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// The Future is Now - Cyberpunk AU 
// Story: Norse Code 
// by NorsePony 
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	I take a swig of soycaf to wash down the bitter aftertaste of the narcostick. Combining narc and caffeine always makes me a little bit crazy. But tonight, that's just what I need.

Down the street, the gleaming armorglass cube of Canterlot Corp headquarters rises above the slums. The most powerful corp in the world, and my target.

My team and I are sitting at a food stall waiting on the go-code from our B-team. They're going to make some noise at a nearby facility and bring Cantercorp security down on them. The idea is that they'll be gone by the time security arrives. I hope so. I paid them in advance. That will shift security away from the main building, which will make our run easier.

That's the idea, anyway.

To my right is Big Mac, the best street samurai I could find who would work with a unicorn decker. He lives up to his handle. He's a tower of muscle with cybertech back legs. He's a pony, but he's supposed to be strong enough to give metaponies like minotaurs and trolls a run for their money. I've heard he can buck through a foot of ferroconcrete. Hopefully we won't have to find out.

To my left is the rigger, Fluttershy. She's a metapony too. A pegasus. Her drones orbit her head like a halo of gun oil. She calls the little one her "Angel." She's affixed a sticker of a cartoon rabbit right between its machine guns. She's got bags under her eyes and a tiny smile that never goes away. She creeps me the drek out. But word in the shadows is that there's nobody better watching your back while you're jacked in.

My commlink pulses. It's time.

I nod to my team, drop some newbits on the stall's filthy counter, and we leave.

Ten minutes later, we're inside. The 'bits I paid for that Cantercorp ID badge paid off. We were able to trot right through the secure employee gate and the exterior door. Security is light. So far, the plan is working.

My intel is good: there's a network jack right across the hall from the executive elevator. I tuck myself behind a potted plant and sling my deck off my back. I jack the deck into my head. The rush of speed and potential tingles in my brain. It never gets old. I grip the deck's external jack in my magic and move it toward the Cantercorp wall socket, but pause just before I jack in. I glance at my team. They see it, poised as they are on a knife-edge of tension, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Fluttershy nods at me. Her constant smile curves a bit. She probably thinks it's reassuring. "We've got you, Twilight."

Big Mac just nods and goes back to scanning the doors for movement. His hoofblades gleam in the fluorescent light.

It's now or never. I jack in.

An instant of displacement, wrenching disorientation as my mind and body argue over where I am and what I'm feeling. It passes as my brain wins, the data flow from the jack trumping my body's more distant inputs. The Matrix spreads out before me. I'm standing in a section of welcoming white and blue, the unsecured office net. A couple of ports away, the terrain changes to an angry red. That's the high-security Cantercorp intranet. My destination.

The red landscape climbs in towers and spires, false images representing their physical locations, functions, importance. I ignore it all. My target is behind all of it, at the exact center of the intranet. The tallest tower. Crusted black with ICE that will fry my brain if I'm not as good as I think I am. At the top of the tower, there is a brilliance like a lighthouse.

I bare my teeth in a grin. That light is the virtual presence of Celestia, Cantercorp's CEO. The unicorn who raised me, who taught me the secrets of decking. The unicorn who turned on me, casting me out into the slums.

She expected me to die like the pampered little security drone I was. She never expected me to return, running the shadows and more novahot than she ever was.

I launch myself toward the intranet, virtual hooves skimming inches above the false landscape. It's time for revenge.