Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

Chapter 407

I made the finishing touches on my armor, and pulled back to look over it all. It was done—mostly, at least. I needed to add a few features, and set up the actual power cell, but it was almost totally done. Oh, and get Luna to run through my code and add some ICE and Daemons to shore up my net defenses, or whatever the girl did.It’d been two days since I started working on a couple different ideas for Cold Moon. I didn’t want to start up a new project right in the middle of finally finishing my backlog, though, so I just focused on getting my Nightshade armor up and running.

I pulled on the armor one piece at a time. For now, I still had just a touchpad on my wrist to control everything. That wasn’t ideal for plenty of obvious reasons. I was a bit worried about overstressing my Neural System Interface, though, so I hadn’t added jacks. It was already stressed between just my eye and Neural Link. I’d need to upgrade the chrome at some point soon. It wasn’t keeping up with what I needed anymore.

I tapped a button on my wrist, and the boots slowly pushed me taller and taller. In mere moments, I was as tall as Mira. I stepped in front of a mirror, and checked myself out.  

Staring back at me in the mirror was a very intimidating sight. First off, the armor’s design was specifically made to intimidate. It was sleek like a predator stalking the night, and the fanged panther helmet helped that. So did the Panther’s Fang strapped to my side. I made a sheath for it, though the sheath had see-through slits in it that revealed the ominous purple glow. Low lights, toggable ‘course, likewise gave the armor’s contours an eerie purple glow.

I pulled at the black undersuit beneath the armor plates. It all fit perfectly. I made it, afterall. It still just made me feel a bit uncomfortable? I’d have to get used to that. Or maybe add something over top?

I hit a button on my wrist pad, and activated the armor’s active camo. The metal immediately started to heat-up under the strain of the module. It could maybe go for thirty seconds straight? Most commercial designs were ten to twelve second activations. Active camo was an energy and heat monster. Between my Kinetic ability and electrostatic capacitors built into the armor, energy wouldn’t be too big of an issue for mine. The heat could be partially offset with the thermal vent on the back, and Cold-blooded to keep me from baking.

Still, it wasn’t as good as I wanted. Sentinel was researching some chrome that could enable a full five minutes of stealth. I wanted that. To be fair, though, my design was a bit different. It had micro projectors built all over the armor to get rid of shadows. I wouldn’t be getting caught out with that basic trick. 

I deactivated the stealth module and flicked out my sword. I had some plans to get training to use it before actually pulling it out in the field. For now, it was just there for intimidation. In the mirror, a badass drew her blade and pointed it forward.

Right, that was a step up. Nightshade needed to be casually intimidating, dominating, and menacing with every single one of her moves. That meant I had to totally relearn posture and how I went about things to keep up the mysterious and dark vibe that was so completely different from my normal look. 

I practiced a couple dozen different poses and postures. I even looked up some videos to really get the vibe I wanted. The more different Nightshade was from me, the less likely people would be to look at me and say, yeah, that chick’s Nightshade.

I flicked my sword from its sheath once more, and held it up to an imaginary enemy's neck. I shifted my spine back slightly more than I’d usually stand, which made me look at ease and in control of things. “Kneel!”

The robotic voice echoed out of my helmet, and I winced. There was too much force there. It should be natural, chek? Like I expected my orders to be obeyed without question. I reset my pose, and flicked out my sword once more. “Kneel.”

“Nice!” Mira called from behind me. She’d just appeared at some point with her halo pulsing brilliantly overhead.

I staggered back and dropped my sword off to the side. I swapped it out for a wrench, and casually held it up to a still exposed part of my armor like I’d been working on it the whole time. “Oh, didn’t see you there.”

Mira snickered, and jumped up onto my worktable. She set a bag of burgers down just next to her leg. ”It’s a little late to be pretending like you weren’t posing in front of the mirror again.”

I dropped the wrench, and looked away from her. My face felt so incredibly hot under the protection of my helmet. “… how long were you watching?”

“Since,” she shrugged, and her head tilted to the side with her finger on her chin, “you put on the helmet? The burgers are cold.”

“That was an hour ago, Mira.” I groaned softly. “Can we just pretend you didn’t see anything?”

”Not a chance, poser.” She flicked her head back, causing a cascade of golden hair to flow over her shoulder. “If it makes you feel better, I won’t tell Luna.”

”Luna!” My face burned even hotter, and I glanced up to the Dragonfly charging array off to the side of the room. The Netrunner probably had a perfect view of me practicing my . “Just kill me now.”

She laughed, and playfully patted my shoulder. ”And miss my chance to make fun of you? Hell no.” 

“Why can’t ever be the one to do something embarrassing?” I pried off the panther-shaped helmet and tossed it onto the table. 

Mira picked up my helmet and toyed around with it. “Because I have nothing to be embarrassed about?”

”…” I didn’t even know what to say to that. She was kinda right, though. Mira had a habit of making pew-pew noises when testing guns for the first time, and she never seemed embarrassed by that.

“Don’t let me stop you. This is all super important for your future plans as Nightshade, no?” Mira’s mirth faded into a more serious expression. She pulled out a burger and pointed it at me. “It’s actually a pretty good idea.”

”Thanks.” I still felt a bit embarrassed, but I picked up the Panther’s Fang anyway and moved in front of the mirror once more to strike a couple poses.

Mira watched me for a while, and gave me some tips on how to pull it off better like a true super thief. Having an outside opinion definitely helped me make some adjustments. Not to mention she had a surprising amount of input on how to wield a katana. The burgers quickly disappeared while we worked.

”Kneel.” My voice came out mechanical and cool, and my sword traced an imaginary enemy's neck.

”Nice! Way better than earlier.” Mira clapped just behind me. “You actually know how to use that thing, though?”

“I might need your help with that.” I was going to ask her to spar with me in full kit at some point. Not quite yet, though. I didn’t want my ass to be kicked so hard it’d take a week to heal without a bit of training. “I think I’m going to call Shinobu and see if I can’t get some training at one of the Fang’s dojos.”

”Not a bad idea.” She nodded a couple times, and stuck out her hand. I passed over the sword. She held it up to the light and carefully inspected the menacing blade. “This thing looks sick, by the way. You make this too?”

”Uh, no. It was a gift from my friends beyond.” I waved a hand loosely toward the air. “Remnant.”

”Ah, gotcha.” She played with the blade, and swung it around a few times to get a feel for the weight of the thing. “It feels too light. I like my weapons with a bit more umph to ‘em.”

“Yeah, well…” I could add weights onto it or something, but it didn’t bother me in the slightest. I hooked up a power cell from my workshop, and powered on the plasma claws.

In the mirror, the intimidation factor of Nightshade instantly shot up through the roof with plasma jetting out of my hands. Maybe I could change the plasma to purple? I curled my hand into a finger-gun and struck a different pose in front of the mirror. “Bang—“ 

I froze, and a shudder went down my spine. The plasma claws sliced through the material covering my palm, and seared deep into the flesh and bones of my wrist. Agony lanced up my arm. “Argh!”

”Shiro!” Mira jumped off the table, and moved over to me in record time. She ripped out the power cord connecting the gauntlet to the power cell. The plasma claws cut off, but the damage had already been done.

”Fuck!” I shakily grabbed at my wrist. No blood poured out. The plasma was hot enough to instantly cauterize the wound, though that just made the three bone-deep claw marks feel even worse.  

“What do I do?” Mira moved over me like a headless chicken. Her hand half-reached out before pulling back like she didn’t want to hurt me.

”Th-there’s a medpack b-by the Foundry.” The scent of burning flesh made me nauseous. A memory surged against the back of my mind, and only made me feel more sick. It was the same hand that’d been blown off back then.

“On it.” Mira dashed across the room, and snatched up the medpack. 

While she was busy doing that, I carefully pried my fingers away from my palm with my other hand. The plasma claws had cut deep, and my fingers no longer reacted no matter how much I tried to move them. A disgusting sense of dysphoria washed through me.

Another shiver went through me as cool air blew onto the exposed and scorched bone of my hand. It was much worse than I thought. Three jagged streaks cut straight through the palm and out the back of it. There was a charred hole where my wrist should’ve been, and my thumb dangled from a barely connected strand of flesh.

I gagged off to the side, and tried to resist the nausea welling up in me. The familiar porky scent of burning human flesh didn’t help in the slightest. It wasn’t even that bad of an injury compared to some of the stuff I suffered in the past. This time, though, I was out in daily life and not on a job. I felt entirely unprepared to deal with the wound.

”I got it.” Mira slid down next to me, and popped open the medpack. “Okay, okay, okay, what do I do?” 

“Gimme.” I grabbed an injector from the back of the kit, and pressed it into my arm. A drug from Medtech was shot into me, and the pain instantly started to fade away. I summoned out Crow’s Canteen of Chaos, and poured out cool water to wash off—wash the wound.

With my guidance, Mira helped me patch together the injury and wrap it tightly in a bandage. Near the end of the treatment, I was entirely calm while she panicked. So much so that if I was an outsider looking in, they would’ve thought was the one that’d just hurt herself.

Mira wrapped my hand one last time, and then slowly started to pack up the medkit. “Are you sure it’ll be fine?”

”Chek. I just need to sleep on it.” Though the plasma claws had cut down through bone. It might take a bit longer than a day or two to heal that much damage. Organs weren’t an issue, but fully regenerating bones took a while the couple of times I’d been injured that deeply.

”Well, I guess you don’t have to worry about them being ineffective in the field.” Mira sounded like she was trying to make a joke to lighten the oppressive mood, but her words rang way too true for me to laugh. “How are you going to deal with that?”

“I…” I shrugged, and stared at my discarded gauntlet for a moment. The fix was pretty obvious. “I’ll add in some sensors so it’ll auto shut off before I can hurt myself. I should’ve done that to begin with, to be honest.”

“As long as you have a plan.” My words went totally over her head. “Shit, Shiro. You going to be able to even do anything more today with—with ?”

“No.” Good thing I’d already finished my Nightshade armor… or mostly finished. I still had a few finishing touches to add, including fixing the power and the gauntlets. That shouldn’t be too much of a problem, though.

“Good.” Mira helped me out of my armor, and neatly cleaned up my worktable for me. I could get used to having a maid around. Maybe I should make a bot?

I could head back to my apartment and spend the Leadership Perk Point. I should be all healed up by the time that finishes. “What time is it, anyway?”

”Nine… you want to come to my place for the night?” Her eyebrows were narrowed tightly. I could see the worry as clear as day. Even knowing I’d be able to heal wasn’t enough to calm her down.

”Um—“ My phone started to ring, and cut off my response. My HUD lit up with the caller’s ID. Speak of the devil, huh? “It’s Shinobu.”

”What would he want this late at night?” Mira asked.

”No idea.” I stared down at my bandage wrapped hand. After hesitating a minute, I hit answer and put it on speaker. “Yeah?”

”I got a job for you.” Shinobu instantly cut to business. “A big one. The fang will owe you immensely.”

I shared a glance with Mira. What the hell was this timing? “I’m injured at the moment.”

”Can you still walk and think clearly?” Shinobu asked. “It’s an investigation—one that needs to be solved tonight.”

”I mean…” I glanced at my hand. “Maybe. What do you need?”

”Shiro.” Mira whispered to me, and shook her head. 

Shinobu let out a heavy sigh of relief. “You have no idea how good that is to hear, mikata. An elder was murdered.”

“Oh.” Fuck. An elder of the Jade Fang being murdered wasn’t some small thing in Aythryn City. Why me—? Wait, never mind. I’d already started to get a bit of a rep for solving things, and my position in the Crusade under an inquisitor definitely helped that.

“Yeah.” The line went silent for a moment. “I’ll send a squad to come get you. This needs to be handled discretely.” 

“‘Course. Discreet’s my middle name.” Along with over half the dictionary. I hung up, and sent him a location ping near the BC Gym. So much for chilling for the rest of the night.

”I’m coming with,” Mira instantly said as soon as the phone ended.

“Mira—“

”Look, you’re injured, right? What if you need help? Or if the murderer decides one isn’t enough?” Mira patted my shoulder. “I’ll protect you.”

I stared at her for a moment, and shrugged. She had a point. Most of my tools weren’t meant for one hand, anyway. “Fine. You’re carrying my stuff, though. And go get Vox.”

”You’re demoting me to pack mule?” She laughed lightly, and moved to grab my bag. It looked like our night was just beggining.