Chapter Text
Netrunning hadn’t always come easy to So Mi, not when she was first started out all those years ago. She had to beg that old ripperdock to sell her a deck that otherwise would have been thrown away. But once the deck was in her hands, it felt like a final piece of a puzzle, she has always been interested in the tech, her grandfather had always been kind and patient with explaining what each part did. However, that didn't stop the many failed attempts she had before she was finally able to dive into the net. But after that, it was like riding a bike, swimming, /breathing/- she took to it naturally.
And without that challenge anymore, she chased for new challenges, obstacles, everything and anything that she could get her hands into. Each new accomplishment encouraged her to try bigger and bolder things.
And it was only a matter of time before she found herself hacking into various databases.
And it was only a matter of time before she was discovered.
So Mi knew it was going to happen sooner rather than later, but she had built up years of experience and confidence to the point that she wasn't as cautious as she should have been. Some would say she was cocky, maybe even arrogant, but she liked to think of herself as ambitious. Or, that was until the FIA came knocking at the apartment door. So Mi could remember the day clearly, she had just arrived back at home when the FIA struck. She was just thankful her mother wasn't in at the time as she was sure the FIA were going to flatline her for all the trouble she had caused. And yet, they hadn't. In fact, Reed had offered her a position within the FIA, not that it was much of a choice when she considered the alternative. And with little to no choice, So Mi had just enough time to call her mother to let her know what was going on before she left.
The fight to survive hadn’t been so compelling as it had been that day. That, and with the possibility to learn and advance more had been too tempting to give up.
Yet if she knew what she would have been giving up when accepting Reed’s deal, So Mi wasn’t so sure that she would make the same choice.
So Mi’s old life was no more, now she went by Songbird. Who had her own life to live, and by doing so, sacrifices had to be made. Any and all communication she had with her mother or friends had been strained until it became nonexistent. Did her mother still put up holiday decorations two weeks too early? Did she still visit the little corner shop down the road that had that flickering light and come back with too much stuff? Did she keep their apartment the same, or did she rearrange the furniture again? Did she even live in that same apartment? So Mi didn’t know, and she was too scared to reach out. What if her mother had moved? What if she had grown fed up with waiting? What if something had happened to her and So Mi wasn’t there to help her? Did her friends forget her too?
It was too much to think about, which is why she was grateful for the fact that she hardly got any down time despite how exhausted she felt most days. Kept her brain ticking with mission details rather than the ‘what ifs’ that plagued her at night.
The missions she was sent on, or tasked to oversee, were difficult, challenging and sometimes even life threatening. It wasn’t uncommon for agents to die during the mission or fall just shy of the finishing line. She had been on plenty of missions where one, or more, of her ‘colleagues’ (if they could be called that) had died or simply stopped responding. There was always that fear that her luck was going to run out sooner than later when accepting the various missions from. There had been more than enough close calls. The Blackwall wasn’t forgiving, neither were the people they faced. Songbird had been tied to the idea of having multiple lives with how many close calls she had had- honestly she couldn’t remember how many she had used so far.
And while it was meant as a joke, a possible endearing and childish ideological belief to her luck of surviving missions that others did not- it was a heavy weight on her shoulders. With one life down, how many more did she have left? There was only so many times she could cheat death at his own game. She had paid the price for each duel with death, more and more parts of her were replaced with cold chrome. Where she failed, she was upgraded to be better than the challenge before her. So Mi wasn’t sure where the real her began, and where the cold metal 'enhancements' began anymore.
Would her mother still recognise her?
“-ird?” A voice cuts through her thoughts, snapping her free from her spiral of thoughts. Blinking several times, she tears her gaze away from the window she had been staring out of to the blurry reflection of Alex standing behind her.
“Sorry, what were you saying?” She turns to face Alex properly, head tilting slightly to the side. While she was close to Reed, as he was the one to recruit her and take her under his wing, the relationship with Alex was… Strained at best.
Alex was nice, she chatted to her every now and again, checked in on her when required, but that was it. They were colleagues, not friends. They were there to do a job and that was it. So Mi figured it was due to the fact that Alex had lost so many people over the years that it was better for them both to stay at arms length. It was only recently that So Mi learnt that Alex’s real name was Alena, but like her, she went by the FIA given name.
“Reed has an update, plus, Myers wants to speak to us.” Alex hummed, eyes flickering over So Mi’s face before shifting her weight onto one leg, gesturing behind her. “You ready to go now or…?”
“Yeah, yeah. Was just scrollin’ through the net.” She lied, pushing herself to stand a second later.
Alex turned, heading out of the bare grey room, walking down a hallway with So Mi trailing behind. “Anything interesting?”
“Just catchin’ up on the last mission. Seein’ if there was any updates.” So Mi had looked for any updates a few nights back when she couldn’t sleep, but Alex didn’t need to know that. “Do you know what Myers wants to talk about? Another mission?”
“Who knows, she keeps her cards to her chest. Hell, I doubt anyone really knows what her motives are.” While some may have feared voicing their thoughts or opinions, Alex didn’t. Or well, not as much as others. One of the few things that So Mi respected about her. “Might be to do with that Arasaka bullshit though.”
That, caught So Mi’s attention. “You mean the incident in Night City?”
“The one and only.” Alex glanced back as they reached the meeting room, pausing just in front of the door. “But I wouldn’t hold my breath.” And before anything else could be said the door was sliding open.
The room was grey and bare, a long table in the middle with Myers sat at the end of the table and Reed sat to the side facing the door. Alex and So Mi took their seats on the opposite side to Reed. It was only when they were all seated that Myers flashed a small, practised smile at them. So Mi had worked with her closely over the years, but she always felt that there was something Myers was hiding from them. Keeping at an arm's distance. Which was fine, because So Mi did that too- but she knew of Myers dirty secrets, her inside trade deals, the deep dives into not only her enemies but of high ranking individuals. So if Myers was okay with them knowing that (which was as bad as bad could get) then /what/ was she hiding?
Myers cleared her throat, eyes flickering between Alex and Songbird as she then spoke, “Thank you both for attending, there’s been an update with your current mission.” Gesturing to the case in front of them she then glanced at Reed while Songbird and Alex took their shards, slotting them in to get the text info. “Hansen has strengthened his stronghold in Dog Town, got some businessmen to agree and side with him in exchange for something. What? We’re not sure of yet.” Reed had always been Myers second in command when it came to their little rag tag group, hell, he was the one to reason with Myers that they could use her talents rather than flatline her. Alex had made the joke of him being as loyal as a dog a few times in the past, and So Mi couldn’t help but agree with it every time. It was one of his own strength, his loyalty wouldn’t falter- but it was also one of his greatest weaknesses. “But whatever it is, it isn’t good. We have reports of more military tech being imported into Dog Town each day.” The text scrolling in her vision proved that too. Hell, her own occasional dives often mentioned issues happening within Night City.
“Night City aren’t doing anything about it?” Alex frowned, head tilting a little.
“No, they have their own issues to deal with. With the rise of Cyberpsychosis, turf fights and the recent murder of Saburo, Dog Town isn’t anything to worry about. But that’s where we come in.”
Songbird paused. “But we don’t have rights to Night City, what happens there is out of our control. Unless somethings changed?”
“Nothings changed.” Myers shakes her head, hands clasped on the table as she speaks. “Hansen was- /is/ our man, we sent him to Night City on a mission and when things changed, we left him there. He is our responsibility to stop, we have no clue what his plan is, or who it impacts.”
The text that had been scrolling has now stopped, indicating that was all the information they had right now. “But we don’t know what he’s planning, /if/ he’s planning anything.”
“He is, the increase of military grade tech is alarming.”
So Mi ejects the shard with ease, already delving into the net to try and see if there’s anything she can find to help figure out what Hansen is planning. “Hmmm, he’s kept quiet about it on the net. Not a lot of data here. Barely anything actually. Just brief scope guidelines. Nothing we can use.”
“Which is why you three will be going to Night City. We need an undercover group, small, discreet to go and see what is happening and to stop it if needed. But, you won’t also be there just for Hansen.” Myers stood. “We’ve caught news that the Relic had gone missing during Saburo’s murder. Arasaka has kept it under wraps, seems like they don’t want it getting out that they’ve lost an expensive piece of tech.”
So Mi switched searches, of course she had heard of the Relic before- hell, she had caught fragments of the schematics but nothing detailed enough to the tech behind it, nor what was on it. Even now, she barely pulled anything up about it.
Myers continues to talk, eyes sweeping between the three of them. “It’s been two weeks, and Arasaka hasn’t retrieved the Relic. Leading me to believe that either it was sold privately and kept extremely quiet, or, the thief still has hold of it. Either way, I want it.”
“Gonna use it as a bargaining chip with Arasaka?” Alex leans forwards, arms crossed and resting on the table. With nothing coming up from her search, So Mi shuts down her attempt. It seemed like whoever it was either smart enough to know not to shout it from the rooftops, or they were dead.
“It’s a foot in the door. A gesture of goodwill.” And Myers doesn’t explain more than that, instead she nods her head and stands, Reed moving to stand as well. “Your plane leaves in two hours, I want this silent, in and out mission. If anything goes wrong, then we abort the mission immediately.” It wouldn’t be the first time that they had been sent on a mission like this, and they all knew better than to refuse. So with that, So Mi nodded and stood up. Thankfully, she didn’t have much to pack. Hell, she wasn’t even sure how long this mission would last for, but she knew better than to wait to the last minute to pack.
Just another mission, and hopefully this time, she’s able to avoid a brush with death.