Ground Floor

“I'm helping you out just once as a favor to the Great Master but if you come in again without insurance and without cash you're out of luck.”

“Noted.” Yeong tried to ignore the pain as the doc rooted around in his bullet wound, but it was hard. Every twist of the thin tongs hit a nerve and tempted him to scream. There was no anesthetic, it would've cost far too much. Way more than the old man was willing to provide as a favor. The Doctor was a dwarf; meaning his family ancestry included more than a few of either imps or goblins or any of the other small species. He had long, stringy white hair cascading down the sides and back of his head, but the top was complete chrome. His face was bare as well, allowing Yeong to see a malicious glint behind the Doc's wrinkled, wizened expression as he moved his tools around inside of Yeong's bullet wound.

There was a tinking feeling in the as Doc's magnet found the round. He smiled and pulled it free.

“There it is. The of a mid-level Murim member.” He pulled it free and held the flattened bullet up to the light, turning it slightly as he did.

“Hmm?”

“Well, you strengthen your bodies but all it does is slow a round down at your level. Evidently.” The man poked the tender hole, causing Yeong to flinch.

“When the bullet goes in it doesn't come out. That means there's a good chance it's gonna bounce around and cause more damage. You guys get a little power and think your invincible.” He chuckled.

“Fine by me.”

“Do you service a lot of Murim out here?” Yeong asked.

The Doc shrugged. “I get a few of you guys coming in since most of you resort to being jobbers. Corps aren't hiring out Murim much anymore. Not with today's tech.” He exhaled wistfully.

“No Corp means no insurance, which means more business for little old me. He he.”

Yeong leaned back and braced for the cauterization of his wound. It did not help. He gritted his teeth as Doc shoved something into the hole, closed it with his thumb and fore-finger then burnt it shut before pouring a stinging chemical all over it. After all of that Yeong finally cried out.

“Fuck!” The Doc tapped Yeong's cheek lightly.

“You're fine.” He stepped back and dropped his tools into a jar of blue liquid.

“That girl outside. She with you?”

Yeong considered the question. “Not 'with' me. But she is with me.”

The man nodded slowly. “Careful with Foxes. Always wanna check under the hood.” He winked.

“What do you mean?”

“For the normal pop it's less than one percent, but for foxes, for some reason one in ten males have Core Incongruence Syndrome related to gender.” Yeong gave the dwarf a weird look. He had no idea what he was talking about.

“One in ten male Foxes are likely to switch teams. Ten percent. It's a lot. Enough that you should probably check your female escorts before you bring 'em home if they're Foxes.”

“She's not an escort.” Yeong explained.

“Then it probably doesn't matter, right?” The Doc teased.

“She's a pretty one, for sure.” The old man added with a sly whistle.

“Core Incg-con...” Yeong was trying to wrap his head around it. The subject was foxes, something he had a mild interest in.

“CIS for you laymen.” That abbreviation was something Yeong had heard in passing, but not fully understood.

“It describes an inconsistency between the Core and the Soma; the physical form. It can also relate to Species and some think that the phenomenon is a basis for the phantom limb feeling in people that lose or replace limbs, but who really knows? People with CIS are driven to resolve the inconsistency by altering their body in whatever ways they can to align it with the way they feel. I get elf posers in sometimes that want ear adjustments and bone sculpting. It's great business for people like myself.” The Dwarf lifted his chin and offered a sly grin.

“Not saying she is, but if you figure out she's packing more than you bargained for, I do implants, prosthesis, tek and all manners of adjustments. Cheapest in Orr.”

* *

Young left the dingy basement to find Kai curled up on the ground beside the door, her tail slapping the ground idly beside her. It began to wag as the door opened and she stood up as soon as he got out. The Fox looked nervous, standing holding her hands in front of her, unsure of what to do with them.

“Are you okay?” She stared at the hole in his jacket. The blood had already begun to dry.

“It's going to be tender for a while and it'll probably leave a scar but thanks to my natural healing the Doc said my body should absorb the packing in less than a day.”

“I'm glad. Because...” She trailed off, hesitant to finish what she was going to say.

“Because I got it trying to help you?” Yeong ascended the dirty stone steps. Kai followed after him, staying close behind. The alleyways of Orr at the lowest level were essentially tunnels. There were overhangs of wires and grating that supported the infrastructure of the floors above and so on and so on. Everything was build on top of everything else, so it was not odd to go days without seeing the sun on the ground floor. Yeong did not even truly know what time it was when he got out of Doc's. He would have to look at his phone or see the sky to do so.

“Well, yeah? Is there a problem with that?”

“Not at all. I'm not bitter. I just think it's important to say what you want to say. That's how my Halmeoni raised me, anyway.” Yeong explained.

“Oh.” Kai seemed uncomfortable with the direction the conversation had taken.

“Halmeoni is the name of your parent?”

“It means grandparent... Or older woman in general.” Yeong looked at Kai.

“What about you? Do you have a parent or grandparent?” He was probing whether or not she had someone he could pawn her off on if it came down to it.

“I have-” Kai stopped. Yeong took a few more steps before stopping as well. He turned and looked back to see Kai almost hyperventilating.

“What's wrong?”

“I have-” She gulped and stared back at Yeong with wide, worried eyes.

“Mama... My-” She cleared her throat and tried to calm herself. She rubbed her eyes with her palm and spoke more clearly.

“My mom. We don't live together but you said they were after me, right?” She asked in a shaky tone.

“'They.' Seems that way. We were going to have to address that at some point. Why, and what about your mother?”

“It's ChesAn. It's gotta be! They're tying up loose ends with the launch of the new and improved Root Network.” Kai explained. Yeong wanted to believe her, especially since she was in fact being targeted by someone, but the fact of the matter was that the girl admitted to being a thief. She could have pissed off any number of bad people that would hire out a gang to kill her. He would have left her a while ago just based on that logic if it weren't for an interesting feature that he picked up on. With that in mind Yeong decided to humor her.

“Why ChesAn?” Yeong held up his phone.

“Also, it's off right now but should I be throwing this away.”

“Hell no!” Kai said quickly, throwing up her hands in a stopping motion.

“That phone was what seemed to be anchoring you during you're trip. It's what you showed up as in the Network. It's how I found 'you.'” She held out her hand.

“I'll make it so that it's no longer sharing info or listening in.” She pointed up at an idle street camera.

“I also added the same blurring effect to your face, since they'd probably come after you, too.”

“Alright. Glad I don't have to throw it away, I guess.” Yeong handed the phone to Kai. The two had stopped in front of a storefront that was showing off several television displays playing news stories through metal bars and bullet-proof glass. Thee were tons of businesses like the one they were in front of at various levels. They would all deal in buying and selling goods. Everyone in Orr was after the next buck so it seemed to Yeong already like everyone was in some sort of business. They all needed the money to buy the products teased by huge, holographic neon signs.

“We're getting off track. Why ChesAn?”

Kai did nothing to manipulate the phone. She simply stared down at it closely while it was in her hands. As Yeong expected it came to life on its own and began to automatically open and close programs and settings. Things he had no idea about. To him it was an advanced walkie. It was part of the reason he was still with her. He did not know much about technology, but he knew it was odd to be able to manipulate it the way she did. She also somehow showed up on his 'trip' as she called it. It was something he still had to figure out in general.

“It's actually a super long story... It involves Mama, and ChesAn and a lot of shit. Can't you just trust me, since we're probably short on time?”

Yeong stared at Kai closely. She did not look or sound like she was lying, but Yeong thought of a proverb that mentioned liars who convince themselves being the most convincing to others. He sighed and offered a short nod.

“For now. I still don't know what I'm doing here yet, so I'll bite.”

“Okay.” Kai took a deep breath.

“So, like... About that. Do you have any fucking clue what you did?” Yeong stared at her blankly. Kai's cute mouth fell agape.

“S-sure. So, you don't even know? You just did it? Was it the first time?”

Yeong looked down and thought about the voice that came through his phone at the last second. He left that out of the equation for her and looked up to say.

“It was the first time. I just kind of did it. I touched the screen and I was pulled into that room.”

Kai quickly turned from panicked to excited as she was faced with a unique distraction. She turned and seemingly without input the screens lit up with the porn stream from the apartment that Yeong had arrived in. It showed the couple noticing, becoming agitated and the man walking out of view. A crash was heard and then a figure that Yeong roughly picked out as being himself walked past the camera towards the door as the woman continued to scream. Kai was gathering her thoughts but he was watching the scene replay over and over again.

“You- you were with me, then you disappeared, then you appeared in this stream a mile away.”

“That happened before you died. This video was taken a few minutes before that happened. Was I sent into a video in the past?” Yeong questioned.

“A stream in the past. Video? How old are you?” She shook her head.

“Never mind, yeah. That's right. Important thing is, after I d-d-died.” She she shuddered to say it.

“You must've somehow gone back through the network on your phone into a random network nearby? It's crazy...” Her gold eyes flitted back and forth. She was obviously just as confused as Yeong was.

Yeong figured that she could waffle for quite a while so he decided to hone in on something that he was interested in.

“You were there. That's what surprised me.”

Kai was brought back to reality by the statement. She nodded. “Well, yeah. You disappeared and your phone dropped right from where you were standing. That's a pretty fucking weird thing to see, so I started looking around.”

“How?” Yeong inspected her for tek but failed to see anything.

Kai was tense. “I suppose there's no reason to keep anything from you.”

“Thanks. I'd prefer if you didn't.”

“Okay, okay!” Kai groaned. She nearly shrunk where she was standing and blushed as she said.

“I can- I can get into things without a hookup. Without a jack. Without anything. I can just feel it, like I'm a part of it.” Yeong did not react, he just listened and let her continue.

“I know you think I'm crazy and most people just assume I'm all tekked out, or something, but it's true!” She took a deep breath.

“My Mama basically wasn't any help at all when it came to raising me so I didn't have anything growing up. No phone, no tek, nothing.” She glared at Yeong as he opened his mouth.

“Yeah, okay country boy. For me it wasn't by choice! I wanted it more than anything. Mostly to be able to escape. At some point I started to feel the information moving back and forth around me. With nothing to do I started trying to feel it better, clearer. Eventually it was like a picture in my head and then more and more I was able to just tap into it. Now it's like breathing for me. I can go into networks, systems, tek and do everything anyone else with the best equipment can do. Maybe better. I even have my own avatar.”

“I saw.” Yeong smirked.

Kai covered her chest and blushed deeply. “For fucks sake, if I could choose to have bigger tits of course I would! What about you?” She pointed down accusingly.

“I think I'm fine.” Yeong shrugged. What the Doc said crossed his mind. He stared at the front of Kai's skirt briefly for a sign of 'something.'. She crossed her thighs rather insecurely.

“What're you looking for?” She questioned sharply.

“You're... A girl, right?” Yeong asked with a complete lack of delicacy.

“I am a girl.” Kai confirmed with a smile and a false sweetness to her tone.

“A real-”

“Real?” She leaned forward. One of her red brows shot up. Yeong did not feel threatened at all but he still leaned back instinctively, mostly just because of the way she looked.

“Yeah. Completely real.” For some reason, with the prying thought on his mind Yeong felt more unsure. Kai acknowledged the look with a sneer.

“Did someone say something? About Foxes and CIS?”

“Yeah.” He admitted. For some reason he felt slightly guilty. Part of it was how strongly she felt about it. He had no idea.

“Well, let me ask you. When you saw me did you have any doubt that I was a girl?” Kai probed.

“No doubt at all.” Yeong offered truthfully. She got a sense of satisfaction out of that answer. The quickness of it in particular.

“You think I'm flustered because I'm a guy, but how do you think a girl feels being questioned just because she's a FOX and just because you just learned about CIS? Who's actually para-” She gasped and held her head.

“Oh fuck we're SO off track! Mama!”

“Mama...” Yeong repeated absentmindedly.

“Your mother?”

“If ChesAn wants me dead they definitely want her dead!”

Yeong thought carefully before he answered. He reasoned that if what she was saying was false then the mother would be fine. If it was true, he would find evidence of it by following up.

“That tracks.” He added.

“Where is your mother? Where does she live? Can you call her and tell her to go to ground?”

Kai huffed. Her cheeks were glowing still, for some reason. “No. I can't. Mama is...” She turned back to the screens. On a few of them an advertisement popped up. It was a splayed out image of an extremely busty Fox woman with long red hair. Her expression showed excitement, but complete and utter vacancy.

“If I called her she wouldn't understand and her bosses wouldn't let her go if I told them, either.” Kai explained sadly.

“She's so tekked up with brothel hardware, software and other mods that her memory is out of wack. She's...” Kai gritted her teeth. She was obviously angry and uncomfortable.

“It's ridiculous.” She relented, speaking with a surprising amount of restraint, Yeong thought.

“I understand.” Yeong said sympathetically, but then added while looking at the screen with a bit of drool escaping his lips.

“She's- She really is something.” He wiped his mouth and collected his thoughts. If Kai was being truthful and more importantly, if she was correct, then her Mother was in danger. More relevant to him however was the fact that if she was in danger, she was also quite dangerous to visit and be around. The bullet wound he had was still fresh and healing. It served as not only a ward against more physical action but as a warning that what he could do was not without danger. He came to Orr with a mission and neither Kai nor her mother was a part of that.

Kai stared at Yeong with disgust. “Mal...” She slurred.

“Suck your tongue back into your mouth, you dog. That's my Mom!”

* * *

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