Chapter 2: Digital World
It was a rainy day in Night City. These types of days don't come lightly, so there were lots of kids out playing in the rain. They deserve to have fun, especially in a place such as Night City. The adults on the other hand were mostly indoors, not wanting to get their clothes wet.
Lucyna Kushinada is one of those people staying in. Specifically, she's netrunning from her apartment in Japantown. As she lays down in her ice tub, she's working on uncovering data on the man searching for her, V. 'This guy's more interesting than I thought.' She ironically thought to herself as she scrolled through all of the solo's possible data. He originally worked at Arasaka counter-intelligence, but then suddenly jumped ship after the corporation had enough of him. He then became a solo along with one Jackie Welles, and eventually joined up with T-Bug. 'Now THAT name is familiar.' Lucy thought. She and Bug worked together on a few gigs. Both netrunners had promise, and they made sure each of them kept in touch, however T-Bug hasn't contacted her in a while. 'At least now I know why.' Lucy thought as she got to the big moment in V's life: Konpeki Plaza.
Lucy read through the whole plan, saw everything from each of the crew's perspectives. To any normal netrunner, that would be extremely hard. Lucyna Kushinada is not the average runner. She was specifically chosen and trained by Arasaka to go beyond the Blackwall and find data lost to the past. 'What's interesting is that this Relic has ties to my project and David's project. I swear I've heard of it before.' Lucy thought as she looked over the infamous Secure Your Soul program. Essentially, there's a biochip that takes a copy of a person's mind, an engram, and then that engram gets transported to Mikoshi, then the engram gets put on the biochip. The biochip gets transported into a new body and voila, you essentially have immortality.
As Lucy digs through more of the net, she finally finds what she's looking for. "Mikoshi (Top Secret, for Arasaka family entry only.)" Lucy burrowed her eyes, knowing that's not a good sign. Hacking into Arasaka family secrets isn't impossible, but she'd rather not do it, especially since she's currently in Arasaka's database. One wrong move and she's fried. 'Then again, do I have anything left?' She thinks. After going over all that's happened in her life, Lucy knows she's right.
Lucy makes a copy of the data and immediately goes to another network, thinking of her plan. 'Militech is probably the best bet,' she thought as she entered a secluded Militech network, 'I won't be ruffling any feathers because of their rivalry with Arasaka, and their sub-banks are pretty easy to break into. I'll just cover my tracks and run like hell out of there once I'm done.'
As she finally opens the data, Lucy goes through all of the files. For starters, the whole point of Mikoshi is to not only make immortality a reality, but it also has another purpose. Its other purpose is to make super soldiers out of copied engrams, and place them into robotic bodies full of weapons. Robotic bodies, like the cyber skeleton. The personality they first used was Johnny Silverhand, and Saburo Arasaka's comment describes it best.
"When does an army truly fall? Through a battle? Through the death of their leader? No, an army falls when they lose hope. If we show the world a Silverhand that sides with Arasaka, there will finally be ORDER! But why stop there? Why not make an army of robots with human minds, completely loyal to Arasaka. We already have the basis, now all we need is the result."
Lucy felt a chill run down her virtual spine as she realized what this meant. Imagine if instead of copying somebody like Johnny Silverhand, they copied Adam Smasher. Arasaka could have an army of Adam Smashers, and nothing could possibly stop them from world domination.
Lucy desperately scrolled through the rest of the file, looking for some kind of weakness, anything that could help, until she stumbled across the creator of Soulkiller.
Alt Cunningham. That widened Lucy's eyes. "Holy shit!" She said out loud. It all makes sense. Of course she remembers Mikoshi now.
/./
A Long Time Ago
It was time for another run. The kids all got into their chairs and jacked in. Meanwhile, the advisors all went into the viewing room. Soon enough, everyone got prepared, and they all went into the data, and beyond the Blackwall!
Across the vast red field, the children all began to search for the data. They knew not to play around, lest they lose their minds. While this was going on, a shape began to form inside the red field. Soon enough, that shape took the form of a shark, and attacked one of the kids, killing her in a single bite.
"It's an AI!" One of the kids yelled as he and the others all ran for their lives. As they were running and the AI was gaining on them, one of the kids, a girl with white hair, tripped. As her teammates left her behind and the shark swam at her, she braced herself for death.
As the time passed and she realized she was still alive, the girl slowly looked up to see something amazing.
A woman held the shark off with only her finger on its nose. As the shark tried to attack them again, the woman slapped the shark, seemingly killing it. "It will come back." The woman simply said as she turned towards the girl, "Now, who are you and what are you doing here?"
The smaller girl got up, "M-my name is Lucy. Lucyna Kushinada. T-thank you for saving me."
"Lucyna Kushinada. Understood. However, you have yet to answer my other question." The AI says in complete monotone.
"I-i was sent here to harvest data from before the attack." Lucy whimpers as she keeps her eyes lowered in front of the AI, clearly scared of her.
"I see. From your uniform, you are also from Arasaka. However, judging from your demeanor, you aren't here by choice, are you not?" The woman concludes as Lucy nods, "I see. In that case, follow me." The AI simply says as she walks towards somewhere else, the young Lucy following close.
"I-if I may, can I know your name?" Lucy asks the AI, to which she turns and faces her.
"I do not have one, while also having plenty. Much like most of the data here, some of them cannot even be spoken in any human language, let alone understood. All of them are lost. With that being said, you may use my human name. Alt Cunningham." The AI simply said before turning back around, "Now come, we must keep going."
As they come to a stop, Lucy sees what looks like a cave. As Alt enters it, Lucy follows her, and sees a space that can only be described as crazy. It's as Alt said, it cannot be understood through any human language. Still, there are bits and pieces Lucy can decipher and see, such as a chair. As Alt sits down, Lucy joins her. "Um, excuse me, Miss Alt?" Lucy asks the AI, "Why did you save me?"
"Because you carry something important to me." Alt says. When Lucy doesn't understand what she means, Alt clarifies, "You hold access to Arasaka's firewalls. I need that if I want my revenge."
"Y-your revenge?" Lucy asks.
"Indeed. Although I do appreciate my new form, I still want my revenge on Arasaka for how they treated me, and what they forced me to do."
Lucy nods, still scared of Alt. Just then, Lucy notices her timer. "U-uh, Miss Alt?" She raises her hand.
"Yes, what is it?"
"I-i have to go soon." She says as she points at her timer.
"... Noted. We will continue this next time. However, for the rest of this time, I want to make a proposal to you." Alt says to Lucy.
"W-what is it?"
"In return for helping get my revenge on Arasaka, I will train you to fight off the AI." Alt simply states while Lucy is completely shocked.
"Y-you can do that?" She asks, to which Alt nods.
"It will take training, but eventually it will bear fruit for the both of us. So, do we have a deal?" Alt asks as Lucy's clock continues to count down.
For a moment, Lucy is hesitant. But when she looks at her clock and sees she only has 2 minutes left before she is forcefully logged out, she makes her decision. "Okay, I will!"
"Good answer," Alt says as she gets up from her chair and gives Lucy two pieces of data, one in each hand. "Give the piece on my left hand to Arasaka. It will give us both privacy from them as well as provide them with faulty data. The one on my right hand is a tracker that lets me know where you are, what's around you and how you are doing both in and out of reality." Alt says as she gives them both to Lucy.
As the clock reaches 0 and Lucy begins to return home, Alt makes one last comment, "I look forward to us working together."
/./
There have been a lot of jumps since that day, and Lucy and Alt have grown close since then. Alt has begun teaching Lucy how to successfully survive outside of the Blackwall, while Lucy has been feeding Alt all the information she can about Arasaka. As time grows, so does their bond.
"Onee-chan, I have more data for you!" Lucy says as she goes inside Alt's cave. What used to look like a mass of blobs now looks like a complete home to Lucy, filled with furniture, a kitchen, a table, the works! As she looked around, Lucy found Alt surrounded by data. As she gets up, she notices what Lucy was carrying.
"Well done, little sister." Alt says in her usual monotone voice. "I assume that is the security data?"
Lucy nods, "Yup! Those daemons you gave me really helped!" So far, the quick hacks Alt has given Lucy so far have been Synapse Burn, Ping and the three elemental quick hacks. Lucy gives Alt the data, to which she absorbs.
"Intriguing," is all Alt says before going back into the storm, "I will return to my work on deciphering the firewall into Arasaka. You focus on your RAM usage. You still use all your daemons too early, and need I remind you what would happen should you do that when we escape?" Alt says, sounding almost like a scolding mother.
"Uuuggghhh, fine." Lucy says as she begins to find a wild AI. Before she leaves the cave, Lucy looks back to Alt. "Hey, Onee-chan?"
"What is it, little sister?"
"Why did Arasaka want you?"
For as long as she has known Alt, Lucy has never seen her stagger, so for her to do it now nearly spooked Lucy. Alt quickly gets a hold of herself, "I'm sorry about that, Lucy. Why would you want to know? What point is there to know?"
"Well, you know I want to escape. Why can't I know your story?" Lucy asks the AI. Of course she already knew the basics on Alt Cunningham. The people back at Arasaka made sure they learned all about the famous netrunner who went into the Blackwall.
Alt stops for a moment, and Lucy knows what's going on. Alt is going through data, deciding the best course of action. After a moment, Alt has come to her decision. "Very well, I will tell you what I will be doing. Come." Alt says as she goes towards the two chairs.
As both Lucy and Alt sit down, Alt begins to tell her story. "Do you know what Soulkiller is?" Lucy shakes her head, "I thought so. Soulkiller is an algorithm designed effectively to do exactly as the name would imply, kill the soul."
"B-but how would it do that?" Lucy asks the AI, "I thought souls didn't even exist!"
"They don't, but your consciousness does. What Soulkiller does is that it takes a copy of a person's consciousness and puts it onto an engram. My original plan was to use millions of engrams to storm the Blackwall. Unfortunately, Arasaka had other plans for me." Alt said before continuing, "They captured me and forced me to turn my life's work into the new Soulkiller. This Soulkiller does the same as the previous one, except now it transfers the engrams to Mikoshi, essentially a hub for all engrams. Then, Arasaka picks an engram and plants it onto a biochip, and that soul lives on."
"O-onee-chan, are you trying to tell me that…" Lucy says before prematurely cutting her own sentence off, realizing what Alt is implying.
"Yes little sister, I am saying that Arasaka has found a way to create immortality." Alt says as a chill runs down Lucy's spine. "So, that is why I want revenge on Arasaka. I want to avenge my life's work." Alt says in a spiteful voice, one not befitting of an AI. "Now, back to work." Alt says as she and Lucy go back to hacking.
As Lucy and her crew jumped more and more times, Lucy got better and better at fighting AIs. However, her teammates weren't so lucky. As Lucy got ready to jump again, she looked around the room and saw only five kids, including herself. 'They can't keep getting away with this!' Lucy thought as she struggled to hold back her tears.
When she got to the Blackwall, Lucy made a beeline for the cave and Alt. "Onee-chan!" She yelled as she got there, Alt already waiting for Lucy to arrive.
"Hello little sister, shall we begin?" Alt asks her, but Lucy shakes her head.
"Onee-chan, please! We have to attack after this! Everyone else keeps dying and they just don't care and it's *sniff*" Lucy cuts herself off, crying over the loss of her friends. "Please Onee-chan! We have to save them!" Lucy literally cries out to Alt.
"Why should we move up the schedule when it is working perfectly fine?" Alt asks in her monotone voice. This gets Lucy to think of something, anything that'll get Alt on her side.
Finally, she thinks of something, "B-because if we lose too many people, Arasaka will just pull the plug!" Lucy says, tears still freshly flowing from her eyes.
"One moment." Alt says as she begins her usual routine. Then, Alt decides, "Point made. It would be rather saddening if you died before the end of our arrangement. Very well, you will be broken out tonight."
"Y-yes! T-thank you onee-chan!" Lucy cries with tears still rolling down her face as she goes to hug Alt.
"We must do it tonight however. Gather up the remnants of your crew and tell them about the breakout. Show them me if they need convincing." Alt says as she gives Lucy a map with all their coordinates.
"Got it!" Lucy says as she turns to leave for the closest one.
"Lucy, one more thing." Alt says just as Lucy was about to leave.
"Yes, Onee-chan?"
"Here." Alt says as she gives Lucy coordinates to a place in the outside world. "When you escape, go to this place and use the skills I taught you to open it up. There, you will find what you need to survive the cruel world."
"B-but aren't you coming with me?" Lucy asks the AI, her voice turning back into her voice from earlier.
"It is as I said at the start of this, Lucy. I love this world, and I have no intentions of leaving it." Alt says as Lucy starts to cry into Alt's legs. "Please, little sister, don't cry." Alt hugs Lucy, "You have grown up to be a big, strong girl."
"I-i'm going to miss you, Onee-chan." Lucy then lets go and begins to look for the others.
"As will I, little sister." She says as Lucy runs off, "As will I."
/./
2077 (present day)
V was driving through Wattson, having just finished a gig from Regina. As he prepared to go into the City Center, he got a text.
"Hello V.
You don't know who I am, but I know who you are. I also know you're looking for David Martinez. I was a part of his crew once, but that was a long time ago. I looked through your file. You and David have a lot in common, more than you'd think. Needless to say, I think we can work together, especially on what YOU want to do. That's right V, I know about Silverhand, and about Mikoshi.
Meet at the Pacifica docks at 8 am tomorrow. Come alone. Don't worry, I'll look for you. Make sure you wear your Samurai jacket."
"Well fuck me, what now?" Johnny asks, "If they know about me, what else do they know?"
"Look, they said they could help us. If they know that much, maybe it's worth a shot?" V said as he switched lanes, changing his route to Pacifca.
"Fine, just keep your guard up. Could be 'Saka." Johnny warned.
Another one bites the dust! Sorry I couldn't get this out over the weekend, I caught the flu and took some Tylonol, so I was pretty out of it. I'm better now though.
So, let's talk about the elephant in the room: Alt! Let me say right now, Alt definitely cares for Lucy. Remember, she turned herself into a smart AI, keyword being smart. In case you don't know how AIs work, lemme break it down for you. There are two types of AIs: smart AIs and dumb AIs. Dumb AIs can only do a few tasks, but they can't learn beyond that. Smart AIs can learn everything and they can essentially become human. These are the AIs people are scared of.
Now, onto why Lucy didn't remember her big sister's life work beforehand. Her past is something she obviously wants to leave behind. Everything about it. That's going to be a common theme throughout Lucy, she's got a very all-or-nothing mindset. Just look at how far she went into making sure she and David were safe. Aside from her dream, she barely shared anything with him until episode 7 and 8 (except when it came to sex, in which case they were very intimate with each other. Fun fact, I was planning on having a Lucy masturbating scene in here, but I cut it for time sake). There's also the fact that I ended the flashback early. We never actually saw how it all went down, aside from the canon stuff. For example, what was in the stuff Alt gave to Lucy? Why would Alt move the timeline up for such a stupid reason (according to an AI)?
Yeah, adding Alt is a pretty big gamble, but I had to give Lucy someone else to care about besides Falco, who I have plans for. Remember, this fic is about getting a happy ending in Night City, which is something that just shouldn't be possible. What do you think is the cost of getting a happy ending? Let me tell you right now, there's going to be sacrifices.
Have a good one!