— Lucy —
Lucy had come to realize something. Atom… was kind of a gonk.
And not just in the obvious way, Head Gonk and all. He was kind of a gonk in the traditional meaning of the word, too. Dense, though Lucy wouldn't call him a dumbass, and bad at seeing what was right in front of him without outside prodding. Namely, when what was in front of him was Lucy.
Well, it wasn't like Lucy could blame him for that. The Head Gonk had enough on his plate to excuse a little density. The few months she'd known Atom had been more eventful than the rest of her life. Excluding her… troubled youth, that is. But even that only compared because it happened to her. By scale, Atom's movement had Lucy's past beat to rights.
… She never thought she'd be working adjacent to Arasaka. Not with. Never with. Some wounds couldn't fully close. But she was made to at least tolerate the megacorp. Knowing that they couldn't come after her as she'd feared for so long, knowing that she had Atom and the Gonks' protection, helped that tolerance. Her hatred for Arasaka would never fully go away, but it was… manageable, especially when they had to play by Gonk rules or be left in the dust.
Atom was good about keeping them honest there. Honest for a megacorp, at least. They were still a ruthless, profit-driven machine that chewed up and spat out souls by the thousand, but they'd also seen the Gonk writing on the wall and were smart enough to get in on the ground floor.
In any other sitch, Lucy would've expected Arasaka to slowly, steadily, insidiously dominate any alliance they were part of. But here, they were counterbalanced by the Gonks and all of Night City, the Freed and the majority of Free Nar Shaddaa, and best of all, Atom. If anyone could keep the corpos in check, it was Atom.
But even for him, that wasn't an easy or simple task. To say nothing of everything else… Their lives, as they lived 'em now, were a little busy and hectic. Just a little, ya know?
There was always something else to do, always another fight to slam on, always another gig of the Gonk sort. They had a proper cartel to run, now, to say nothing of Free Nar Shaddaa being recognized as a sovereign, free-standing state. Lucy could understand Atom's mind being occupied by… other things.
Hers was, too, if she was being real. Thanks to the Gonks and all they'd collectively done, Lucy had risen to the very top of the netrunning game. The netrunners of Night City, no matter who they were, wanted in on the work being done.
If you had any brains at all in your head (which, you kinda had to if you were worth anything as a netrunner), you came to the Gonks nowadays. Their movement had taken over most of the gigs in the city, on the whole moon of Free Nar Shaddaa, and there was always a need for more cyber-muscle.
They offered steady scratch, great challenges, and the opportunity to be part of something special. History in the making. The chance to show the galaxy what Night City netrunners were really about. It was like working for a corp, except, ya know, without selling out and going corpo. The other options weren't even worth mentioning anymore; it was Gonk or bust for every netrunner, from corpo corpse to Voodoo Boy zombie, from Edgerunner to gang lifer.
And going Gonk meant going through Lucy, Sasha, and Kiwi. For obvious reasons, they'd become the netrunners everyone else wanted to know. They were skilled, to be sure, but more importantly, they were connected. They were plugged firmly into the Gonk movement. If you wanted in on Gonk work, you came to them.
Each of them had their own… department, for lack of a less corpo word. The netrunners who sided with Sasha found themselves working toward her Gonk-a-ganda vision. They were managing PR, but in a way that was purely Night City.
Their gigs tended to come directly from Sasha and the cartel. Sometimes, they were putting together Gonk-a-ganda holo-vids. Other times, they were infiltrating the holo-net to keep the conversation about the Gonks flowing or to enter into flame wars with Hutt mouthpieces. Always, they were spreading the good word of 'Gonk', both locally and in the galaxy at large.
Sasha's department was the smallest of them, but also the most… fanatical. Those who signed on with her tended to believe in the Gonks and all they were doing. They also tended to be more specialized. Artists, just as much as they were netrunners, be they BD-maestros or corpos with prior experience in delicate PR work or simple netrunning trolls turning their skills to better ends.
In contrast, Kiwi's department took many of the more traditional 'runners. The usual net-gangers, Edgerunners, corpo cyber-samurai, and general deckheads looking out for themselves first and foremost. Her department was the largest, but also the least unified.
If the Gonks needed a more traditional netrunning gig done, it fell to Kiwi. And when they didn't, more and more outside gigs were filtering through her, too. Kiwi had become the netrunning fixer and info bro. Millions of credits' worth of gigs — both Gonk and not — were flowing through her by the day.
Lucy, meanwhile… Lucy got the solos. The rep-seekers, rebels, and renegades. The pioneers, prodigies, and pushers with something to prove. The ones who didn't quite fit even amongst netrunners, the ones who preferred revolution and results over even getting paid.
She got the ones who looked up to Legends like Rache Bartmoss, Spider Murphy, and Alt Cunningham to a slightly unhealthy degree. Her 'runners aimed to carve their names into the net. They took one look at a steady paycheck and scoffed, 'Fuck that, what can I do?'
Lucy's department, almost to a soul, wanted to go down in history. They wanted to be Legends, and the work Lucy directed for the Gonk cartel was the best way to get there.
Their focus was turned more outward than Kiwi's department, but in a different way from Sasha's. The work they did was past the PR frontlines, more cutting than just the Edge, and deadset on the 'unofficial' Gonk policy of forging new Legends.
Sasha focused on winning the people. Kiwi focused on the business of netrunning. Lucy focused on being the cyber-blade aimed at the Gonks' enemies.
So far, that had meant the Hutts, both their credits and their paydata. Lucy had whole teams of netrunners — a fraggin' cyber-brigade — under her with the sole mission of klepping Hutts stupid.Billions of credits, requisitioned for better purposes than making the slugs fat, comfortable, and wealthy.
Businesses, hostilely taken over and liquidated. Stocks and shares reinvested in Gonk names. Shipments redirected and manifests altered. Hutt bank accounts drained dry. If a single credit on the net was tied to the Hutts, Lucy's netrunners were gunning for it.
And the pure creddies were just the beginning. The real value was in the paydata. That was where Lucy tended to focus her effort. Even stealing millions of credits at a time got boring after a while when there were so many to klep and it was so easy…
Paydata, though? That was a challenge. Not that it was any better defended than the creddies. No, the challenge there came from the puzzles that needed to be solved, piecing together disparate data so the whole was worthy of the name 'paydata'. Often, half a dozen different systems needed to be infiltrated to do so. It was the unique and varied nature of each paydata gig that made them so interesting.
Still, putting together enough paydata to earn the name was only the beginning. Lucy and her 'runners had been releasing it openly, flooding the hypernet with the exposing detes they collected.
So while there was a lot of info out there now, it wasn't cohesive. Someone couldn't just sit down and read through a single source to comprehend the full scope of Hutt horror. Right now, they'd need to be able and willing to find thousands of chunks of paydata, and that trickle feed somewhat dampened the true horror that was the Hutts.
Effectively organizing 'all that' was outside Lucy's expertise. She was damn glad she wouldn't have to try and inevitably fuck up all their hard work. She'd have to do something nice to show her thanks for Atom arranging project HUTT FILES, cooperation with actual professionals.
'An oiled-up titjob, maybe? No one hates slippery and shiny tits, especially not when they're wrapped around a throbbing cock.'
Honestly? Not even an overreaction, though Lucy's pent-up frustration was speaking through her a bit there, she knew.
But all she'd seen while collecting paydata? All the Hutt horror…? The galaxy needed to see it, too. The galaxy needed to be slapped across the face with it in a way that was impossible to ignore or dismiss.
So, with project HUTT FILES set to do just that, Lucy was… thankful and looking to express that gratitude. She also happened to be fraggin' horny, pent up, and beginning to get a little fed up, too, but that was bleedover from her more personal frustrations.
She had to accept that Atom wasn't going to be making the first move with her. And she got that. She really did. The Gonk movement was rolling along faster, stronger, better, with no signs of stopping. They both had too much shit to do and not enough time in the day.
But at the same time, Lucy was a young woman in her prime, a girl with needs and no output to satisfy them (for now…). And Atom had been tempting her for months now.
Fuck however busy they both were, it was about damn time Lucy got a taste of the choice cut of meat dangling over her head — getting choicer by the day, both from her building, pent-up frustration, and from the chance to get a Legend under her skirt.
And, of course, it didn't help that Becca had never been shy about the 'good fragging 'gasms!' she was getting or that Sasha was, somehow, even less so.
If Atom was too busy to reel her in, Lucy would reel herself in. She wouldn't deny that she was already hooked. How could she not be with all that Atom had done? Legends were fraggin' sexy. Now, it was time for both of them to put out or shut up. And Lucy wasn't about to accept 'shutting up' after she'd waited (very patiently) for so long.
So, frustrated and horny, while futilely frigging herself in her free time, Lucy came up with a plan to make him see her in her element and act on it.
Her clit ached, but no matter how she tried, she couldn't find a satisfying finish, "… Fuck this. I'm getting mine."
IIIII
"… Yo. Atom. You've got that techno-Force-magic thing goin' on, yeah?"
"That's… yeah, that's accurate," Atom replied, sounding slightly confused and curious.
"Does it cover, like, all tech?"
"All that I've encountered so far."
"Chilled, chilled, chilled," Lucy nodded. "You're coming deep divin' with me, then."
They were all just chillin', the Core Crew taking the time to do nothing in a lucky and blissful break from their constantly busy schedules. It was a rare scene these days. Just those who started the Gonk movement, killing time in Atom and Sasha's penthouse pad, away from the running of a war, a revolution, and all that'd come from it.
The mainlines were sprawled out, Atom and Sasha and Becca, David and Taati, Maine and Dorio, just cuddling. And seeing the chilled mood in the room, Lucy decided she wasn't going to miss her chance.
As Lucy made her proposal, Sasha gasped dramatically, "Oh, Stars! How have I never thought of that?! You totes can, can't you, baby?!"
"I mean," Atom shrugged. "I don't see why I wouldn't be able to. The net isn't really my scene, though, is it?"
"Tonight, it will be," Lucy said flatly, not taking no for an answer.
"Oh…?" Thankfully, Sasha was quick on the uptake. "Oh! Yeah, girl! Get it~!"
"Trust me, I fully intend to," Lucy deadpanned.
Atom glanced at both of them in askance, "… What's all this about?"
Lucy rolled her eyes, "Just something long overdue. Don't worry about it. All you've gotta know is that we're spending some time together, you gonk."
Atom paused for a moment before shrugging, "Alright. Chilled. Guess we got the rest of the night free, anyway."
"Yep, no excuses. Not tonight," Lucy nodded firmly.
Maine and Dorio shot her amused smirks. Gloria chuckled. David seemed confused but supportive, and Taati gave a firm, almost stoic nod of encouragement. Becca, meanwhile, didn't mince words.
"Hells yeah, bitty-bitch! Get yours! You gotta tell us what it's like to stuffit in the net after, neh?"
"That won't happen…" Lucy paused. "Probably."
"Never underestimate Atom's ability to blow your brains out of every hole," Becca advised, surprisingly serious.
Lucy considered Becca's advice. The rimbo was probably right. She shrugged, "If it works, it works. I won't say no to that kind of uplink. But only for foreplay, I think. Some things are still best left for meatspace."
"Amateur," Kiwi teased. Lucy shot back a rude gesture, showing her middle finger and where her mentor should stick it.
"I-…" Atom blinked. "Huh?"
"Don't worry about it, baby," Sasha reassured him with a smirk. "Just think of it as a net-date."
"A productive one," Lucy added, just to be sure. "With project HUTT FILES coming to fruition, I thought it'd be a good idea for Atom to contribute, at least in a ceremonial way. Just a little bit of paydata to sign his name on, and if it gets us movin' right — some time alone and all — that's just a bonus."
"Trying to teach me how to netrun?" Atom asked, chuckling.
"It's an essential skill to have, especially for the Face of Night City," Lucy argued. "Hard to represent netrunners on the galactic stage if you don't know anything about the process. Your 'ganic ass is just lucky you've got that techno-Force-magic gomi."
"Go on and have fun, you kooky kids!" Sasha laughed.
With a minor huff, Atom pushed himself up from Becca and Sasha's embrace and asked Lucy, "Your place, then?"
"My place," Lucy confirmed. "C'mon, Head Gonk. Let's get you your first dive in the net."
Lucy led the way. It wasn't far back to her place. The Core Crew had all taken up rent-free living on Gonk scratch. Perks at the top and all. Why wouldn't they live close and live in style, if they could?
She made sure to sway her hips the whole way. Already, Lucy knew she'd be the foremost thing on Atom's mind in the moment. Now, tonight was her time with him. No distractions, no interference. So she was making sure he saw her, even before they got down to the good stuff.
Casual as can be, she quickhacked the cameras they passed, just to check that Atom's eyes were where they should be. They were. Glued to her — the cut-outs exposing her swayin' hips and the scantily-clad 'pop' of her tight ass. His body followed on autopilot, and Lucy knew she was the only thing on his mind. Lucy didn't bother to suppress the thrill his attention gave her.
She hadn't felt the need to dress up for her plan. Her usual fit was sexy enough for meatspace (designed that way, Lucy was no prude), and in the net, she could be anything. Still, Lucy took it as a compliment to her fashion sense that Atom couldn't tear his eyes away from tracing every curving line of her tight and revealing synth-suit.
"Don't run into the door," Lucy said, her tone flat as ever, but teasing. While she tended to have some trouble expressing herself in meatspace, she knew Atom would pick up on her tells.
"I can stare and walk at the same time. Bless the fraggin' Force," Atom shot back.
"Lucky you," Lucy snorted. "Enjoy the show, then."
"No idea how this is actually going to work, by the way," She continued as they entered her personal apartment.
"Same," Atom admitted. "Pretty sure it's possible… But I've never bothered trying to skim the surface of the net, much less deep dive. The most I've done is connect to my comm unit for convenience's sake."
"We're breaking new ground and blazin' new trails, then," Lucy chuckled, a small but eager smile on her face. "Should be fun."
Lucy's apartment in Gonk HQ was a spacious one, properly preem, taking up a quarter of the second-highest floor in the building. It was second only to Atom and Sasha's penthouse, and she shared the floor with Maine and Dorio, Kiwi, and Gloria, David, and Taati. Technically, she shared the pad with Becks, but the rimbo stayed with Atom and Sasha more often than she stayed with Lucy.
Before the Gonks, the pad might've belonged to some corpo, ganglord, or other highroller. But the Gonks owned Watson now, and had even had the decency to buy out the megabuildings they were using rather than just take them over by pure force.
That meant the best pads were up for Gonk grabs, while the former tenants were paid handsomely to move. With all the stolen Hutt creddies, the cartel could certainly afford it. Now, only Gonks lived or worked in the megabuilding, and all that freed-up space had been converted to cartel operations.
Lucy led Atom through the pad's main room and into her netrunning den. She was damned thankful that the days of icebaths and other improvised netrunning tools were behind her. The Core Crew got the best of the best, both as a status symbol and for the pure utility of working with the preemest equipment and chrome.
While the upgrade to her cyberdeck was game-changing (Netwatch Netdriver, off the market and preem, with all the RAM and buffer and net-sec she could ask for), Lucy would honestly say that the quality-of-life upgrades she'd been able to make were more so. No netrunner liked icebaths, but they were an unfortunate necessity of the profession for many. It was a rare, rich, and refined netrunner who could afford a proper Net-Chair. Now that Lucy had gotten a taste of one… she'd never go back.
She had two, just for the hell of it, just because she could. A fact that would come in handy for her planned net-date. Having Atom work his mojo with the purpose-built Net-Chair seemed like the best way for him to deep dive. She told him as much.
"The chair's got a tandem cyberdeck built into it. Usually, a 'runner would use it as a supplement, so I figured you… could do the same…? I don't know, does your techno-Force-magic make your brain the primary cyberdeck?"
"…" Atom silently considered the question before sighing. "Nah, I'll bet good scratch that the Force itself will be acting as the primary deck. No way to find out but to try."
"So long as you're decently sure you won't fry yourself, big guy," Lucy shrugged, trying for nonchalance.
Internally, though, she was worried. This whole process seemed as dangerous as it was fascinating. The Force acting as the primary deck…? Lucy didn't care what the Jedi would say; as someone who knew how cyberdecks operated, that shit was magic. Still, she acted chilled to reassure Atom, already sitting down and jacking in.
Her eyes never left Atom as he mirrored her in the other Net-Chair, a certain underlying tension never leaving her, "… See you on the other side, then? You should pop up in a lobby to call your own. Should… All cyberdecks are programmed with that kind of space, half in the net, half in your own head…
"But even if you don't, you won't show up farther out than the Gonk HQ's data fort server. And I know that chair's port address, so I'll find you no matter where you end up, neh?"
"Yeah, yeah," Atom chuckled. "Just go on ahead and be ready to catch me. I trust you, Lucy."
Something skipped in Lucy's chest at those words. Before her stoic mask could crack and show reddened cheeks, Lucy sent a hasty but familiar command through her chrome into the Net-Chair. The world fell away in lines of code, saving her from embarrassment. On the other side, she ended up on a pristine but barren gray moon, embraced by the calm void all around and looking down on a world of life.
"Atom, you gonk…" She muttered to herself, settling into her lobby.
A moment later, she felt an impossible intrusion bypass her lobby's security, and another net avatar materialized right beside her. Atom was… himself, just as in the flesh. But he absolutely shouldn't have been able to insert straight into her lobby!
Lucy jumped, and her whole lobby seemed to blink, "Kriff, Atom! Warn a girl! How did you even-?!"
"Hey, no idea, remember," Atom defended himself. "We're both flying blind here. I was just thinking about you when I connected; guess the Force did the rest."
"BS!" Lucy swore. "I'm running ICE and Black ICE, Defenders and Daemons! A fraggin' unfettered AI couldn't crack my sec that quickly!"
"The Force… finds a way…" Atom smirked. "Ya know, you're much more expressive in the net."
"I'm bad at meat face expressions," Lucy scowled. "In the net, my avatar is my mind, my data soul, not my meatspace body. Here, I just have to think and be."
"So I can see," Atom said, looking her avatar up and down.
As he should, Lucy preened. She knew she was a dream in the net. While her avatar's features were the same as in meatspace, here, Lucy was ethereal. She was an angel drifting in and out of conscious perception. Impossible wind blew at her hair. Sensual blurs concealed and revealed in equal measure. Piercing eyes saw through the net itself. Her pastel palette was enhanced — turning, twisting, tempting colors that showed her mood, her thoughts, and her very soul, depicted as pure information.
Here, there was no way Atom wouldn't see her. Lucy's truest form — all of her, in the net — was a feast for his eyes. Even her lobby shifted to enhance and display her. Data flickered on that barren moon, stars shone, and the view grew more beautiful as she preened.
"You ain't so bad at this 'being' gomi, either, choom," Lucy teased. "You know, normally, first-time netrunners need to build their avatars. You showed up fully formed. Born again into the net, and all. Like you're meant for this."
Atom shrugged, "I've got a strong mental image of myself. The Force must've done all the work. Nothing fancy."
"Not fancy, nah. Just magical," Lucy rolled her eyes. "And solid. Even the best 'runners tend to… shift slightly. You're just… here. If I didn't know better, I'd mistake you for meat in the net."
"No meat," Atom shook his head, thoughtful and considering. "Just… me. I think using the Force as a cyberdeck might be a bit more effective than it should be."
"Yeah?" Lucy asked, curious. "How's it feel? How's your first taste of the net?"
"Strange…" Atom answered. "But not wholly unfamiliar. It's kind of like a Force vision, that astral projection already beyond the meat. But… different. This isn't immersing myself in the Force. It's not reaching out through the fabric underlying and connecting the galaxy. It's… separated a bit more, another plane of existence. A plane of…?"
His face screwed up in confusion, "What the hell even is the net?"
Lucy chuckled, "That's not as easy a question to answer as you might hope. You'd think it's just the interfacing connections between systems and servers, and so on, neh? But… I'm a firm believer that there's something more here, something special.
"I'm no expert in all the physics and quantum mechanics, whatever, but for what I've seen, what I've experienced? Information itself is a fundamental concept and aspect of reality. It's everything — detes defined and distilled, questions to be asked and answered, all the running records of reality.
"And the net is information. I tend to believe that the net is a whole other dimension unto itself — one of pure info, or close enough that the difference doesn't matter. That's what netrunners dive deep into, making ourselves data to submerge ourselves into the flows of all the info the universe has to offer."
Atom fell silent, considering the belief Lucy had shared with him. Part of her worried he'd dismiss her as some superstitious gonk. But he eventually nodded.
"I could see it, I suppose. Weird. And a bit above our pay grades. Not something we can prove or really disprove, is it?"
"I mean, some netrunners believe the net is, quite literally, Hell, and that we breached into it with tech we don't fully understand. I wouldn't go that far, at least," Lucy shared.
"Nah, you just think we're throwing ourselves into the data-dimension," Atom teased with a smirk.
"Stick around and see if you can deny it by the end of the night," Lucy challenged.
"Guess we'll just have to see," Atom nodded. "What now? It worked. I'm here in the net with you. And I don't have a damn clue what I'm doing."
"Now, I teach you how to swim," Lucy teased. "C'mon, let Big Sis Lucy guide you through your first netrunning deep dive."
Atom rolled his eyes. Giggling to herself, Lucy took his hand in the net. It was warm, large, and comfortable — data converted into sim-sense by her mind and cyberdeck. A thrill of pure electricity shot through her avatar at the touch, her info-form so close to Atom's.
She stepped them both out from her lobby and into the Gonk HQ data fort. The server complex was as busy as ever; other netrunners — both surface and deep dive — came and went constantly. A towering buttress of secure systems, Gonk HQ pulsed with constant heartbeats of code in the net. Data was exchanged and programs flew; here, the net never slept.
"This…" Lucy said. "This is a data monument to all we've built, Atom. A net-mirror of all we've accomplished in meatspace."
"I don't know exactly what I'm looking at, but it seems impressive," Atom admitted.
"You'll learn," Lucy said, certain of her statement. "Keep diving and you'll learn just how amazing all of this is."
Lucy didn't linger on something he couldn't fully appreciate, though. With familiar motions, she sent a connection request from the data fort to the wider net. Another 'step' took them past the somewhat isolated depths of Night City's net and into the hypernet, faster-than-light connections that linked a whole galaxy together in communication.
Atom blinked at the sudden drop in resolution of the surrounding net. Freely flowing rivers of code and data slowed to easy crawls, trickling instead of raging. No longer a packed and populated net landscape, Lucy and Atom stood at a simple data-junction, roads running off into the distance to represent the less dense connections over many light-years. If Night City's net was vast, continuously interconnected deep waters, the hypernet was merely skimming the surface of all that pure data and information could offer.
"Jarring, isn't it?" Lucy asked. "Night City is leagues ahead of most other net-tech and infrastructure in the galaxy. This? It all works… It's just shallow. Yet, that presents its own complexities and challenges. In the hypernet, we sail, not swim."
"I don't think I could understand just how good our people are without seeing this firsthand," Atom admitted.
Lucy smirked, "Very true. But please, praise us more."
Surprisingly, Atom just nodded and took her up on the request, "You're amazing, Lucy. The best net support a Gonk like me could ask for. I, of course, bow to your expertise in the net."
She laughed, "And don't you forget it! C'mon, big guy, let's get you stuck into your first netrun. It's an easy one. We're just hitting Boonta's."
"Boonta's?" Atom asked as they began to 'walk' the hypernet roads.
Lucy led them across light-years, info-forms travelling at hyperspeeds. They hitched rides on transmitted data packets, bouncing between relay after relay. Hypernet requests were sent, received, and fulfilled. She and Atom used the data sent and received as stepping stones, passing unnoticed — ghosts in the net. The tangled lines of code beneath their feet were the only light in the hypernet void, ones and zeros in the familiar, cascading neon-RGBs that Lucy knew so well.
"A Hutt data fort, though I hesitate to use the term, named after their sluggin' hero or whatever," Lucy explained. "It's one of our most profitable AOs. Always more paydata to collect there."
"What… is it, though?" Atom asked curiously. "A hypernet site?"
"Yeah, surface-net shit," Lucy nodded. "But it also happens to function as a casino and auction house, for our creddy klepping, and a chatroom and archive, for all our paydata needs. Useful bit of net-turf for our purposes. And best of all, it's just about open by Night City standards."
"Shitty security?"
"Not for most of the galaxy. Boonta's has plenty of slicers on payroll as active defenders, and even some half-decent ICE and a few daemons. But you've gotta realize something about the net. The only thing that can truly stop a netrunner… is another netrunner.
"Even the best or blackest ICE can be cracked if a good 'runner has enough time to work. And without an active defender to contest an intrusion, that time is exactly what the 'runner will have."
"What about the slicers, then? Not saying they measure up to our people, but they've still gotta count for something, right?"
"Sure. Slicers can actually be dangerous. Don't let some cocky netrunner tell you differently. But they'd have to catch us first. Once you see your first slicer presence in the net, you'll realize why that's just about impossible unless the 'runner is a complete gonk."
"A matter of degrees? We're… in the net, and they're just interfacing with it?" Atom guessed.
Lucy chuckled, "Oh, yeah. There are perks to being the apex predators in info-space."
With one final 'step', Lucy connected them to Boonta's server complex. Instantly, the net around them deepened. Not as deep as Night City's net, but deeper than the hypernet pathways they'd traversed. Informational reality reformed into a lively scene.
With no one able to deep dive into the net, Boonta's server complex and its net architecture took on an unordered bent, but one that was no less real for that disorder. At first, and second, and even third glance, it looked like a high-rolling casino — the kind of place that walked the line between class and obscenity. But any netrunner worth their scratch could see the… seams.
The image of a casino was a pieced-together thing. Not purpose-built, but almost naturally emerging onto the net from Boonta's sites, systems, and servers. A feat of net evolution — records of the site's interactions projected and interpreted themselves, activity and archives manifesting into something chaotic but tangible for any deep diver.
The data from millions of gambling transactions clumped together as 'playing tables' and 'slot machines' and 'lotteries'. A hundred million more chat logs projected figures of data around the tables and slot machines and lotteries, 'winners and losers' personified from past particulars. Automated protocols and messages formed into 'serving girls' and 'dealers', while the 'bouncers' were made of ICE-code.
"Welcome," Lucy said. "To the net's natural world. This is what happens with big enough sites and servers that don't have a pure netrunner to build and organize their architecture. Slicers and coders can be very good at their jobs. But in a deep dive, they're no true substitute for a proper 'runner."
Atom looked out over the scene, "None of this is real, then?"
"Oh, it's real," Lucy answered. "As real as any meatspace environment. Just not intentional. If you can't deep dive, you'll never know what you're birthing onto the net. But the pieces are all still there. The net just takes the liberty of interpreting them for our deep-diving minds."
"It's trippy," Atom admitted. "Compared to our data fort, I'm not sure I like it."
Lucy chuckled, "The rest of the galaxy isn't as lucky as us real 'runners, big guy. 'Course, they'll never realize that for themselves, too scared or too unable to dive deep. Fine by me, honestly. We're at home in the net. I wouldn't want outsiders trespassing and ruining it all as they stumble around for the first time."
Atom walked forward, 'stepping' up to a slot machine. Lucy had to admit that he moved through the net like he was born to it. The advantages of an eldritch cyberdeck, she thought to herself. He passed a hand through the figure of data at the machine, and stilled as that data filtered into his mind.
"This one… won big," Atom said. "And I can see both sides of the transaction. How… strange. I'm no mathematician, but that equation seems weighted wrong for a casino."
Immediately, Lucy knew what he meant from her previous excursions to Boonta's server complex, "Doesn't it? This place has a lot of big winners, we've found. Like, a disproportionate amount of 'em. The house always wins, neh? Not here. Someone fucked that up royally."
"On purpose?" Atom asked, zeroing in on paydata like he had a nose for it. "Is this whole site a Hutt credit laundering front?"
Lucy walked up beside him, her form brushing against his — info turned into sensually shared sensation — as she looked at the data with him, "Maybe… or it might just be incompetence. Some Hutt owner thinking gambling is sure money for them, and not bothering to put in the effort to make it so."
Atom scrolled back through years of data from the slot machine, whistling, "They really didn't put in the work. Damn. How is this place even operational? This one machine has easily paid out a hundred million credits in just its lifetime. And… should I be able to see exactly who each of these players was?"
"Nah, but that's just the shitty sec working in our favor," Lucy answered. "That 'anonymity' wouldn't keep out a slicer, much less a deep diver. It's incompetence all the way down. But what's new?"
Atom snorted, "Yeah, expected from the slugs. They're managing to bankrupt a damned casino. And an online one, at that."
"You know~," Lucy smirked. "I think the gamblers of the galaxy would love to know that little fact…"
Slowly, Atom nodded and grinned, "That's paydata. Let's help some lucky souls drain this site dry."
"Only your first deep dive, and you're already looking to leak a real-net infinite credit glitch," Lucy playfully faked a sniffle. "I'm so proud."
Atom playfully shoved her back. Something unique, something new to the net translated his emotions into data, and they were shared with Lucy. She felt his amusement, his enjoyment, and a constant undercurrent of pure Spite against slugs in his very soul.
It was a new sim-sense for Lucy. Info-space had its limits, and emotions didn't tend to play well with pure data. But now, with Atom, something was making it work. Was this how Force users always felt…? It was a thrilling, tantalizing thing, and Atom didn't even seem to realize he was doing something impossible.
'As always,' Lucy shook her head fondly.
"C'mon," she said. "One machine is just a data-point, not true paydata. Let's see just how badly and thoroughly this place has fucked up its code."
"And maybe win a few games to prove our glitch works?" Atom asked with a smirk.
Lucy laughed, "I mean, if they're just going to leave the vault door open like this, I don't see why we wouldn't!"
She stepped back from the machine and its data. A thought had her avatar shifting. Her synth-suit, mirrored from meatspace, disappeared for shimmering silver. The new fit draped over her avatar like a dream, shifting and shining. A dress that barely hung from her breasts, support unneeded, and split down the center to her navel. The back was bare but for enticing straps and strings. Below, the sides fell away at her hips, leaving long legs exposed.
A smirk, a quirk of her finger, and a sway of her hips; Lucy beckoned Atom after her. She waltzed through the casino, looking like she perfectly belonged on that line between class and obscenity. She didn't wait for Atom to follow. She knew he would.
But when he caught up to her again, Lucy was the one in for a surprise. A hand fell upon the small of her back, the skin there bare and the resulting sim-sense sensual. Lucy looked and almost stumbled through the net.
Atom had figured out how to alter his avatar, too. A classy, well-fitted suit clung to his every contour. Fancy, tailored, but worn casually, with the tie and the top buttons of his shirt undone. His new fit shouted, 'The devil may care, but I certainly don't'. And frag if he didn't look good like that~…
Lucy found herself naturally leaning against him. Just an input, just an output, on each other's arms. Even if they were the only deep divers on the server, they were showing off. To each other, at least. And they looked like they belonged in the casino setting, treating it as if it were real — a stage set just for them.
Atom escorted her through the casino site. Lucy escorted him. They worried for nothing but each other, a date both alone and before an 'audience'. They played as they worked, teasing each other.
Lucy bent over a 'table', collecting the data there. Atom crowded in from behind to join her. Sim-sense stimulated. His avatar pressed right against hers. Once more, she felt info-turned-sensation and impossibly, data-turned-emotion. Atom wanted her. And he had to be able to feel how she wanted him in turn.
When she finished, Lucy turned away from the table with a flourish of data that showed up in the net as flying cards. A show just for them, a compliment to the tension in the net between them. She traced the lines of his suit with her fingers, teasing and tempting, before moving on to the next table, the next machine, the next data point that would leak their paydata exploit to the galaxy and drain these Hutts dry.
Just for fun, Atom sat at a table and played a round with Lucy on his arm. A single bet, a slight alteration of the code behind the scenes, and millions of creddies fell into their laps.
Atom celebrated like they'd truly won big in a meatspace casino, picking her up and spinning them both around. Joy bubbled up in her avatar, spilling out as laughter. Lucy felt Atom's joy at her joy, the feedback tingling in her mind.
As they played and worked their way through Boonta's server complex, they ran into some active users and slicers amongst the archived records. The active users showed up as static forms spilling fresh data into the site's fold. They sent messages, completed transactions, and were generally limited to the server's 'proper' channels. Here and there, Lucy dipped her fingers into the static forms, tweaking a few messages to and from Hutt users just to sow chaos. To a deep diver, active connections were just part of the net environment.
The slicers on the server showed up as ghosts, not quite static, not quite solid. They were the animals in the net forest, the fish in the net sea. Vaguely mobile, possibly dangerous, but so, so limited compared to her and Atom. Lucy didn't hesitate to demonstrate to Atom just how easy it was for a deep diver to dance around a slicer.
Steadily, they collected proof and data points, pieces to the puzzle of their paydata. The site's backend was fundamentally flawed, filled with glitches and exploits and simple bad code. They documented every way to take advantage of the system and consistently win big. Boonta's wouldn't survive the week. It'd be one hell of a first leak for Atom's netrunning career. And even if it wasn't a damning crime for project HUTT FILES, more embarrassing proof of Hutt incompetence was always welcome.
Eventually, Lucy was satisfied that they had all the paydata they needed. She and Atom then turned their efforts back toward getting their own share of 'big wins'. Not that they needed the creddies, but it was a fun way to spend a date. A few games (and about 12 million credits) in, a slicer was (un)lucky enough to stumble upon them.
Lucy sat back and watched with amusement as Atom — with no experience fighting in the net, no quickhacks or daemons or attack/defense programs to his name — punched the slicer off the net.
Apparently, a Force cyberdeck made overwhelming, overloading junk data a breeze, and Atom harnessed it instinctively, in a way he understood: brute force. The slicer's connection was instantly terminated, and on the meatspace end, Lucy was sure their terminal had blown up in their face.
That… That might've been the final straw for Lucy. She was already in the mood from her pent-up frustration going in and the fun they'd had together on the net-date, but the show of pure netrunning Force sealed the deal that didn't need sealing.
Laughing, she molded her avatar to his, "Alright, big guy, we've got what we need. Let's get ourselves some privacy. This Force cyberdeck thing of yours is doing some preem and impossible things. I think it needs a bit of a… stress test~… I've got a few things I wanna try…"
She spirited them back to her lobby while Atom quirked an eyebrow and asked, "Stress test?"
She answered with a smirk, and on her moon, Lucy's avatar shifted once more. Her dress fell away into sparkling stars. She floated back and away from him, the lobby hers to control. She lounged and stretched out like that. Atom's eyes roamed every inch of her form — avatar and more, deeper, info made mind and soul.
"Stress test, neh? C'mon, big guy, think of the data~…" Lucy teased and tempted.
Atom's eyes were intense as they took her in, "… You can fuck on the net?"
"Kinda," Lucy answered with a chuckle. "With sim-sense and all. It's satisfying enough, but shallow. I've got a feeling you and your Force-deck will make everything more real. We're stuffin'it in our info-souls, big guy~…"
"Say fraggin' less," Atom growled, the sound low and thrilling. "I'm always down to break new ground."
Acting lazy, languid, and nonchalant (though she was anything but), Lucy flipped in mid-void, presenting herself and dripping not-at-all-simulated arousal as she swayed her hips in invitation.
A rumble radiated from Atom's chest at the sight. She felt it in her data, a delicious sim-sense that altered her avatar's code. Glorious glitching. For the first time in her life on the net, Lucy wasn't just piloting her avatar; she was her avatar. It shouldn't have been possible. Lucy was oh-so-glad it was.
Her ass was up. Her face was down. Her core was bared. Her avatar, her mind, her info-soulwas ready. And Atom didn't disappoint.
Like a beast, he pounced on her. Avatar on avatar; it should've been data and code and sim-sense. It was more. Info made real — not just known, but experienced —, impossibly translated emotion, and true connection beyond even meatspace. This… This was the Force acting as a cyberdeck? It was enough to make a true believer out of Lucy.
Large, warm, real-net hands pressed down on the small of her back, practically pinning her in position. Hard and hot, Atom's cock ground itself against Lucy's exposed and presented slit. It found droplets of data there, each containing the pure info of her arousal. Atom's cock throbbed the same back at her, each pulse sending packets of emotion and sensation.
Then, penetration. Glorious, long-anticipated, stretching, filling, mind-melting penetration.
They were one, info and data streaming back and forth through the connection, his output to her input. It came as pleasure — so much pleasure~… — and sweet, sweet vindication for Lucy. The pleasure was a feedback loop, bouncing between her and Atom, and he answered her vindication with tantalizingly pure, primal desire.
His cock slid home to the hilt. Sparks of code flew. Her lobby flickered in waves of ecstasy — rising, rising, rising. For the first time, Lucy felt like she was drowning on a deep dive. She was losing herself, and loving it.
She felt his avatar's coded heartbeat. She felt her own coded heartbeat racing. She felt him, jacked in via the Force-deck. It was everything she'd been dreaming of, everything she'd been fantasizing about, and absolutely everything she needed.
Atom molded himself to her, inside and out. Fuck sim-sense, fuck pleasure-as-data; this was as real as any meatspace action. More so, even. Info-space, the net itself, deepened, and both Lucy and Atom were cast into its new Force-driven depths.
Then… Then, he began to move. A sawing, grinding motion, output on input, that instantly drove Lucy to heights unknown. The net was their medium. Pleasure, ecstasy, sim-sense-made-real was their art.
Slowly and exquisitely, Atom pulled his cock from her dripping, clenching quim. Just as slowly, just as exquisitely, he slid himself back home into heated depths.
Lucy's head flew up and back. A gasp of refreshing data filled her avatar's lungs. It was barely enough to keep her sane, keep her in their connected game.
He steadily picked up speed, thrusting into her avatar's core, her mind's, her very soul. Gloriously glitching pleasure ravished her every inch, every line and program — impossible emotion and sensation on the net.
Atom growled, audibly trying to keep himself under control, and Lucy knew he was experiencing the same impossible heights that she was. She felt it, his pleasure shared over their Force-jacked uplink.
His cock plunged into her. Hedonistic info naturally streamed into her mind. How long, how thick, how hot; Lucy quickly came to know Atom's cock on every level. Her cunt shuddered, squeezed, and practically simpered around him, and he came to know her just as intimately.
Faster, harder, better, better, better! Atom thrust himself upon her, into her. Hands gripped her hips. Her inner walls were stretched and filled to their blissful limits, but never more. Never too much. No pain, only pleasure. So, so, so much pleasure.
*PLAP PLAP PLAP PLAP PLAP PLAP PLAP PLAP~!*
He had her by her waist — hands circling there to control the way her avatar shook and shivered — riding the recoil of his own thrusts.
Lucy reached back, grasping for any handhold, grasping for him. He caught them and held them for her. As he manhandled her, he struck a spot inside that sparked ecstasy behind her eyes, and Lucy gasped.
"That-! That's it! That's the spot! Right there! Fuck, keep going! Just like that!"
*PLAPPLAPPLAPPLAPPLAP~!* "Yeeessssss…!"
He didn't shift a thing, not his pace, not his aim. That perfect spot inside her pussy was pulverised into blissful jelly. A flood of arousal info suddenly rushed forth from her core. Lucy came. The climax was quantified by info-space and deepened by the Force. It was the best of both worlds, net and meatspace linked by something undefinable.
Atom thrust straight through her first. He fucked her higher and higher into a second. Pulling by her held arms like they were reins, he controlled both of their bodies as they fell backwards. Without a hitch, he sat back and mounted her upon him.
A pillar stabbing for the Forcing heavens, for Lucy's inner heaven; his cock alone could've supported her. Riding in reverse, Lucy added her own movements to the fucking equation. Her hips gyrated up and down his length, grinding against the base with all of him buried inside her. Yielding inner walls milked a throbbing invader.
All the while, Lucy's lobby shifted. Her barren moon was seeded with lively arousal from both of them. The flood from her cunt pooled into a veritable sea that they both floated upon — a water bed of pure arousal, the undeniable evidence of their coupling. Every throb, pulse, and beat of Atom's avatar — cock, mind, and soul — sent waves through the sea they fucked in.
Lucy rode Atom, her head falling back from the pleasure. He was there, molded to her back as she rode. Her eyes squeezed shut, succeeding where her pussy futilely, blissfully, tried and failed. But even blind to the net-world around them, her forehead naturally found his, pressed together intimately as they fucked themselves to impossible new heights.
Once more, he shifted their positions. On his cock, Lucy flipped. Her back came to rest on the moon, floating in their sea. Her eyes opened to see him looming above, pleasure and lust written across his face. Solid, 'ganic muscles — translated to his avatar — towered over her, and Lucy wrapped her legs around that hard body without a second thought.
Any claim to her usual stoicism she might've had was long gone. Just as she saw him, Atom looked down and saw her. Avatar, mind, and soul. They were one in their ecstasy, something special — an unavoidable, all-encompassing connection — passing between them. Atom's ceaseless, driving thrusts slowed, but they were no less pleasurable for that change of pace.
He rolled his hips into her. He ground every pleasure spot inside her to delicious dust. No part of her avatar went untouched. And like that — slow, sweet, vanilla — he leaned down to capture her lips in a kiss.
The moment their lips touched, Lucy's mind exploded. Sparks and glitches and perfectly corrupted code. The net around them fell away. All that mattered was their kiss, and the connection beneath it, driven by the Force. Lucy put everything she was into returning it.
Vindication; finally. Frustration fulfilled; finally. The true satisfaction of an orgasm worth the name; finally. And it only got better when Atom's self-control slipped inside her.
He came — white-hot warmth spilling forth. Pure data, straight from his mind, met pure data, straight from hers. The culmination of something impossible collided, connected, within Lucy's avatar womb.
It was so much — not just info but emotion and life in the net, as well. Too much… Something far beyond the limits of Lucy's mortal mind, even in the net's info-space, pushed just so. Info and data from two parties merged, and fundamentally formative strings of code were plucked into existence from thin air. The last thing Lucy felt was the spark of life that spawned in her womb, in the core of her avatar and being.
Then, Lucy came so hard she straight-up crashed.
A faint, fledgling, but curious and realpresence kept her company through her bluescreen. A presence that should've been impossible. Yet, there it was — life in the net, in info-space, conceived from a melding of minds, of chrome and Force.
Lucy rebooted in meatspace with that seed of being safely tucked away in her chrome systems. Growing, evolving, living with her lobby as the womb.
Lucy felt it. Knew it. Could barely comprehend it. But… she loved it already. It was her. It was Atom. It was absurd, yet real. A babe of info-space, born to the net by natural means.
Impossible. Utterly impossible. That wasn't how AIs worked, be they droids or the unfettered angels and demons in the darkest corners of the net. They were made, not born… The Force didn't seem to have gotten that memo.
"Fuck," Lucy croaked, her mind and systems still rebooting, threatening to crash all over again. "This… is going to be the most Legendary crash report ever filed. And… 'guess I'm a mom, now… Net-space mom, at least…"
Atom surfaced from his deep dive in the chair beside her, but Lucy could still feel something of him in her lobby, through the Force-deck and the growing kernel of code they'd conceived together. He could sense the life there, too, Lucy knew. That connection between them lingered and settled, cemented by the birth of something wholly new.
He slowly, sagely, nodded, visibly coming to terms with the Forcing impossible, "Not the first time the Force has birthed new life. It's… a happy little accident. Yeah. Yeah…"
He purposefully didn't flinch, just stated the obvious, "… Sasha's still going to fraggin' flip."
"Yeah…" Lucy softly agreed. "But… It's done. It's real. No takebacks; we can both feel it. So, uh… we kinda need a name now, big guy. Something gender neutral, I think. I… don't want to limit them. Won't, even."
Atom nodded. He knew exactly what she meant. She could see he felt the same way. He turned the question over in his mind for a few moments. It was a defining decision for something unprecedented and impossible. Atom gave it all the weight it required. Lucy felt emotions she couldn't easily identify flutter in her heart as he named their AI net-child…
"Nova. No matter what, they'll be spectacular."
IIIII
[AN: This was supposed to be a pure smut chapter. Then, I got a bit carried away with the net-worldbuilding lol. And decided to… spice things up even more here at the end for good measure. The Force loves to do impossible things through Atom, but what's new there? Nova… should open some fun doors for this story. No idea if they'll (She? I'm leaning 'she') get any meatspace siblings anytime soon, but honestly, one little one is probably enough going into a war.
Next up, we'll get the first of the Gonk-pire expansion efforts. Then, a few chapters in the Core to cover most of Attack of the Clones without getting too bogged down in the detes. The second half of that plot is where I'm going to be shaking things up the most and getting the Gonks involved, so the war should start very differently from in canon. Looking forward to making a whole mini-arc out of that once we get into the differences :]