Ravensdagger_Kittypunk_Cyberpunk_Kitrpg

Chapter Fifty-Four — A Lil Chit-C(h)at

Chapter Fifty-Four — A Lil Chit-C(h)at "We can step out to talk," Alyssa said. "Or at least, go somewhere less loud."That was a fair point. I had that gasmask on, which did some work muffling my hearing, but the area was still quite loud. Rushing water breaking against concrete walls wasn't exactly a subtle kind of sound."Yeah, okay," Sharp said. "So, out, or somewhere else?"Jenny lowered her gun, then stuffed it into a thigh holster strapped onto the outside of her pants. "Come on, follow me. There's a room up over here."She turned, and soon Sharp was following. I didn't fail to notice that Alyssa was keeping to Sharp's side. The ideal spot to keep an eye on Sharp while tailing Jenny. They seemed to be at least mildly prepared for the excursion. Both girls had flat-backed flashlights clipped to their belts, and Jenny was wearing a hardhat with a small light at the front, though it was currently off.No masks, however. I imagined that was something they were regretting. For that matter, other than their big old water boots, they were wearing normal clothes, not the kind of PPE that I would have suggested for an excursion down here."It's there," Jenny said as she pointed ahead.The catwalk split in four directions, but the one Jenny was pointing down soon had the catwalk end at a sturdy metal door. We walked over to it, and I squinted to read the sign printed on the front of it. Maintenance 150A.Jenny tried the handle, then cursed when all it did was jiggle. "Fucking typical," she swore. Then she reached for her gun."Wait!" Sharp said. "I might be able to unlock it, maybe."Jenny eyed her, then the door, before shrugging and stepping back with a sweeping gesture.Sharp nodded, then fell onto one knee before it. "Let's see," she muttered as she reached into a pocket and tugged out a small set of lockpicks. Quality ones, with several picks held within a small sleeve. She fiddled with them, and I quickly realized that she was showing them to me one at a time.I rolled my eyes, but smacked her shoulder when she reached the right kind. Just a simple rake. There was no way a random maintenance door had actual good locks on it.Sharp still took a whole minute to pick the lock, and it only came apart when she grew a little frustrated and wiggled the rake about. Still, it worked, and she was able to twist the handle and open the door a crack."Nice work, short-stuff," Jenny said.Sharp blinked. "Are you like, a head shorter than me?"Jenny's eyes narrowed. "Don't poke me while I'm down," she said."But you're always down, because you're sho-ow ow ow!" Sharp hissed as Jenny started to jab her in the stomach with the end of a finger. "Okay, okay, fine!"Jenny shook her head, then slipped past Sharp to enter the maintenance room. It wasn't a very impressive space. The room was surprisingly large and deep. There were a few pallets with large sacs of something on them, next to a hand-pushed forklift, and further in was a large electrical panel that took up most of one wall, with lots of flickering lights. Dusty boxes were stacked in one corner, and there was a staircase leading up and away as well.Jenny glanced around and eventually found a light switch. A flick later, and some neon tubes hummed to life above, illuminating the pale-turquoise walls and linoleum floor up so that we could see better.Sharp stepped in, followed by Alyssa who shut the door behind her."Oh, thank fuck," Jenny said. It was considerably quieter in this room, and I imagined that the smell was likely better too.Sharp tugged her mask off her face, gave the air a sniff, then peeled it off completely a moment later. "Ah, this is gonna leave a mark on my nose," she complained."What are you doing here?" Alyssa asked.So much for small talk, then. Sharp shifted from foot to foot and glanced between the two girls. Jenny found a spot to lean against the wall and Alyssa simply stood with her arms crossed nearby. "So, it's a short story.""A short story?" Jenny asked. "Isn't it usually a long one?""I mean, maybe, but this one really is short," Sharp replied. "I've been taking gigs on the side to make a bit of money. One of them was to check out something in the sewers. I wasn't even going to enter them today. I'm not dressed for it. But I did wanna see where the entrance was? Anyway, I was looking around when I saw you two step in, so I went around and followed you in. That's... all of it."This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it"That's a conveniently short story," Alyssa said. "And it's conveniently unverifiable.""Huh? No it isn't," Sharp said. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. A moment later she had the details of her gig pulled up and turned it to show Alyssa.The girl frowned at the screen. "You could have made that up.""When?" Sharp asked."That's... a fair point," Jenny said. "We were barely here for twenty minutes before you followed us in. Unless you knew we'd be here beforehand?""No? It really was a coincidence," Sharp said. "Well, seeing you was. The following was more... curiosity, I guess.""Do you often follow strange women into the sewers?" Alyssa asked."It's never come up before, but so far it's working out for me!" Sharp replied with a guileless smile. "So, what are you doing down here anyway?"Alyssa sniffed. "That's for us to know.""But I'm curious!" Sharp said. "Plus, I finished work today, so I might just follow you around and find out.""Did you miss the part where I threatened you?" Jenny asked."Huh? No, of course not. But you wouldn't actually shoot me, right?"Jenny's eyes narrowed. "You're not so keen on the whole self-preservation thing, huh?" she asked. "Look, we're down here on a gig too. It's probably sensitive.""Does it have anything to do with Megabuilding 371?" Sharp asked. Both girls tensed, which was as good as an admission of guilt. "Cool! So we're on the same job then!""You're being paid to break into the megabuilding?" Jenny asked."Oh... I guess we're not on the same job then," Sharp replied. "Nah, my gig is to find the entrance into it from the sewers. That's all. Yours sounds a lot more dangerous."Jenny and Alyssa glanced at each other, and there was more unspoken communication between the two for a while. Then Jenny sighed. "Might as well," she muttered. "There's a pretty big bounty out at the moment for something in that building. It's basically impossible to get to it from the outside, so we figured if you can't come in from above or from the side...""That leaves below," Sharp said. "And I guess teleportation."Alyssa snorted. "Spoken like someone who doesn't know the complications and risks of something like that," she said.Sharp shrugged. "Okay. I guess that this gig of yours is a big deal?""It's something," Jenny said. "You heard of it?""No? Well, only for the part I have. I guess you're not the only ones who decided to try going under if someone is willing to put out a gig for the same thing," Sharp said.Jenny was the one to cross her arms now. "Well, we can't let you do that," she said."You can't? Are you... going to kill me for it, because that feels kind of extreme. Also, I wasn't even going to start today. Are you going to lock me up until the gig's over on your end, then?"Alyssa eyed Sharp for a while, then sighed. "She's got a point, Jen," she said. "We can't exactly stop her. Not without doing something drastic.""I also accept bribes!" Sharp added."We're not paying you to do nothing," Jenny snapped. "And... fuck, yeah, can't exactly shoot you either. I figure you're not exactly an enemy."Sharp's grin was as big as it was stupid. "I'm happy that we're not enemies then!" she said. "So! Want to work together? We're both looking for the same thing, and I'm pretty good at finding stuff sometimes.""Are you?" Jenny asked."I found you, didn't I? And I wasn't even looking!"Jenny groaned, and I almost joined her. This was... maybe not the worst idea Sharp had ever had, but it was certainly not one of her smartest. Still, better to move around as a group than solo, especially if this gig proved to be more complicated than we'd first realized."Fine then," Alyssa said. "We'll allow you to follow us. But we're in charge. You're just the help.""Sure!' Sharp said. "So... where do I send the invoice?"

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Chapter Fifty-Five — Grumbles

Chapter Fifty-Five — Grumbles Jenny grumbled a little, but Alyssa was surprisingly ready to pay Sharp for the assistance. "Five hundred," she said."That's a little low," Sharp replied."It's a job you're double-dipping on," Alyssa replied."Yeah, but the other side is paying me in full," Sharp replied. "And I'm not telling them about you at all, so it feels only fair that you pay me a little more.""Greedy," Jenny replied.Alyssa sighed. "A thousand, then, but not any more than that."Sharp eyed her for a moment, then nodded. "A thousand... for me. What about for my cat? She's an expert you know, so she should get a cut of the pay as well.""We're not paying your cat," Jenny snapped. "I don't care if it's the Cat Eidolon's favourite mask-wearing tabby, it's your cat, so you can pay it. Besides, what does a cat even want payment in?""Love and affection?" Sharp asked."Cash USD. Preferably through untraceable bills or a direct bank payment," I said.Sharp shook her head. "Fine. I'll take care of Regent Meow Meow von Meow. And I suppose I should take care of you two as well, since you're not my clients." Sharp had a small backpack on, but she slung it off and reached inside, then she pulled out a mask not too dissimilar to her own and tossed it to Jenny who fumbled it out of the air. Another went to Alyssa."You had extra masks with you?" Jenny asked."I told you I was prepping for this mission, not just going on it without being ready yet," Sharp said. "Wait, I have more stuff." She reached in and pulled out a small, compressed plastic bag, it was about a foot by a foot and rather thin. The label on the front had an image of a generic-looking man in full body PPE. "Here, I have three of these, so we might as well share."I hadn't considered using her Pockets power for that, but I supposed that PPE technically counted as a tool, of sorts. Or maybe it was just tool-adjacent enough to count? She was able to summon up gloves and masks, which I suppose only fit the definition of 'tool' if it was stretched a little."Well shit," Jenny said as she ripped the bag open and unfurled the suit within. It looked to be sized for Sharp, so rather large for her, but it was PPE. Those kinds of things were never exactly tailored properly at the best of times.Sharp grinned. "I'm useful to have around, you know?" She shucked off her courier's jacket, then her boots, and started to squirm into one of the PPE suits. It was a pale bluish colour and made of a sort of swishy plastic that I immediately hated the feel of.Alyssa stared at hers for a while before sighing and slipping into the suit. It really didn't fit her new-age hippie vibes, but I think she understood the worth of not having her normal clothes smell like sewers so much.Once they were all dressed and I'd found my way back to Sharp's shoulder, Sharp took a moment to retie her boots while talking to the girls. "So, did you guys have an idea of how to get to the place we're trying to reach? I hadn't had time to find a map and all that yet.""We have an idea," Jenny replied. "I bought a map off of a Mute I know. It's not the best, but they know the slimier parts of the city better than almost anyone, even the city itself.""That's a little weird," Sharp said. "You'd think the city would know? I mean... we're in a maintenance room, it has to belong to someone?""They would, only the information is often scrubbed," Alyssa replied. "A lot of gangs and corporations have good reasons to want to avoid having their locational data easily available. It's a problem every time there's an issue because the only people who know where things are are older workers."Sharp shrugged. "Well, okay. I'll trust your map, then. Lead the way?"Sharp pulled out a small headlamp with straps from a side pocket of her backpack then fit it on her head. She turned it on with a flick and scanned the light across the room."Right, let's go," Jenny said.We stepped out of the maintenance room and back into the tunnels. I opted to walk alongside Sharp on the ground. The grated floors were far from comfortable to walk on, but they weren't that bad, and it gave me a bit more freedom with my movements.Jenny consulted her phone, then pointed off to the right. "That way. C'mon, we have a long ways to go. We're walking a few miles down here, for sure."Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere."I can do that," Sharp said. "I've been working out." She flexed a bicep, then very obviously glanced over at Alyssa to see if the woman would react, but there wasn't even a twitch of notice on her part.Probably for the best. If anyone fell for Sharp's... 'charms' then they were probably not smart enough as a person to be worth keeping around.The passage Jenny led us through eventually turned down into a tunnel, and soon enough Sharp had to pick the lock of another door to give us access into a maintenance tunnel that felt like it went on forever."This should be running over the storm drains," Jenny said as she looked to her phone. She shook it a bit, then swore. "Man, I bought this phone because it was supposed to work anywhere.""I don't think 'anywhere' includes tunnels underground," Alyssa said."Yes it does, that's literally the definition of anywhere," Jenny shot back. "I have the map saved, but I was counting on the GPS letting me know where we were on that map. I think we're... here, this long ass passage leading in the city." She traced something with a finger. "And we need to continue for... a while, until we reach 105G.""Are there any people who hang out in these tunnels?" Sharp asked.The corridor we were in was deserted. The only signs of recent human habitation were rubber skid marks on the floor from pallet jacks and maybe a few cigarette butts.Eventually we reached the door that Jenny was talking about, and pushed through, then it became a confusing mess of turns, locked doors, and doubling back whenever Jenny misread her map."I should have bought better mapping software," Jenny complained after what must have been a solid hour of wandering around. I was pretty sure we'd gone in a circle three times before Jenny finally found the right stairwell leading us deeper into the undercity's system.On the more positive side, we had encountered a few entrances into the lower levels of some megabuildings. Never the correct one, of course, but it at least proved that they existed.Finding the correct one, however, was going to be difficult. "We should be super close," Jenny said. "Look, there's supposed to be a passage right here."She pointed ahead, and the group walked over slowly and stopped in front of a wall. A very bricked-in wall, where the cinder blocks didn't quite align with the others around them."Wait, did they block off all of the underground access like this?" Sharp asked.Alyssa poked at the wall. "No way of knowing if this was recent. It could be, I suppose.""Let me try something," Alyssa said. She reached for her waist, then sighed when she encountered the PPE. A half minute of her unzipping the front and rooting around later, and she returned with a small butterfly pendant that she held up before the wall."Oh, magic," Sharp muttered. I could almost feel her attention sharpening. Though to be fair, mine did the same.Alyss muttered something under her breath, an incantation that I couldn't quite pick up, not that I expected to be able to decipher anything of the sort. The pendant started to sway from side to side, then it glowed faintly before a tiny moth, the same size and shape as the one on the pendant itself, peeled off the emblem and flew right into and through the wall.Alyssa slowly knelt down and tilted her head down, adopting a meditative pose. "Is she okay?" Sharp asked."Give her a minute or two," Jenny said. "I've seen this trick before.""It's a spell," Alyssa muttered, her eyes still closed. "Not a trick. And please remain quiet, I'm working here."Jenny shrugged, and Sharp nodded back. Both of them remained blissfully quiet for a minute, and then two, and then three. Finally, the wispy moth returned, looking a little fainter then before, and it reentered the pendant.Alyssa opened her eyes and let out a long sigh as she tucked the pendant away. "It's around here," she said. "Through this wall and a corridor away. They blocked off all the other ways in, as far as I can tell. Ripped out some of the signage too, but there was an electrical box that had the megabuilding's number on it. This is the right place.""Cool," Sharp said. She eyed the cinder block wall. "Uh, you guys didn't happen to bring sledge hammers?""Let's not pull that out of your pocket. There's only so much you can stretch credibility."

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