Ravensdagger_Kittypunk_Cyberpunk_Kitrpg

Chapter Fifty-Two — The Real World

Chapter Fifty-Two — The Real World We left the house at half-past six in the morning only to hit traffic into Boston Two anyway. That was the biggest downside to living outside of the city. The traffic in and out was god awful at the best of times.Still, we managed to arrive at the courier's office before eight, which wasn't bad all things said and done.Markham was in his office, feet up on his desk and a mug of hot coffee being nursed between his hands when we came in. He greeted Sharp with a grunt.Derek, on the other hand, was a lot more enthused to see her. "Sharp!" he said before clapping her on the shoulder hard enough to jostle. "Good to see you, girl. Been a minute.""Oh, hi!" Sharp said. Derek looked... fine enough. He seemed to be back to full strength and was standing tall. There was no way of telling how his healing was progressing at first glance, but he at least seemed energetic. "Are you feeling any better?""Good enough to work," Derek said with a shrug. "And that's what matters, isn't it?""I guess so," Sharp said. "Does it still hurt or anything?""Nah. The stitches pull sometimes when I move my abs, and I think the doctor told me not to work out for a month? But who listens to those?" Derek grinned."Yeah, what do they know," Sharp said with a disturbing amount of sincerity. I... suspected that she'd never actually visited a doctor before. It might explain some things, actually."If you two are done. Derek, I have a few annoying jobs for you today," Markham said. He slid his boots off his desk and groaned as he reached over for a tablet and tapped it a few times. "You'll need the van." He passed the tablet over to Derek and I caught sight of a city map on it with some markers."Alright," Derek said. "Can't say I love sitting in traffic all day, but it's whatever.""Mhm," Markham said. His attention shifted to Sharp, and for a moment me where I was sitting on her shoulder, before he grabbed a second tablet and fiddled with it. "Anywhere you wanted to work in particular?" he asked."I can ask for that without, uh, problems?" Sharp asked.Marham looked up to Sharp, then shifted a boot slightly. "I've worked with folks that have mixed-allegiances before. As long as you don't do me dirty, I don't care. You've proven alright so far. Don't stretch it though.""Thank you," Sharp said. "And I won't! Stretch anything, that is. Um... I am on a gig right now that's in the sewers near the northern end of Fenway."I sank my claws into her jacket. Idiot trusting girl. Markham wasn't so trustworthy that she ought to spill anything to him. Sure, this was for an unimportant side-gig, but still."We don't have anything that needs delivering in the sewers," Markham said. "That's never happened, even. But the northern end of Fenway? That I can accommodate a little." He tapped the tablet, then nodded to himself. "We have at least four packages that need to be delivered in that area, and one pick-up. Do the pick-up first.""There and back here?" Sharp asked."That's it, yes," he said. "Bit of a pain, but they paid for it. I'll shoot you the details for the other three once you arrive. I might be able to set up a drop-off for some other thing around there too, since you'll be in the area. This should go without saying, but you're representing the company while working for us and wearing that jacket. Don't go around covered in sewer gunk.""Yessir!" Sharp said with a quick and sloppy salut that almost threw me off her shoulder. "I'll be on my best-smelling behaviour."Derek laughed, but I think she was being honest.Could her Pocket perk pull out air-freshener? We'd have to test that, actually.Sharp looked over the delivery schedule, took some notes on a small pad that she pulled out from an inner pocket, then gave the boss a quick salute. "I'm off, then! I'll try to get everything done as fast as I can!""I appreciate it," Markham said. "Now get going, the traffic only gets worse around this time."Sharp and I slipped out of the back and grabbed one of the courier bikes from a shed, then we were out and heading on towards Fenway once more. It had been a minute since we'd gone to the area.The traffic was, as predicted, terrible, but being on a bike actually made some parts not as unbearable. With none of the cars able to move more than a foot an hour, the chances of crashing was reduced a fair bit, and with so many other bikes and mopeds on the road, the traffic police were too busy to catch us slipping by.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.We made it to Fenway, found the first delivery, grabbed it, and made our way back to the Courier's office. Sharp took a small break on returning, just long enough to grab a bottle of water and down it. I shared, drinking out of the cap.We then rode back to Fenway, but this time we made a slight detour.The sewers of Boston Two were... nothing too special, really. They were pretty much what was expected from a modern city built atop the bones of an older city.Entering them was probably as easy as popping open a manhole cover in the right area. The vast majority of the city's sewer system was nothing more than under-road piping. There was no way anyone sane could crawl through those.So, when people said that they were 'in the sewers' they were more likely to be found in the combined sewage tunnels under most of the streets and megabuildings in the city.In theory, those tunnels were meant to be... mostly pollutant-free. Wastewater from factories and mega-buildings was meant to be processed outside of the city, and pumped out to facilities elsewhere. In practice, plenty of folk dumped their crap down the storm drains.In any case, that meant that there was a network of highly polluted, dense, and very humid tunnels that were prone to flooding in spring right under our feet.They weren't pretty places to be, but no one honestly policed them unless it was urgent, and they made for decent smuggler hideouts, places for homeless camps, and areas for punks to hang out and feel cool about themselves while breathing in lungfuls of carcinogens and literal excrement.I wasn't a fan."So, how do we get into the sewers anyway?" Sharp asked while peddling to our next pick up location."You ask nicely. But... you can also find entrances all along the river.""Isn't the river like, hyper-dangerous?" Sharp asked. "Even at the orphanage, they warned us never to touch the water. Especially if it's foamy, colourful, dark, or bubbly.""I think that describes all the water in and around the Boston river," I said."I think that was the point," Sharp said.Fair enough.The packages we had to deliver were mostly small things, and mostly destined to some nicer apartment complexes and even one rather nicely defended mansion tucked in the quieter part of Fenway.We didn't ask questions. People who could afford to have packages delivered directly and rapidly without using normal postal services tended to prize their privacy, and that was just fine for us.Sharp finished delivering the last package in the area just past one in the afternoon. Not too late, but not too early either. With a bit of time for a break that we could justifiably use for poking around, we started heading northwards, towards the river and presumably the sewers.Though we did stop for food along the way.Fenway had several large arenas, and arenas meant crowds of inebriated sorts who didn't mind eating at a roadside stall for prices that were frankly kind of ridiculous. I couldn't say it wasn't practical, however."Oh... maybe we shouldn't have eaten," Sharp said as we approached the edge of the Boston river. It actually took some doing. The buildings nearest the river all had tall walls along the coast, and there was no easy access to the riverside. Most of it was actually cement rises, though there were a few rare areas where there was... something that could charitably be called a beachside."It's not the prettiest sight," I said. "And the smell is, ah, not exactly pleasant."It stank of shit."So, do you recall the exact wording of the gig?" I asked.Sharp covered her nose with one hand and fished out her phone with the other. She'd copied the post on there before we left. "Uh, looks like the person who posted the gig wants someone to find an entrance in the sewers, one into... Mega-building 371. You know, this sounded a lot easier when we were at home.""It always sounds easier when you're at home," I said. "Welcome to the real world."

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Chapter Fifty-Three — Stinky

Chapter Fifty-Three — Stinky "Ew," Sharp said as she took in the entrance into the city's underground.It was... a reasonable feeling, to be honest. The water out-flow was a long, large set of concrete openings that were spilling brackish water out onto the Boston river. Each opening could have fit two semi-trailers side-by-side, and there were six of them set one after the other, with thick concrete walls between each.The area stank. It was likely all because of the water turning into a fine mist as it was catapulted out of the exits. That same mist was carried around by the wind. If it wasn't Boston Two street runoff, then it would still be deeply unpleasant."Nope," Sharp said as she turned us around and started back towards the courier bike."Are we giving up on this mission?" I asked."I'm giving up on going in there without a mask on," she said.That was... a fair point. However, I felt like she was forgetting one major point of fact. "You do recall the new skill that you've only just unlocked, yes?""Ah," Sharp said. Her shoulders slumped, then she reluctantly reached into her pockets and tugged out a filtered gas mask that only barely fit in there. It was the sort with a full-face rubber mask, including twin glass goggles and a large round filter at the front. "I'm going to need so many showers," she said."We don't need to go in. The gig was meant to be something we'd tackle on Thursday, and it's still only Tuesday. The goal was to get a lay of the land.""Yeah, but don't we usually do that to learn what kind of tools we'll need?" Sharp asked."Yes... and I can see why that... hmm, alright, you make a fair point. Maybe you'll be unable to provide protective equipment sized for a cat?"Sharp rooted around in her pockets for a moment, then came out with another mask. A much smaller one, with a smaller filter on it, and a pair of tiny rubber cat ears. "I... does this even exist?" she asked.I paused. We had done a fair bit of testing with the perk, but this was something that I hadn't thought to test. The tools she summoned were often marked with fake but very similar branding to real tools, so I knew to some extent that they were based on real items but modified to some degree.But this was something entirely bespoke.Unless there was a market out there for teeny-tiny cat-shaped masks out there. Something told me that that was unlikely. People who had cats liked giving them hats, obviously, because it was adorable, but not gas masks. "I'll admit, that is a little strange," I said."Should we give it a go? I'm kinda tempted not to because... man, I don't like doing laundry, it sucks." She sounded a little whiny at the end there, but I got it. I wasn't so much concerned about my own clothes, the little navy-blue cat-jacket I had on was easy to wash, and Sharp would be doing the work for me anyway, but my fur? That stuff did not clean easily."You make a fair point. We did only come out here to scout. We have a couple of days to acquire some appropriate PPE."I was pretty sure there were sites that sold armoured PPE, but that was maybe a step beyond what we'd need. Finding something cat-wearable would be annoying... unless we could leverage Pockets again?"Yeah, I like that idea. We can head home early and... wait, is that Jenny?" Sharp asked.I blinked, then narrowed my eyes and looked in the same direction she was, and yes, there was a familiar yellow jacket way out next to one of the further outflow tunnels. The passage was one of the few that wasn't spitting out a deluge of water.The girl gestured to someone I couldn't quite see, then a second figure joined her, someone wearing a purple long coat and big old galoshes."And that's got to be Alyssa," Sharp said. "Whoa! I haven't seen them in ages.""And yet we happen to run into them while scoping out a site for a mission," I said. "What a coincidence.""Yeah... that doesn't feel like it's likely, does it?" Sharp said. She shrugged. "Let's go say hi!"I rolled my eyes, but that didn't stop Sharp from starting to look for a way around. It took a while, and on the way Sharp helped me into the kitty-sized gas mask her Pockets ability had drummed up.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.We made out way around a large building and out into an old parking lot where a broken-down van abandoned next to a burnt-out old drum and a heap of trash. Jenny's car was parked there, looking as unreliable as ever. It still had a few bullet holes in its body, though it looked like one fender had been replaced with another that was a glaring green."Yeah, that's Jenny's car alright," Sharp said as she walked up next to the junker. If it wasn't such a piece of trash I might have been worried that someone would break in and steal it. This spot didn't look like it had surveillance. But then again, most thieves had at least some idea of what something was worth. If they brought this thing to a chop-shop, they'd probably be charged for wasting the shop's time."I'm not sure if interrupting the girls in whatever they're doing is a good idea.""Aww, come on, what's the worst that could happen?" Sharp asked as she started to fit on her own mask."You could get shot," I said. But there was no dissuading her now. "Or don't listen to my advice and chase skirt into a sewer, what do I know?""It's not so bad! They're friends," Sharp said, like a moron.We came around to a short cement barricade meant to prevent idiots from crawling into the storm drains, one which had boxes at its base to make climbing over all the easier, then all Sharp had to do was follow a well-trodden path down along a slope and then climb down a rusty old maintenance ladder into the mouth of the drain.The tunnel stretched out within, a large dam was raised at the base of it, with churning water lapping behind. It seemed like it just wasn't high enough to spill over this part. There were a few wet prints on the ground, showing us where the girls had been. They were easy to make out. Both of them were wearing large rubber rain boots and they likely looked goofy for it.... I should get some for myself. Four itty-bitty-kitty galoches.Sharp moved up to the dam, then climbed up a small inset staircase up and over the dam and onto a metal catwalk about a metre over the water. "Can't see where they went," she said, though her voice was muffled by her mask.There was no sign of either girl, though... no, that wasn't true, there was a faint purple light out ahead, just past an intersection in the tunnel. The misty shit water in the air and the poor lighting made it hard to see.Sharp started towards the light, but I started to glance around instead. Something felt off."Wait, this might be-" I started just as we reached the intersection.And then there was a gun pointing up towards Sharp's head.The purple light ahead winked out a moment later, leaving us in partial-darkness. I looked to the side and sighed. "Told you so," I said.Jenny was holding out a fat little handgun with unwavering hands. She was almost poking Sharp's temple with it. "Who the fuck are you and why are you... is that a cat? Wait, Sharp?"Behind Jenny was the mage, who blinked as she registered just who we were, or at least, who Sharp was. "What are you doing here?""I saw you!" Sharp said as she slowly raised her arms in surrender. "So I came over to... uh... see what you were up to? I wasn't stalking, I swear!"Ah yes, very reassuring that.Jenny slowly lowered the handgun, then shook her head. "What the hell? I almost shot you!""Beyond that. Do you think we'd believe that you were here, in this part of the city, in this location of all places, at the same time as us?" Alyssa asked."Yes?" Sharp asked. "Because that's the truth?""The truth isn't usually so contrived," the mage replied.That was actually way off the mark. Reality tended to have much stranger statistical anomalies than people thought. This one... was probably Sharp's luck having a thumb on the scale. A really fat thumb."Maybe... maybe we're here for the same gig?" Sharp asked. "Also, maybe we can talk somewhere without so much poop in the air? I'm wearing a mask and it still stinks."The two girls, neither of whom were masked, looked at each other and communicated wordlessly.It seemed as if Sharp wasn't going to be shot for not listening to me... today.

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