Rogue

Lake

"Whaddya doin' here, kid?" Lake says. They were using an old rag to wipe blood off of their mantis blades. The blades fold back into their arms as they turn towards Jolee.

"How did you know I was here?" Jolee asks.

"I'm an edgerunner. I got people who don't like me, so I've got cameras." Lake says, walking over to Jolee. She gives the young girl a hug.

"First thing you taught me was how to hack cameras. I could've hacked those."

"Maybe." Lake smiles a little. "But you didn't. I win this time."

"Fine, whatever." Jolee says. She sets her bag down and sits in a chair in Lake's little apartment. It was a cozy little place. They had a ton of old metal posters. Jolee spotted a Samurai one amongst them.

Lake stands over Jolee. "Start talkin', kid. Normally you're scared 'bout your parents findin' out you're here."

"Actually... that's why I'm here." Jolee looks at the ground. "I can't stay with them. Maelstrom attacked the buildin' and I took them out. Now they're worried the badges are gonna find me. I think their real issue is Netrunnin'. They don't like that I know how to do it."

"Who gives a fuck what they think?" Lake says, sitting beside Jolee. "They're tryin' to get you to follow in your dad's corpo footsteps. Sell your soul to a corp and you'll never be the same. You don't gotta follow me, but I don't think goin' the corpo route is good either. Either way, this city isn't gonna let you win."

"Yeah." Jolee says sadly.

"You can tell them I'm fine with you stayin' here. It's not an issue, really." Jolee looks up at Lake. She always thought of them as an older sibling, even though they were a dangerous edgerunner.

"Alright I'll tell them that. Were you doing a gig earlier?" Jolee couldn't help but ask.

"Yeah. It was one of the normal gigs. Typical elimination type. Nothin' too interestin'." Lake seemed indifferent about it, but Jolee was interested even if it was a simple assassination mission.

"I can't believe I know an actual edgerunner. A cyberpunk." Jolee says, shaking her head. "You're so... real."

"Whaddya mean, kid?" Lake raises an eyebrow at the young Netrunner.

"You don't sugar coat everythin' because I'm a kid. You tell me what's real, the mission, this city, Netrunnin'. You don't try to hide it or say I'm not old enough. Unlike my parents." Lake puts an arm around the young girl.

"They're prob'ly just tryin' to keep you safe. Keep you away from the dangers of 'running and merc work." Lake stands up. "I gotta do some prep work for my next gig, wanna help?"

A smile crosses Jolee's face. "Of course. What's the gig?"

"We've gotta nab some data from cyberspace. C'mon." Jolee gets up and follows Lake to another room. It had two Netrunning chairs set up and ready to go. "Hope you brought your 'running suit."

"Yeah." Jolee says, showing the suit under her shirt. "Parents we're rushin' me out so I didn't have time to change."

"Preem, you know what to do then." Lake takes a netrunning suit that was hanging by one of the chairs. "Meet you in cyberspace." Jolee takes off the cloths she had put on over her Netrunning suit while Lake leaves the room. She crawls into one of the Netrunning chairs.

She taps a few buttons on the monitor linked to her chair. She was making sure everything was set up. She lays back in the chair. She grabs an unplugged cord from behind the Netrunning suit. She plugs it into the deep dive port at the base of her skull, initiating the deep dive into cyberspace.