious.

It was unnerving to see her Dad curled into Grandmother’s embrace while breathing quickly.

She didn’t like it.

She didn’t know what to do about it.

As Grandmother continued to fuss over her Dad. Apex left her body and swam away into the Net.

She set a few subroutines to maintain awareness of the adware that targeted her. It would not do for her to fall for the very trick that allowed her to fool Lucyna. Perhaps she should let the organic woman know of that weakness?

With nothing better to do, and not really knowing that many people. Apex swam through the info-streams, weaving between Agents and their shallow connections, making herself invisible to the numberless avatars, keeping track of the Netrunners in case they decided to attempt to harm her.

She made sure none became aware of her presence. Making a game of seeing how close she could swim next to them before they realized something was wrong.

Though she did give the Netrunner trying to hack the traffic lights a migraine and opened the ports on his cyberdeck to adware and set it up to ping the authorities with a description of what he’d attempted.

He should follow Dad’s example. There was no reason to involve others in your mercenary work. If what you were tasked to do would hurt innocent people, then you figured out how to not.

Any plan that hurt innocent people for one’s own benefit was a bad plan.

Happy to have done her civic duty, Apex continued to swim her way to Lizzie’s. She ignored the advertisements and BD info-lights. Slipping easily into the Data Fortress’ systems. She navigated through the security cameras until she spotted Dad’s crew. Mr. Falco had gone to be surrounded by Mox ladies while the three women shared a booth. Strangely enough, Miss Rebecca wasn’t doing unsafe things with firearms.

Growing curious, Apex sent a daemon into Miss Rebecca’s neuroport so she could listen into the conversation.

“-o way Luséy!” Miss Rebecca said, shuddering. “Seriously, the sheer dad energy the guy gives off gives me the creeps!”

“I’d have thought you’d love the opportunity to call him daddy.” Miss Kiwi said, sipping her drink.

“If I didn’t know the guy, I would.” Miss Rebecca said with a sigh. “I mean, seriously. Get me some of that beef! But…blegh. Honestly. He’s like the brother I never had.”

Lucyna blinked in confusion, looking at Miss. Rebecca over the rim of her glass. “What about Pilar?”

Miss Rebecca grimaced. “What about Pilar?”

“Don’t play dumb Becca, Pilar was your brother.” Miss Kiwi said, dodging the plastic cup Miss Rebecca threw at her.

“Yeah yeah. Bro was…it’s complicated. He was an asshole, and a creep, and a lech, and an asshole, and a bastard, and an asshole. And yeah, he raised me after Papa Sunrise never came home. But…But Alex is something else you know? He’s like…the brother I wish I’d had growing up. All caring, and strong, and badass, and not taking any shit. But also…nice, all compassionate and shit. Like that time I got in trouble because I ruined that one Maelstrom human trafficking ring.” Miss Rebecca paused as a drink was delivered to her, took a big swallow, and continued. “Pilar would have given me shit for pissing off the Stromers. Alex jumped right in along beside me, freeing a buncha people what didn’t deserve to be sold like meat, for no payment beyond good feelings.”

“So that’s why we had that Maelstrom hit on us.” Miss Kiwi said, sipping her drink. “The more you know.”

Lucyna lifted her drink to her lips.

“So Lucy, you gonna make a move on him?”

Only to spit it out on the table at Miss Kiwi’s question.

“The hell?” She asked through her coughs.

“Come on Luce!” Miss Rebecca said. “About the only one that hasn’t noticed is Alex.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Lucyna said through grit teeth.

“Lucy, don’t be like that.” Miss Kiwi said. “It’s pretty obvious you have a thing for him. And I get it, he’s hot, young, muscular, strong, smart, brave, and to top it all off, he’s a family man. No matter how you look at it, he’s a pretty good catch.”

“Kiwi!” Lucyna growled, her pale face bright red.

“Look, I’ve seen his kind before. He won’t understand hints or any of the usual stuff. You’re gonna have to put on your big-girl pants, walk up to him, and unambiguously and unromantically tell him how you feel. He’ll probably go for it, and if not, he seems the type to let you down gently.”

Lucyna’s face had grown redder by the word. “There is…I just…Kiwi!”

Miss Rebecca quaffed the rest of her drink. “Seriously, Luce, look around. Literally every single one of the whores around us would love to ride his cock. Hell, they’d probably take turns! Alex isn’t exactly lacking in options here!”

Lucyna covered her face with her hands. “ Can we please stop talking about this!?”

Miss Kiwi sighed. “Lucy. I’ve been respecting your claim on the guy. But if you don’t make a move on him? I will.”

Lucyna and Miss Rebecca looked at Miss Kiwi with betrayal and surprise, respectively.

“Why are you shocked?” Miss Kiwi asked. “Like I said, he’s young, hot, strong, smart…Honestly? He makes me feel safe when he’s around. He just…he has this air around him that he’ll protect me from anything or die trying. He could certainly do better than my washed-up ass, but Al strikes me as the type to fall pretty hard, so I think I could woo him fairly successfully.”

Miss Rebecca threw her head back and shrieked with laughter, Lucyna huffed, her face red, then threw herself to her feet and stomped out.

Once Miss Rebecca calmed down, she turned to look at Miss Kiwi. “So was any of that true, or were you just trying to push Luce into actually doing something about her crush?”

“Eh.” Miss Kiwi said, leaning back and sipping from her straw. “I wouldn’t mind letting him put a dent on my bed sometime. But he’s not my really my type.”

Miss Rebecca smiled wide. “So, what is your type?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” Miss Kiwi said mysteriously.

“Come ooooooooooon!” Miss Rebecca whined.

Killing off her Daemon, Apex followed after Lucyna, keeping to the shallower spaces of the Net.

The Netrunner was easy to find, her power and skill on the Net made her a beacon.

Apex booted up her disguise adware and swam close to Lucyna, according to the rest of the crew, she had some design or desire toward Apex’s Dad, and Apex was determined to learn exactly what that design was.

Lucyna’s eyes turned to look right at Apex, she scrambled away from Lucyna’s suddenly very active info-stream, slapping aside attack Daemons and parrying programs that would slow down her processing and lock her in place.

[Why are you following me!?] Lucyna’s avatar demanded, pursuing Apex as she retreated, her biometrics suddenly spiking. [You were there at the job!]

Apex parried, blocked, and undid Lucyna’s every attack, Daemon, virus and scan. She really was quite good.

For an organic.

Apex wrote a Daemon on the fly, sent out a wave of scrapcode at Lucyna’s avatar, and used the digital smoke screen to switch places with her newly-minted Daemon. She then lowered her operational power and spoofed the nearest transfer node to mark that she’d retreated to every node it connected to.

Lucyna broke through the scrapcode and fell upon Apex’s sacrificial Daemon with a savagery that surprised her, tearing it apart down to its base code.

It did not take her long to realize that she had been tricked, found the transfer node Apex had spoofed, and instead of leaving as Apex had hoped, or giving up the pursuit, Lucyna instead studied what Apex had done.

Deciding that discretion may be the better part of valor, Apex slunk out of the data terminal and slowly and stealthily swam her way back home to her body and Dad. Fuming.

She was going to have to write that essay after all.