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Also, sorry about one part you'll know when you see.", "writing": "By Necessity: Score\n\nBy TerraMGP\n\n\tIt was amazing to think about it, in the end. Over fifty thousand souls occupied the station, officially anyways. Fifty thousand men, women and children. From the highest executive to the lowest slave, and those even lower than that. All living in rings within rings, pulled in towards a set of spires that housed the hub of an empire. Kanina had gotten a chance to see how most people lived in her young life. Often simply glimpsed though the windows of block buildings or suite doorways cracked enough to pass on her merchandize and get the payment. In the end it was all the same though. All boxes within boxes. Squares measured in meters based on how important someone supposedly was. Geometrics drawn by primitive computers to fit space.\n\n\tHer own home, her real home, was no different. Two small bedrooms connected by a common room with a bathroom to one side. Really aside from the plating color of the interior it was identical to Bri's place. And yet it was it's own entity. There was, for example, a large and rather gaudy floral pattern cloth hanging on one wall. The sofa was bigger and more haphazard, the result of some family selling off their bigger goods to try their luck in a colony. The holo projector likewise was salvaged and patched up, but in perfect working order all the same. A virtual monument to the early tinkering skills that the bunny had developed back on the outer ring.\n\n\tTechnically her bedroom as still where it had always been. Still in the same condition it'd been when she left it. But then there was something cathartic about sleeping on the old green tweed couch as she recovered. The faint nostalgia of sick days, or at least the few legitimate ones she'd had, stirring up in her as she lounged before the holo and faded in and out of awareness with only the smallest hint of catharsis seeping in when she was awake and aware enough to appreciate it.\n\n\tIn a way it was a joy few could ever really understand. Back in the outer rim even the idea of education or real `rest' was laughable. While anyone above a Class 3 had ready access to printed meds or even gene manipulation to render any sort of serious physical ailment unthinkable. She'd almost pity them, if she didn't hate them all.\n\n\tAs usual Savvy's pod had done excellent work in everything but pain management. Dozens if not hundreds of little microsurgical incisions dotted her like twisted paper cuts only barely dulled by primitive time release subdermal pain killers. The kind of stuff that was getting old by the twenty second century. Her HUD ran only the most basic of programs while everything else slowly integrated with her existing `ware in whatever ways it needed to. Half t he problem with custom work, it was never a very seamless or easy integration.\n\n\tOne ear twitched as the door slid open. Kanina pulling herself up jut enough to watch her mother walking in. The woman wore he years far better than many. A byproduct of her chosen vocation, as were the rather skimpy garments the older, white furred bunny woman hid beneath a simple trench coat. The woman was quick to toss the coat over the back of the couch and slipped her way over to the printer. Paying no mind to the way the tight black straps and thin mesh of her outfit moved and twisted against her plump pretty body. Mere minutes later she made her way over to the small coffee table with a large bottle of Aether and a nice hot calzone. Setting both down carefully and slipping herself on to the arm of the couch.\n\n\t``feeling any better, Angel?'' The words were worn and bent. The sad norm for a class 3.\n\n\tKanina moved to grab the pop, only for her mother to guide her back down into the couch and walk back to get a glass, pouring about half a glass full for her daughter and setting a fresh printed knife and fork to go with the calzone.\n\n\t``I don't know why you went and did this to yourself again.'' The older woman sighed. Haunani reaching down to stroke her daughters hair slowly and gently. ``It couldn't have been cheap. And you know you could probably get the work done by a real professional at this point.''\n\n\t``Mom.'' Kanina sighed and shifted on to her back, looking up at her. She was a bit taller than her mother now, yet for some reason every time she looked at that proud, beaming face Kanina felt warm. Safe. Comfortably small. ``Look you know I can't talk about it. It's better for both of us that way. Just, trust me. This is for the best. I promise everything is gonna be fine.''\n\n\t``You say that. But some day you'll have kids and you'll realize how impossible it is to just `stop' worrying. I know I know `I'll never have kids'. But you will, and you'll get it then. So for now maybe just humor your mother a bit, ok? I have a right to worry after all.''\n\n\tKanina nodded and took a deep breath. Her body shaking softly. Some from the stress, some from the after effects of the surgery. All of it very unwelcome. ``Mom.'' She sighed softly as she looked up into the soft red eyes of the bunny woman. ``You just have to trust me. You did what you had to for us. You got us out. That never happens. All I wanna do is what's right. I'm just doing what I have to. Nothing more.''\n\n\t``I know, baby.'' Haunani sighed ``I know. But Seeing you here, laid out like this. What am I supposed to think? You can't keep getting mutilated in back ally shops and running around with those hooligans. It's never going to get you anywhere good.''\n\n\tThe younger rabbit opened her mouth to protest, then closed it again and sighed softly. ``I love you mom. You know that. Right?''\n\n\t``Of course I do.'' Haunani nodded ``You are doing what you think is best. My view on it is just... different. That's all.''\n\n\t``Yeah, Mom. I know.'' Kanina sighed. ``Though do me a favor, ok?''\n\n\t``Anything sweetie'' She nodded\n\n\t``If, if someone comes to the door asking for my contact info. Don't.''\n\n\tHaunani quirked her brow a bit and leaned in ``Oh? I thought the boy I met was Bri's new boyfriend. He seemed rather nice all things considered. A tad old for her, maybe.'' She giggled ``Honestly he didn't even seem much younger than me.''\n\n\t``No, he is. Just... don't. Please. Trust me'' Kanina sighed. She shut her eyes a moment and pulled herself up in spite of the pain, wrapping her arms around her mother as best she could and kissing her cheek. ``I love you, mom.'' She murred\n\n\t``I love you too, Angel.'' Haunani nodded as she pulled the knit afghan off the back of the couch and over her dazed child.\n\n-------------------\n\n\tA small violet symbol flashed with grating insistence up in he corner of Kaninas HUD. She knew who it was, knew who it was from. She had a good feeling she knew what it was about, too. It wasn't like she enjoyed leaving Bri hanging. She sure as hell didn't plan to do so very long. The young woman assuring herself that she'd be able to manage more than jus a few placating texts or audio blurbs. The best she could really offer without making herself look like even more of an ass.\n\n\tEverything hurt, still. Not a shock considering Savvy. The man was so used to using plant for his `spiritual` needs that he probably couldn't guess at a patients pain with a full on diagnostic readout.. Or maybe he just expected everyone else to be as cooked as he was.\n\n\tThere was still a gnawing anxiety in her stomach as she looked over the job specs again. Or at least what it seemed Seb had decided she needed to know. All of the compartmentalization and the odd insistence on near-corp levels of double speak never really felt right to her. It`d been his norm, sure. But the longer things went on the less things felt like a family and more like a business. Hell if Kanina wanted that she could probably walk in to CorpSec and get a plea deal to work testing their systems in exchange for a steady salary. Not the worst deal for ones soul. Heck the older she got the less the notion made her want to vomit. Maybe by forty she`d be able to keep her lunch down enough to put in the application.\n\n\tAfter a good nights sleep it seemed that her new jack and the peripherals in it had rebooted enough to give her basic functionality. Between that and the slowly subsiding pain she was able to fiddle with the new Avi a bit while bouncing back the flood of encrypted and ciphered messages the gang was sending around. It all felt almost uncomfortably routine. At least until one came packaged with a rather suspicious looking data bundle.\n\n\t``what`s this?'' she sent out, The bunny already working to quarantine the data with t he few tools she had available to her.\n\n\t``It`s for the job.'' Gav sent back ``We need to pick up the target, but it`s going to be heavily protected. No way to detect without a specialty tracer.''\n\n\tKanina tried like hell not to take it personally. She knew Gavin quite a while. As long as most of the people in the gang to be sure. She knew that his condescending tone was really just more him being matter-of-fact about things. He didn`t do nonsense or frivolities, as he put it. But boy he didn`t make that any easier on others.\n\n\t``If you needed a tracer, why didn`t you ask me to program it?'' It was as polite a message as she could send back. Even as another box blinked in her AR display just under it. Kanina pushing the conversation with Gav off to the side to see a semi-familiar ID code, or rather the pattern of one that was regularly scrambled.\n\n\t``Hey, Bri and I were going to go to an AR-LARP and see if it would help her people problems. You want to come?''\n\n\tThe words set Kanina`s teeth on edge. She could already imagine the bear and his smug face sitting before her. That twisted faux-innocent grin she just knew was hiding something. Probably a whole slew of horrible things. That he had the audacity to even ask her that. Even if Seb was wrong about him...''\n\n\t``Kinda laid up right now'' Was all she sent back. Her still sore arms straining as she snatched up a handful of fried mushroom caps and threw them in her mouth. They instantly came back out to be replaced with a mouthful of ice cold Aether. Kanina fumbling for the printed Shammie her mother had left in case something spilled on the rug.\n\n\t``Ow, Woz damn it all!'' She squeaked\n\n\t``What was that?'' Sean sent back, a little emotional impulse slipping though the filters, the bear clearly quite amused.\n\n\t``Nothing. My food was too hot. Shut up`` The bunny girl sighed and gripped her temples firmly. If Savvy had his way and ended up switching out her limbs she`d have probably cracked her skull from the sheer frustration. Then again that might be a welcome change right about now.\n\n\t``look, I`m sorry. You don`t wanna hang with me that`s cool. I get it. All you gotta do is say the word. I`m just trying to make nice because of Bri.''\n\n\t``Yeah well nobody asked you to.'' Kanina barked the words loudly. Loud enough to fill the small apartment space. She winced and shrank back, giving a quick glance at the time in her AR. Suddenly she was a tween again, terrified of waking her mom up after a long shift.\n\n\t``Nobody asked what?'' Her eyes shifted back to see the message from Gav flashing. Another miscommunication to the wrong person. As usual.\n\n\t``Nothing. Don't worry about it.'' She sighed this time sure that she had sent it to the correct person.\n\n\t``I'm very worried about it. You should be too. It's nice that you get to go off and visit others while we do all of the work, but when the time comes you realize you'll be expected to actually go out and do your part of the job, right? If you and Moon screw up.''\n\n\t``I won't screw up.'' Kanina growled the words to herself even as she sent them. An affirmation to herself as much as to Gav. Maybe more. ``I'll make sure Van doesn't either. Or I'll just make sure to do his job for him. Whatever. It's going to get done. Got it?''\n\n\tIt was going to be another twelve hours before she was ready for real dives again. Savvy assured her it'd be fine once the programming tied up into her old stuff and everything got settled. Then again knowing Savvy he could be off. Even then, it was almost worth risking it at the idea of sending a nice hard digital dive-slap to Gav. Or Seb. Or better yet the damn criminal piece of trash who was fucking with her Brinna. Quite literally. By this point she was only just barely paying attention to Gav outlining the details of how the program worked. It wasn't that hard to grasp. She could have whipped it up in an afternoon if Seb trusted her with the ID of the target. But then that wasn't fair. Deep down she knew it wasn't. He was simply doing what had to be done. After Sven got caught, it was only that compartmentalization which kept the rest of them out of lockup. It was the only reason she was even able to sit here worrying about Bri instead of being auctioned off somewhere right now.\n\n\t``Gav?''\n\n\t``Yes? I presume you are taking notes, Fortune?'' The man charming as always.\n\n\t``What was the boss like? I mean, before. Back when he wasn't the leader?''\n\n\tThe message fed went quiet for a long while. Long enough to make her feel uncomfortable. Long enough to draw out the worry that she'd said something very wrong. It still didn't' prepare her for the uncharacteristic sorrow which filled Gav's words.\n\n\t``Emperor was... different. Before the Magician and High Priestess left, before most of the members left. He was still rather serious minded. But he still knew to enjoy himself. He and Empress were, happier, I suppose. He wanted the gang to have a future. He had big dreams, and this wonderful enthusiasm about them. He knew how to make everyone smile.''\n\n\tFringes of the idea drifted into Kanina's mind. It seemed an impossible picture, yet her earliest memories of the Tarot. Ones with Seb showing her how to juke around Class 2 security protocols. The hours he spent to make her first Avi, including the rather silly joke one that ended up being nothing but an old lady with a pachinko machine following behind her. It was still logged as one of her spare Avis, as she recalled. The man Gav described seemed a world apart from the one she knew now. From that shaking bundle of nerves straining to keep them all together while struggling to get his brother free. Holding back that it was apparently a far bigger deal than simply getting the money and buying Sven back.\n\n\t``I guess, I guess losing them hit him hard, huh? She finally messaged, the only thing she could think to say.\n\n\tThere was another long pause, and then a pulse. An odd blur of emotions from Gav that Kanina couldn't' place. Though if she had to put a word to it, that'd be sorrow. ``They were very close. I don't think he ever really recovered.'' The emotional pulse ended and the messages resumed their steady emotionlessness. Kanina almost able to see her fellow ganger as he lapsed back in to his near machinelike self. ``Now as for the job. You and Van simply need to keep yourselves in position. We will handle the rest. If any trouble pops up before hand, stall and try to stay put. Target designation is 'hermit'.''\n\n\t``Wait, not 'world'? Kanina blinked a bit. Handing out the 'fool' and 'world' cards had always been reserved for the client and score respectively. Other designations were almost never handed out. Especially not those of unfilled member slots.\n\n\t``You have all the data you need'' \n\n\tAnd with that his feed closed. The mission parameters for her role laid out in the long winded rambling Gav had subjected her to while she spoke with 'Sean'. A thought which prompted her to glance down at the still blinking indicator for the aforementioned bear. The bunny let out a soft sigh and reluctantly opened the feed, another small spam of messages, though thankfully far shorter than Gav and seemingly ware that one should quit talking once a lack of response comes up. She looked at the last one, a simple `are you ok', and rolled her eyes in frustration.\n\n\t``Yeah, I'm fine. Look. I'm only going to say this once. Whoever you are, whatever you are, I don't want to see you hurt one hair on Bri's head. You do, and...'' She winced a bit and bit back on the bile in the back of her throat ``Just, don't. I'm warning you.''\n\n\tAnd with that she shoved the messages out of her mind and went back to tweaking the dressup-doll that her new Avi had become. There were still a couple of days for her to heal, and she sure as hell wasn't going anywhere. Plenty of time to dick around and take her mind off of the clusterfack which was her life.\n\n---------------------\n\nThere was no real way to tell that the two figures walking down the spire gate road were anything more than out of place sightseers. The dingy, ill fitting clothing contrasted harshly with the shining streets and warm starlight slipping though the tinted domed `sky' which filtered a beautifully pure white light though as the noon zenith of rotation began to hit them. \n\n\tA few people scattered about seeking a quick stop in for lunch or rushing between buildings for the oh so important `face time' meetings which supposedly boosted some aspect of productivity. Most were still locked up in their gilded cubed cages. The one unfortunate exception to this was Corpsec. The officers were out in far greater force than back home. Erect and well-groomed men and women strutting about with finely polished filigree smattered over a dark black armored body glove and navy blue sleeveless turtleneck. Everything from boots likely made of actual leather to the sharp Holovid-quality haircuts. Even their immaculate stun batons made them feel unnerving and unsettling compared to the disheveled badge thugs a datagang might run into most days.\n\n\tIf ever there was a job where Kanina needed to be on the ball, this was it. Which was why she kept cursing as her thoughts drifted back to her own personal worries. About Bri. About `Sean'. About how this job was supposed to fix any of it when she didn't even know the details. She cast her eye back to Van. The moron doing pretty much exactly what you'd expect of someone like him. He pranced along the rim of water displays and spun around sign posts with the reckless abandon of a ten year old, which would be fine about a decade ago.\n\n\t``Your last hit of the synth stuff laced with something, Moonbeam?'' The message slipped though on one of the data gangs private channels. Something to twist past the fake Credentials the pair were broadcasting without giving themselves away. The half-legible pulses of raw emotion feed she got back didn't help fix the stir of apprehension Kanina felt about this whole exercise.\n\n\tIn theory the two shouldn't attract too much attention. Anyone looking at them would just see a couple of fake ID profiles for slumming corp brats complete with simulations of the usual AR spam such kids kept around them at all times. All the same the bunny took a few moments to grind her running sneakers against the smooth ceramic walkway to test its grip. Of course they'd need to run. Run fast. The question was if it would be with the mark or because everything went south.\n\n\t``Hey, what time is it?'' Van called out from where he stood. Barely paying attention as he tiptoe-hopped his way around the brim of a shining fountain. His eyes flashing around frantically despite the goofy grin plastered on his muzzle.\n\n\t``Are you seriously asking me this?'' Kanina sighed.\n\n\t``Oh come on. You know I got too much clutter to bother dragging it up'' He giggled. \n\n\t``You shouldn't have any.'' Kanina hissed loudly. The urge to scream barely managing to catch in her throat and stop itself. ``Look just go ahead.'' She grumbled. A few moments later feeling a small jolt of data washing over her body as a tight band set of signals dancing and bouncing between the countless poorly secured devices strung though the buildings and streets. \n\nThe signal went out. Then again, and a third time. Each one just a bit off of a normal beat. Slipping under the typical patterns one would expect to see from a routine scan program. The pulses just fast enough that they began to show up in Kaninas HUD. A network pulse that overlaid perfectly with the local grid map. One that should tell her when the target got close.\n\n\tNow they simply had to play the waiting game.\n\n\tMere moments were all it took for Van to get bored and start wandering around the small plaza mindlessly. His prancing moving him away from her out to the edge of where their tandem scanning program needed to work, yet each tie puling back at the last moment before she would have to chastise him. In a weird way it helped justify to Kanina just what it was they were doing partnered up. If there was any role the ditzy cheetah boy was qualified for it would be antenna, after all. If only his insufferable mindlessness didn't get in the way. It was getting so bad that Kanina found it impossible to tell here her irritation ended and the fidgets from her new upgrades began.\n\n\tThe scans kept on for minutes immemorial. Kanina found herself wondering just who they had to grab. Who would be so important that it would make all of their issues go away. Why of all people a half broken datagang would be the best choice. Each time her thoughts slipped back to Bri. Woz damn it she hated herself for it, but more than Sven or her gang mates she was doing it for Bri. To protect her from whatever her new `Master' was up to. To keep her safe. To... something. Even Kanina wasn't sure she knew anymore.\n\n\tPerhaps that was why she brought up the second window when she did. Fear? Jealousy? Boredom? The second station map flashed open in Kaninas view and slipped though the typical bypasses into the stations main Kenna shell to mask her basic `friend finder' program. The little cream-brown dot that represented her friend springing to life on the map.\n\n\tThirty meters away.\n\n\tAnd getting closer.\n\n\tKanina shifted her focus back to the tracker. Her thoughts still lagged far behind her instincts as the newest scan for their little program blipped the `target' showing up down the end of the street. Both dots stopping. Both dots hovering there for a long moment. Her eyes shifting up just in time to see a large black ball wheel van skidding its way up the street between her view and where her friend would have been standing. The dot slipping in and then speeding off quickly.\n\n\t``W-what... What the fack.''\n\n\tA loud click rang out behind her. Kanina barely moved. Her head turning just enough to catch sight of the cheetah boy. His face twisted into a sinister grin. A sleek, gold-accented hold out pistol gripped firmly in his paw, its domed emitter array pointed directly at her.\n\n\t``Ya know, Fortune. Boss said I should probably tell you first. Figured you'd be helpful if you just realized what kinda jink this can get us. He might be right, too.'' The normally glazed whites of his eyes were bloodshot and throbbing. A sick grin twisting itself over Vans face. ``But you know, between you and me, I think we need a new Fortune. You're a bad luck bu-''\n\n\tA hard right cross shut him up. Both gangers fell backwards towards the fountain with Kanina driving Van with her shoulder wedged against his peck. Her right hand gripping his wrist firmly and keeping the gun at b ay. They both went down hard, the feline screaming as his forearm caught the stone edge of the water feature and felt fur and flesh scraping from it.\n\n\tThe two twisted and writhed while Kanina struggled to keep the gunhand in check. Her left hand gripping his wrist and the right batting away at wild swipes from his claws. Blooms of pain streaking along her forearm and shoulder, even one catching her cheek before a clumsy knee strike managed to break the feral assault.\n\n\tKanina quickly gripped his forearm with both hands and began to slam Van's wrist against the stone. The jolts causing him to loose stray shots into the nearby buildings as the thin silvery beam of the Laser weapon barked and sputtered. Another quick shift and Kanina got his arm down just long enough to drop her knee firmly on to the ball of Vans wrist. There was a loud, sickening crack and a scream of pain from the Cheetah boy which the bunny used to her advantage as she knocked the gun flying.\n\n\tVan responded with a hard mule kick that sent her sprawling on her back. The bloodshot eyes now fully red in the whites of his eyes. Drool dripping down his muzzle. Kanina had just enough time to catch the telltale signs of what had to be NovaWoad before she felt the scrawny feline tackle himself down on top of her. Slashing and snarling and even trying to bludgeon her with his now damaged arm. Van cackled and brayed like a madman while raining slashes and punches and kicks down on her.\n\n\t``You see what you get, facker? You see what you get for calling me dumb? Questioning me? Telling me how useless I am? Who's useless now, huh? You were Facking bait. Just a hunk of meat for the payday. And you bought it. Hope it makes ya happy you dumb thumper. Who's stupid now, huh? Who's stupid now?''\n\n\tAll she could do was twitch and shiver as she endured the assault. Feeling his body gradually slow as the blows became more wild and far less forceful. One particularly long wind up was all she needed. A split second later and the two were turned around. Van now smashed into the ground with a heavy choke slam. Gasping and wheezing for air while Kanina held him there. Watching him twitch and shiver and grip helplessly at her arm. \n\n\tShe let go when his movements dulled, but while she could still feel a pulse. Limping away a few meters to catch her breath and splash some cold water from the fountain over her gashes. Only then did Kanina think to check her HUD once more. The van had already made it to one of the larger transport Trams. Bri's dot moving further and further away. There was no way to catch them on foot. Not now. Hell the only reason she could even still see them was her own specially tweaked program. One that accounted for all the tricks typical of a datagang like the Tarot.\n\n\tWhich told her all she needed to know.\n\n\tShe dashed to the gun as quickly as she could, scooping up the strange weapon, something she'd never seen before on the station. Something far too ornate and well crafted to be in the hands of someone like van. She quickly slipped it into the back of her shorts and sent a heavily encrypted message out. The only one she could think of. There was no way she could catch Bri. Not now. But maybe...\n\n\tA loud scrape caught her ears. The new implants twitching and springing to life before she could even think of it. Her well toned body slipping down and away as a heavy iron plug went sailing past where her head had been. Van trembling with his Gauss-lock shaking in his left hand, freshly fired. She also watched a silvery beam lancing out and though his head. Searing an oval-shaped hole though it faster than he could even scream.\n\n\t\n\n\tIt was unreal. The scene of her `friend', her gang member. Someone she'd know most of her life. Laying there. Lifeless. Charred stonework showing though the mangled black-seared hole that was once Van's face. His limp lifeless body convulsing there Broken equipment and a now destroyed brain making him dance on the residual electricity of drugs and `ware while his one intact eye glazed up into the ruined skull. Every fiber of the woman's being wanted to wretch, wanted to curl into itself. She couldn't sob. Couldn't scream. Just stand there. Gaping.\n\n\tHer eyes finally drifted down to the gun. She thought about dropping it. Wanted to drop it. Then the sounds of corpsec alarms and flashes of incoming ID signals pushed out any room for thought. Kanina slipped the gun into the band of her pants once more and dashed into the nearest ally, wall-jumping quickly towards the nearest open window and out of sight of the encroaching officers.\n\n\tThis wasn't over yet.\n\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "By Necessity: Score

By TerraMGP

\tIt was amazing to think about it, in the end. Over fifty thousand souls occupied the station, officially anyways. Fifty thousand men, women and children. From the highest executive to the lowest slave, and those even lower than that. All living in rings within rings, pulled in towards a set of spires that housed the hub of an empire. Kanina had gotten a chance to see how most people lived in her young life. Often simply glimpsed though the windows of block buildings or suite doorways cracked enough to pass on her merchandize and get the payment. In the end it was all the same though. All boxes within boxes. Squares measured in meters based on how important someone supposedly was. Geometrics drawn by primitive computers to fit space.

\tHer own home, her real  home, was no different. Two small bedrooms connected by a common room with a bathroom to one side. Really aside from the plating color of the interior it was identical to Bri's place. And yet it was it's own entity. There was, for example, a large and rather gaudy floral pattern cloth hanging on one wall. The sofa was bigger and more haphazard, the result of some family selling off their bigger goods to try their luck in a colony. The holo projector likewise was salvaged and patched up, but in perfect working order all the same. A virtual monument to the early tinkering skills that the bunny had developed back on the outer ring.

\tTechnically her bedroom as still where it had always been. Still in the same condition it'd been when she left it. But then there was something cathartic about sleeping on the old green tweed couch as she recovered. The faint nostalgia of sick days, or at least the few legitimate ones she'd had, stirring up in her as she lounged before the holo and faded in and out of awareness with only the smallest hint of catharsis seeping in when she was awake and aware enough to appreciate it.

\tIn a way it was a joy few could ever really understand. Back in the outer rim even the idea of education or real `rest' was laughable. While anyone above a Class 3 had ready access to printed meds or even gene manipulation to render any sort of serious physical ailment unthinkable. She'd almost pity them, if she didn't hate them all.

\tAs usual Savvy's pod had done excellent work in everything but pain management. Dozens if not hundreds of little microsurgical incisions dotted her like twisted paper cuts only barely dulled by primitive time release subdermal pain killers. The kind of stuff that was getting old by the twenty second century. Her HUD ran only the most basic of programs while everything else slowly integrated with her existing `ware in whatever ways it needed to. Half t he problem with custom work, it was never a very seamless or easy integration.

\tOne ear twitched as the door slid open. Kanina pulling herself up jut enough to watch her mother walking in. The woman wore he years far better than many. A byproduct of her chosen vocation, as were the rather skimpy garments the older, white furred bunny woman hid beneath a simple trench coat. The woman was quick to toss the coat over the back of the couch and slipped her way over to the printer. Paying no mind to the way the tight black straps and thin mesh of her outfit moved and twisted against her plump pretty body. Mere minutes later she made her way over to the small coffee table with a large bottle of Aether and a nice hot calzone. Setting both down carefully and slipping herself on to the arm of the couch.

\t``feeling any better, Angel?'' The words were worn and bent. The sad norm for a class 3.

\tKanina moved to grab the pop, only for her mother to guide her back down into the couch and walk back to get a glass, pouring about half a glass full for her daughter and setting a fresh printed knife and fork to go with the calzone.

\t``I don't know why you went and did this to yourself again.'' The older woman sighed. Haunani reaching down to stroke her daughters hair slowly and gently. ``It couldn't have been cheap. And you know you could probably get the work done by a real professional at this point.''

\t``Mom.'' Kanina sighed and shifted on to her back, looking up at her. She was a bit taller than her mother now, yet for some reason every time she looked at that proud, beaming face Kanina felt warm. Safe. Comfortably small. ``Look you know I can't talk about it. It's better for both of us that way. Just, trust me. This is for the best. I promise everything is gonna be fine.''

\t``You say that. But some day you'll have kids and you'll realize how impossible it is to just `stop' worrying. I know I know `I'll never have kids'. But you will, and you'll get it then. So for now maybe just humor your mother a bit, ok? I have a right to worry after all.''

\tKanina nodded and took a deep breath. Her body shaking softly. Some from the stress, some from the after effects of the surgery. All of it very unwelcome. ``Mom.'' She sighed softly as she looked up into the soft red eyes of the bunny woman. ``You just have to trust me. You did what you had to for us. You got us out. That never happens. All I wanna do is what's right. I'm just doing what I have to. Nothing more.''

\t``I know, baby.'' Haunani sighed ``I know. But Seeing you here, laid out like this. What am I supposed to think? You can't keep getting mutilated in back ally shops and running around with those hooligans. It's never going to get you anywhere good.''

\tThe younger rabbit opened her mouth to protest, then closed it again and sighed softly. ``I love you mom. You know that. Right?''

\t``Of course I do.'' Haunani nodded ``You are doing what you think is best. My view on it is just... different. That's all.''

\t``Yeah, Mom. I know.'' Kanina sighed. ``Though do me a favor, ok?''

\t``Anything sweetie'' She nodded

\t``If, if someone comes to the door asking for my contact info. Don't.''

\tHaunani quirked her brow a bit and leaned in ``Oh? I thought the boy I met was Bri's new boyfriend. He seemed rather nice all things considered. A tad old for her, maybe.'' She giggled ``Honestly he didn't even seem much younger than me.''

\t``No, he is. Just... don't. Please. Trust me'' Kanina sighed. She shut her eyes a moment and pulled herself up in spite of the pain, wrapping her arms around her mother as best she could and kissing her cheek. ``I love you, mom.'' She murred

\t``I love you too, Angel.'' Haunani nodded as she pulled the knit afghan off the back of the couch and over her dazed child.

-------------------

\tA small violet symbol flashed with grating insistence up in he corner of Kaninas HUD. She knew who it was, knew who it was from. She had a good feeling she knew what it was about, too. It wasn't like she enjoyed leaving Bri hanging. She sure as hell didn't plan to do so very long. The young woman assuring herself that she'd be able to manage more than jus a few placating texts or audio blurbs. The best she could really offer without making herself look like even more of an ass.

\tEverything hurt, still. Not a shock considering Savvy. The man was so used to using plant for his `spiritual` needs that he probably couldn't guess at a patients pain with a full on diagnostic readout.. Or maybe he just expected everyone else to be as cooked as he was.

\tThere was still a gnawing anxiety in her stomach as she looked over the job specs again. Or at least what it seemed Seb had decided she needed to know. All of the compartmentalization and the odd insistence on near-corp levels of double speak never really felt right to her. It`d been his norm, sure. But the longer things went on the less things felt like a family and more like a business. Hell if Kanina wanted that she could probably walk in to CorpSec and get a plea deal to work testing their systems in exchange for a steady salary. Not the worst deal for ones soul. Heck the older she got the less the notion made her want to vomit. Maybe by forty she`d be able to keep her lunch down enough to put in the application.

\tAfter a good nights sleep it seemed that her new jack and the peripherals in it had rebooted enough to give her basic functionality. Between that and the slowly subsiding pain she was able to fiddle with the new Avi a bit while bouncing back the flood of encrypted and ciphered messages the gang was sending around. It all felt almost uncomfortably routine. At least until one came packaged with a rather suspicious looking data bundle.

\t``what`s this?'' she sent out, The bunny already working to quarantine the data  with t he few tools she had available to her.

\t``It`s for the job.'' Gav sent back ``We need to pick up the target, but it`s going to be heavily protected. No way to detect without a specialty tracer.''

\tKanina tried like hell not to take it personally. She knew Gavin quite a while. As long as most of the people in the gang to be sure. She knew that his condescending tone was really just more him being matter-of-fact about things. He didn`t do nonsense or frivolities, as he put it. But boy he didn`t make that any easier on others.

\t``If you needed a tracer, why didn`t you ask me to program it?'' It was as polite a message as she could send back. Even as another box blinked in her AR display just under it. Kanina pushing the conversation with Gav off to the side to see a semi-familiar ID code, or rather the pattern of one that was regularly scrambled.

\t``Hey, Bri and I were going to go to an AR-LARP and see if it would help her people problems. You want to come?''

\tThe words set Kanina`s teeth on edge. She could already imagine the bear and his smug face sitting before her. That twisted faux-innocent grin she just knew was hiding something. Probably a whole slew of horrible things. That he had the audacity to even ask her that. Even if Seb was wrong about him...''

\t``Kinda laid up right now'' Was all she sent back. Her still sore arms straining as she snatched up a handful of fried mushroom caps and threw them in her mouth. They instantly came back out to be replaced with a mouthful of ice cold Aether. Kanina fumbling for the printed Shammie her mother had left in case something spilled on the rug.

\t``Ow, Woz damn it all!'' She squeaked

\t``What was that?'' Sean sent back, a little emotional impulse slipping though the filters, the bear clearly quite amused.

\t``Nothing. My food was too hot. Shut up`` The bunny girl sighed and gripped her temples firmly. If Savvy had his way and ended up switching out her limbs she`d have probably cracked her skull from the sheer frustration. Then again that might be a welcome change right about now.

\t``look, I`m sorry. You don`t wanna hang with me that`s cool. I get it. All you gotta do is say the word. I`m just trying to make nice because of Bri.''

\t``Yeah well nobody asked you to.'' Kanina barked the words loudly. Loud enough to fill the small apartment space. She winced and shrank back, giving a quick glance at the time in her AR. Suddenly she was a tween again, terrified of waking her mom up after a long shift.

\t``Nobody asked what?'' Her eyes shifted back to see the message from Gav flashing. Another miscommunication to the wrong person. As usual.

\t``Nothing. Don't worry about it.'' She sighed this time sure that she had sent it to the correct person.

\t``I'm very worried about it. You should be too. It's nice that you get to go off and visit others while we do all of the work, but when the time comes you realize you'll be expected to actually go out and do your part of the job, right? If you and Moon screw up.''

\t``I won't screw up.'' Kanina growled the words to herself even as she sent them. An affirmation to herself as much as to Gav. Maybe more. ``I'll make sure Van doesn't either. Or I'll just make sure to do his job for him. Whatever. It's going to get done. Got it?''

\tIt was going to be another twelve hours before she was ready for real dives again. Savvy assured her it'd be fine once the programming tied up into her old stuff and everything got settled. Then again knowing Savvy he could be off. Even then, it was almost worth risking it at the idea of sending a nice hard digital dive-slap to Gav. Or Seb. Or better yet the damn criminal piece of trash who was fucking with her Brinna. Quite literally. By this point she was only just barely paying attention to Gav outlining the details of how the program worked. It wasn't that hard to grasp. She could have whipped it up in an afternoon if Seb trusted her with the ID of the target. But then that wasn't fair. Deep down she knew it wasn't. He was simply doing what had to be done. After Sven got caught, it was only that compartmentalization which kept the rest of them out of lockup. It was the only reason she was even able to sit here worrying about Bri instead of being auctioned off somewhere right now.

\t``Gav?''

\t``Yes? I presume you are taking notes, Fortune?'' The man charming as always.

\t``What was the boss like? I mean, before. Back when he wasn't the leader?''

\tThe message fed went quiet for a long while. Long enough to make her feel uncomfortable. Long enough to draw out the worry that she'd said something very wrong. It still didn't' prepare her for the uncharacteristic sorrow which filled Gav's words.

\t``Emperor was... different. Before the Magician and High Priestess left, before most of the members left. He was still rather serious minded. But he still knew to enjoy himself. He and Empress were, happier, I suppose. He wanted the gang to have a future. He had big dreams, and this wonderful enthusiasm about them. He knew how to make everyone smile.''

\tFringes of the idea drifted into Kanina's mind. It seemed an impossible picture, yet her earliest memories of the Tarot. Ones with Seb showing her how to juke around Class 2 security protocols. The hours he spent to make her first Avi, including the rather silly joke one that ended up being nothing but an old lady with a pachinko machine following behind her. It was still logged as one of her spare Avis, as she recalled. The man Gav described seemed a world apart from the one she knew now. From that shaking bundle of nerves straining to keep them all together while struggling to get his brother free. Holding back that it was apparently a far bigger deal than simply getting the money and buying Sven back.

\t``I guess, I guess losing them hit him hard, huh? She finally messaged, the only thing she could think to say.

\tThere was another long pause, and then a pulse. An odd blur of emotions from Gav  that Kanina couldn't' place. Though if she had to put a word to it, that'd be sorrow. ``They were very close. I don't think he ever really recovered.'' The emotional pulse ended and the messages resumed their steady emotionlessness. Kanina almost able to see her fellow ganger as he lapsed back in to his near machinelike self. ``Now as for the job. You and Van simply need to keep yourselves in position. We will handle the rest. If any trouble pops up before hand, stall and try to stay put. Target designation is 'hermit'.''

\t``Wait, not 'world'? Kanina blinked a bit. Handing out the 'fool' and 'world' cards had always been reserved for the client and score respectively. Other designations were almost never handed out. Especially not those of unfilled member slots.

\t``You have all the data you need''

\tAnd with that his feed closed. The mission parameters for her role laid out in the long winded rambling Gav had subjected her to while she spoke with 'Sean'. A thought which prompted her to glance down at the still blinking indicator for the aforementioned bear. The bunny  let out a soft sigh and reluctantly opened the feed, another small spam of messages, though thankfully far shorter than Gav and seemingly ware that one should quit talking once a lack of response comes up. She looked at the last one, a simple `are you ok', and rolled her eyes in frustration.

\t``Yeah, I'm fine. Look. I'm only going to say this once. Whoever you are, whatever you are, I don't want to see you hurt one hair on Bri's head. You do, and...'' She winced a bit and bit back on the bile in the back of her throat ``Just, don't. I'm warning you.''

\tAnd with that she shoved the messages out of her mind and went back to tweaking the dressup-doll that her new Avi had become. There were still a couple of days for her to heal, and she sure as hell wasn't going anywhere. Plenty of time to dick around and take her mind off of the clusterfack which was her life.

---------------------

There was no real way to tell that the two figures walking down the spire gate road were anything  more than out of place sightseers. The dingy, ill fitting clothing contrasted harshly with the shining streets and warm starlight slipping though the tinted domed `sky' which filtered a beautifully pure white light though as the noon zenith of rotation began to hit them.

\tA few people scattered about seeking a quick stop in for lunch or rushing between buildings for the oh so important `face time' meetings which supposedly boosted some aspect of productivity. Most were still locked up in their gilded cubed cages. The one unfortunate exception to this was Corpsec. The officers were out in far greater force than back home. Erect and well-groomed men and women strutting about with finely polished filigree smattered over a dark black armored body glove and navy blue sleeveless turtleneck. Everything from boots likely made of actual leather to the sharp Holovid-quality haircuts. Even their immaculate stun batons made them feel unnerving and unsettling compared to the disheveled badge thugs a datagang might run into most days.

\tIf ever there was a job where Kanina needed to be on the ball, this was it. Which was why she kept cursing as her thoughts drifted back to her own personal worries. About Bri. About `Sean'. About how this job was supposed to fix any of it when she didn't even know the details. She cast her eye back to Van. The moron doing pretty much exactly what you'd expect of someone like him. He pranced along the rim of water displays and spun around sign posts with the reckless abandon of a ten year old, which would be fine about a decade ago.

\t``Your last hit of the synth stuff laced with something, Moonbeam?'' The message slipped though on one of the data gangs private channels. Something to twist past the fake Credentials the pair were broadcasting without giving themselves away. The half-legible pulses of raw emotion feed she got back didn't help fix the stir of apprehension Kanina felt about this whole exercise.

\tIn theory the two shouldn't attract too much attention. Anyone looking at them would just see a couple of fake ID profiles for slumming corp brats complete with simulations of the usual AR spam such kids kept around them at all times. All the same the bunny took a few moments to grind her running sneakers against the smooth ceramic walkway to test its grip. Of course they'd need to run. Run fast. The question was if it would be with the mark or because everything went south.

\t``Hey, what time is it?'' Van called out from where he stood. Barely paying attention as he tiptoe-hopped his way around the brim of a shining fountain. His eyes flashing around frantically despite the goofy grin plastered on his muzzle.

\t``Are you seriously asking me this?'' Kanina sighed.

\t``Oh come on. You know I got too much clutter to bother dragging it up'' He giggled.

\t``You shouldn't have any.'' Kanina hissed loudly. The urge to scream barely managing to catch in her throat and stop itself. ``Look just go ahead.'' She grumbled. A few moments later feeling a small jolt of data washing over her body as a tight band set of signals dancing and bouncing between the countless poorly secured devices strung though the buildings and streets.

The signal went out. Then again, and a third time. Each one just a bit off of a normal beat. Slipping under the typical patterns one would expect to see from a routine scan program. The pulses just fast enough that they began to show up in Kaninas HUD. A network pulse that overlaid perfectly with the local grid map. One that should tell her when the target got close.

\tNow they simply had to play the waiting game.

\tMere moments were all it took for Van to get bored and start wandering around the small plaza mindlessly. His prancing moving him away from her out to the edge of where their tandem scanning program needed to work, yet each tie puling back at the last moment before she would have to chastise him. In a weird way it helped justify to Kanina just what it was they were doing partnered up. If there was any role the ditzy cheetah boy was qualified for it would be antenna, after all. If only his insufferable mindlessness didn't get in the way. It was getting so bad that Kanina found it impossible to tell here her irritation ended and the fidgets from her new upgrades began.

\tThe scans kept on for minutes immemorial. Kanina found herself wondering just who they had to grab. Who would be so important that it would make all of their issues go away. Why of all people a half broken datagang would be the best choice. Each time her thoughts slipped back to Bri. Woz damn it she hated herself for it, but more than Sven or her gang mates she was doing it for Bri. To protect her from whatever her new `Master' was up to. To keep her safe. To... something. Even Kanina wasn't sure she knew anymore.

\tPerhaps that was why she brought up the second window when she did. Fear? Jealousy? Boredom? The second station map flashed open in Kaninas view and slipped though the typical bypasses into the stations main Kenna shell to mask her basic `friend finder' program. The little cream-brown dot that represented her friend springing to life on the map.

\tThirty meters away.

\tAnd getting closer.

\tKanina shifted her focus back to the tracker. Her thoughts still lagged far behind her instincts as the newest scan for their little program blipped the `target' showing up down the end of the street. Both dots stopping. Both dots hovering there for a long moment. Her eyes shifting up just in time to see a large black ball wheel van skidding its way up the street between her view and where her friend would have been standing. The dot slipping in and then speeding off quickly.

\t``W-what... What the fack.''

\tA loud click rang out behind her. Kanina barely moved. Her head turning just enough to catch sight of the cheetah boy. His face twisted into a sinister grin. A sleek, gold-accented hold out pistol gripped firmly in his paw, its domed emitter array pointed directly at her.

\t``Ya know, Fortune. Boss said I should probably tell you first. Figured you'd be helpful if you just realized what kinda jink this can get us. He might be right, too.'' The normally glazed whites of his eyes were bloodshot and throbbing. A sick grin twisting itself over Vans face. ``But you know, between you and me, I think we need a new Fortune. You're a bad luck bu-''

\tA hard right cross shut him up. Both gangers fell backwards towards the fountain with Kanina driving Van with her shoulder wedged against his peck. Her right hand gripping his wrist firmly and keeping the gun at b ay. They both went down hard, the feline screaming as his forearm caught the stone edge of the water feature and felt fur and flesh scraping from it.

\tThe two twisted and writhed while Kanina struggled to keep the gunhand in check. Her left hand gripping his wrist and the right batting away at wild swipes from his claws. Blooms of pain streaking along her forearm and shoulder, even one catching her cheek before a clumsy knee strike managed to break the feral assault.

\tKanina quickly gripped his forearm with both hands and began to slam Van's wrist against the stone. The jolts causing him to loose stray shots into the nearby buildings as the thin silvery beam of the Laser weapon barked and sputtered. Another quick shift and Kanina got his arm down just long enough to drop her knee firmly on to the ball of Vans wrist. There was a loud, sickening crack and a scream of pain from the Cheetah boy which the bunny used to her advantage as she knocked the gun flying.

\tVan responded with a hard mule kick that sent her sprawling on her back. The bloodshot eyes now fully red in the whites of his eyes. Drool dripping down his muzzle. Kanina had just enough time to catch the telltale signs of what had to be NovaWoad before she felt the scrawny feline tackle himself down on top of her. Slashing and snarling and even trying to bludgeon her with his now damaged arm. Van cackled and brayed like a madman while raining slashes and punches and kicks down on her.

\t``You see what you get, facker? You see what you get for calling me dumb? Questioning me? Telling me how useless I am? Who's useless now, huh? You were Facking bait. Just a hunk of meat for the payday. And you bought it. Hope it makes ya happy you dumb thumper. Who's stupid now, huh? Who's stupid now?''

\tAll she could do was twitch and shiver as she endured the assault. Feeling his body gradually slow as the blows became more wild and far less forceful. One particularly long wind up was all she needed. A split second later and the two were turned around. Van now smashed into the ground with a heavy choke slam. Gasping and wheezing for air while Kanina held him there. Watching him twitch and shiver and grip helplessly at her arm.

\tShe let go when his movements dulled, but while she could still feel a pulse. Limping away a few meters to catch her breath and splash some cold water from the fountain over her gashes. Only then did Kanina think to check her HUD once more. The van had already made it to one of the larger transport Trams. Bri's dot moving further and further away. There was no way to catch them on foot. Not now. Hell the only reason she could even still see them was her own specially tweaked program. One that accounted for all the tricks typical of a datagang like the Tarot.

\tWhich told her all she needed to know.

\tShe dashed to the gun as quickly as she could, scooping up the strange weapon, something she'd never seen before on the station. Something far too ornate and well crafted to be in the hands of someone like van. She quickly slipped it into the back of her shorts and sent a heavily encrypted message out. The only one she could think of. There was no way she could catch Bri. Not now. But maybe...

\tA loud scrape caught her ears. The new implants twitching and springing to life before she could even think of it. Her well toned body slipping down and away as a heavy iron plug went sailing past where her head had been. Van trembling with his Gauss-lock shaking in his left hand, freshly fired. She also watched a silvery beam lancing out and though his head. Searing an oval-shaped hole though it faster than he could even scream.

\t

\tIt was unreal. The scene of her `friend', her gang member. Someone she'd know most of her life. Laying there. Lifeless. Charred stonework showing though the mangled black-seared hole that was once Van's face. His limp lifeless body convulsing there Broken equipment and a now destroyed brain making him dance on the residual electricity of drugs and `ware while his one intact eye glazed up into the ruined skull. Every fiber of the woman's being wanted to wretch, wanted to curl into itself. She couldn't sob. Couldn't scream. Just stand there. Gaping.

\tHer eyes finally drifted down to the gun. She thought about dropping it. Wanted to drop it. Then the sounds of corpsec alarms and flashes of incoming ID signals pushed out any room for thought. Kanina slipped the gun into the band of her pants once more and dashed into the nearest ally, wall-jumping quickly towards the nearest open window and out of sight of the encroaching officers.

\tThis wasn't over yet.

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