Chapter 15: 8ug8ear
A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!
8ug8ear gets tested~
-x-X-x-
V hums, considering Alt’s words for a moment. Then, he cracks a grin and tilts his head to the side.
“What’d ya have in mind?”
When Alt outlines what she intends to do to the young netrunner, V can’t help but find the idea somewhat appealing. It’s not hurting anyone, after all… at least not permanently. And 8ug8ear can back out any time she likes, if she truly wants to. In fact, the more Alt whispers in his ear, the harder V gets, a tightening in his pants that tells him he can’t just pass this up.
Chuckling, V finally nods as he turns and starts heading for his apartment.
“Yeah Alt. I like it, let’s do it.”
His resident AI fragment grins wickedly at V’s approval, before flickering out of view. Her voice is still there though, a whispering seductive lilt right in his ear.
“Your wish is my command, V.”
-x-X-x-
Lots of people assumed that netrunners were rebels by nature, just because all of the so-called ‘greats’ were. Legends like Rache Bartmoss had basically cemented the stereotype for everyone else.
However, contrary to that popular belief, not every netrunner was a rebel trying to fight the system and stick it to the man. For one, there were countless netrunners working for both corporations and governments… but for two, plenty of freelance netrunners weren’t out to rebel or make a statement either. They were just in it for the money, to carve out a piece of the pie for themselves.
That was where Beatrice, better known by her handle ‘8ug8ear’ landed. She didn’t want to stick it to the man, she didn’t want to fight the system, and she definitely didn’t want to make any sort of statement. All Beatrice wanted was to get hers and get out. Like so many others in Night City, she simply wanted enough eddies to never have to worry, ever again.
She’d thought she had an opportunity to make it big on that last job she’d run. The Claws paid peanuts compared to what she was actually worth… and even less when compared to the haul she could have made if betraying them had worked out. Besides, it was a solid plan. Not foolproof (obviously) but good enough that Beatrice had really believed the risks were outweighed by the potential rewards.
Norimasa and his crew were relatively small time, and somewhat isolated from the rest of the Tyger Claws. There was no back up, and nobody on standby, Beatrice had made sure of it. If they’d all died in that Kiroshi Optics warehouse, then there would have been no one to complain, no one to wonder what happened, and most importantly of all, nobody to come after her.
On top of that, without her helping with the security, they should have been toast. The warehouse was armed with automated security and a three minute response time, so it should have been all but guaranteed.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t. Norimasa had been just a little bit smarter than Bea gave him credit for and brought a backup EMP device that she hadn’t known about. It was like a bludgeon compared to Beatrice’s scalpel work, but when you didn’t have a scalpel, a bludgeon would have to do.
Taking down the automated security Bea had reactivated after she remotely drove the van out, Norimasa and his Claws had managed to escape the death trap she’d left them in and come after her. Her only choice had been to jack into the Net. No part of her wanted to leave her unconscious helpless body in their hands, but she didn’t have a choice. They needed to know where she stashed the van more than they needed revenge on her, and that gave her time. It gave her a chance to turn the tables back on them once more.
Honestly, it wasn’t like Beatrice felt any guilt over what she’d done. Norimasa and every man under him were gangbangers and scum. The only reason they hadn’t wound up doing worse to her than she’d done to them was because they hadn’t gotten the opportunity. But if they had, if she’d had to pull out of the Net, they would have tortured her, both for the information and for their revenge.
Fortunately, while it cost her a lot, Bea had managed to escape that terrible fate. Her first attempt at getting help might have fallen through, but Wakako had been able to pull her ass out of the fire with one of her edgerunners, a man named V. He had been… poetry in motion. Did that sound like she was a little infatuated? Because to be honest, she kind of was.
Hooked into the Net as she’d been, Beatrice hadn’t been able to do much besides watch through the security cameras around her apartment building, keeping a close eye on the Tyger Claws who were in turn keeping a close eye on her while she waited for Wakako to send someone to rescue her.
When V had first arrived on the scene, she hadn’t known what to think of him at first. Then, he’d taken control of the cameras himself, slipping into them and usurping them from her without a second thought. Bea wasn’t even sure he knew she was there, and she certainly hadn’t tried to fight her savior or anything.
She’d taken a backseat and watched as he dealt with each and every one of her captors, uploading quickhacks into their cyberware and taking them down silently, one after another. Until finally, it was just Norimasa left, the man standing guard over her helpless form without even realizing that he was all alone.
V had entered her apartment then and put a bullet in Norimasa’s head before he could even register the mercenary’s presence. Cool, calm, collected. Of course, belatedly, she’d realized he might wind up killing her if he tried to disconnect her as she was now. While she could certainly undo the traps she’d set up that were keeping her from being disconnected without flatlining, there was another problem that needed to be resolved… she’d been hooked in too long and was running too hot to be safely removed from the Net.
However, before she could even begin frantically broadcasting warnings across all of her screens, V had taken a detour, making a right into her bathroom before Norimasa’s corpse had even hit the ground.
When he came back out, it was with coolant in hand, and that was the moment Bea thought she just might have started falling in love. That level of competency was incredibly attractive, and it didn’t help that he was practically a modern knight in shining armor, saving her from the big bad thugs.
Unfortunately, while the coolant injection had allowed him to safely disconnect her from her setup and remove her from the Net, it had also left her barely conscious and in no proper state to thank her ‘hero’. Instead, she’d been only half-cognizant of her surroundings as he’d lifted her up in his arms and carried her out to the car that Wakako had waiting for her.
Alas, even with Norimasa and his crew dealt with, Beatrice was burned so far as the Tyger Claws were concerned. Isolated and small time as Norimasa and his men might have been, they had still put the word out about her actions the moment that they escaped her trap.
In that regard, Bea couldn’t just stay where she’d been before… especially now that she was in Wakako Osada’s employ. The ancient Fixer had ties to the Tyger Claws but was not one herself. She was above such things as loyalty to any one single gang. That was very fortunate for Beatrice, because it meant Wakako would protect her from the Claws… so long as she worked for the Fixer, of course.
Even better, unlike Bea’s now-deceased ‘friend’ Z3d, Wakako didn’t demand the entirety of the van that she’d stolen. She only wanted half, and she had even helped Bea sell the contents as well without the Claws noticing.
So yeah, she was doing a lot better now. All new setup, courtesy of Wakako herself, a bunch of eddies in the bank to keep her going for a long while, and a steady stream of work from her new boss.
There was just one thing missing… companionship. She couldn’t really talk to anyone from before she got burned, and most of them didn’t want to talk to her anyways, lest the Tyger Claws come down on their heads like with Z3d. So Bea was kind of feeling a bit lonely.
That was why, in her last communication with Wakako, she had asked the aging Fixer to pass along her contact detes to V. After all, she owed him a big ‘thank you’ for helping her out like he did. And if anyone was safe for her to get in touch with, it had to be the guy who saved her life in the first place, right?
She wasn’t sure what to expect from sending the information through Wakako though. It was entirely possible V would ignore it. That he wouldn’t be interested. But she would be lying if she said she hoped otherwise.
That’s why, when she gets a message from an unknown number, Beatrice opens it quite quickly. She’s in between gigs from Wakako right now anyways, so it’s perfect timing… almost too perfect.
The message, as it turns out, might not be directly from V… but rather, from an associate of his. It’s also suitably ominous and cryptic.
Do you think you’re worthy of my V? Let’s find out, shall we?
Along with those two short sentences is a route to a Data Fortress. Licking her lips, Bea does hesitate for a moment, contemplating whether she really wanted to get into whatever… this was. But at the same time, she couldn’t quite help herself. Her curiosity was piqued.
Besides, she was a Netrunner if nothing else, and as good as V had been when he’d rescued her, she was confident that whoever his friend was, she could at least escape if this turned out to be a trap.
And so, without further ado, Beatrice plugs herself in, going onto the Net and heading for the Datafort with a thrum of excitement filling her digital veins.
When she arrives at the meeting place, she’s half-expecting there to be security, for it to be some sort of test she needs to pass in order to gain entry and ‘prove herself’. However, the Datafort in question is completely and utterly open. It’s also rather opaque, meaning she can’t see inside, but there’s nothing keeping her from just… walking in.
And so she does… only to regret it immediately. The instant she steps inside of the Data Fortress, it closes up on her. It doesn’t just lock up tight, when she looks back the way she came, it’s bristling with defenses that even her best work couldn’t bust through in a timely manner. And timely it would have to be, because there’s also daemons, hulking monstrous things that would tear her mind limb from metaphorical limb if she provoked them.
“Welcome to my parlor, said the spider to the fly.”
Beatrice blinks at the incredibly old statement, slowly turning to see just who she’d let herself be caught by. Only now does she stop to wonder if V even got her contact info, or if she just let herself be honey trapped by someone using her name. That feeling of being thoroughly bamboozled only gets worse too when she sees an approximation of who supposedly captured her.
“A-Altiera Cunningham?”
Whoever this really was had good taste if nothing else, Beatrice supposed. If you asked most people who the greatest Netrunner of all time was, they’d probably say something dumb like Rache Bartmoss. Bartmoss wasn’t the best, he was just the idiot who ruined the Net. He saw the Net as a grenade waiting for the pin to be pulled… and he decided he would be the one to pull it.
Others might say someone like Spider Murphy was the best of the best, and that was a far more debatable answer, admittedly. Especially because there were rumors that Spider Murphy was still alive, even after all this time.
But personally, Bea’s favorite was and always would be Alt Cunningham. Alt had been Night City’s brightest star back in the 2010s, way before Beatrice was ever born. And there wasn’t much information on the Net about Alt even now. But if you knew the right places to look, and talked to the right people, you could hear stories about just how legendary her and her work had been.
Of course, Alt was very, very dead. Had been for three times as long as Beatrice had been alive. So whoever had trapped her here, as good as they were and as spectacular as they looked wearing Alt Cunningham’s form, couldn’t possibly be the real deal. Still, Bea would be lying if she said she had never ‘cosplayed’ on the Net before. It was an ancient art, but still prevalent in some circles.
‘Alt’ grins at her, tilting her head to the side and eyeing Beatrice up and down consideringly.
“Hello there. So you’re the one who wants to play with my V, hm? What makes you think you’re even worthy of him?”
Getting interrogated by someone wearing the face of her netrunning idol definitely hadn’t been on Bea’s bingo card today, but even if she was up shit’s creek without a paddle, she refused to back down.
“What makes him yours, exactly? I should think he can make his own decisions, can’t he? All I did was make sure he had my number… what he did with it after that was always going to be up to him.”
The fake Alt’s grin widens at that.
“He’s mine and I am his. And not to worry, this IS his decision. I suggested he let me test you first, but he agreed to pass you off to me. If you want a chance with him, you’ll have to impress me. Do you think you can?”
Sheesh. This was a whole lot more than she was expecting. She’d just been lonely and horny, for fuck’s sake. It wasn’t like she was trying to get with the guy permanently or anything. She just wanted an easy hook up with a competent gentleman!
And yet… she would be lying if this whole situation didn’t have her somewhat enthralled. Fake Alt, locked up Datafort with impossibly strong daemons, and a chance to prove herself? Licking her digital lips, Beatrice hesitates briefly. Almost nonchalantly, ‘Alt’ proceeds to check her nails, humming casually.
“You can back out, of course. Say the word, and I let you go. It’s perfectly understandable if you see all of this and realize you’re just not enough woman to satisfy a man like my V.”
Oh… this bitch.
[ ] She knows she's being played, and she doesn't like being toyed with and leaves - 3%
If you'd like to read more of my work not seen on this website, check out Hentai-Foundry.com and QuestionableQuesting.com where I have over a thousand stories!
If you'd like to contribute to funding my writing at all, check me out on .com/Cambrian
Thanks for reading!