Shadowrock, Chapter 17 (Patreon)

Chapter 17: Live Show

Quickly going through the links gave us quite a bit of nucred. First, our Mr. Johnson’s obvious commlink had our twelve thousand that he owed us for the job, but TechKat found an implanted commlink in his head, with significantly better security. Of course, she could afford to brute force that one open, since even if it raised an alert, the user was no longer living enough to do anything about it. Got another sixty thousand from him. Not a bad move, honestly, having a more secure implanted link to hold the majority of his funds, and then sliding no more than is needed to the obvious link.

TechKat was tempted to leave a snarky message telling whoever read it that they should just pay us next time, but Tigress talked her down. That would not only cause someone in power at the police department to take things more seriously. And whoever was behind our Johnson might take it as a taunt. The rich and powerful did not respond well to being taunted by the ‘help’.

Of course, our late and unlamented Mr. Johnson was not the only person who would no longer need their worldly possessions. Commlinks for the corpsec gave us an extra twelve thousand, plus another three thousand from the lieutenant. All told, we got eighty-seven thousand nucred from this group, which split to 14,500 nucred each, plus the 2k each we’d gotten before, and having a whole host of ‘inspiring videos’ from the porn studio. Not bad for a night’s work.

We left the vehicles and bodies where they were. Same with the gear. Yes, the weapons and armor could probably sell for a bit more, but we’d gotten enough nucred to pay for the annoyance of this run, and all that gear was likely laced with stealth tag tracers, and there was no way of knowing if you got them all until a kill team dropped on your location. That was just playing with fire, for things that no fence would pay more than a hundred nucred per piece for.

Of course, that was just for the mundane stuff. The Lieutenant was apparently a mage, since KittyKat said the pendant that the man had been wearing, the one with Hermetic markings on it, was a spellcasting focus, for combat spells. Useless for her, since her Power Focus did the same thing, but for everything involving her magic, and you couldn’t stack them up like that. But at a base price of 30k, KittyKat had a talismonger contact that they could fence it to for another 12k, easily. After all, the grey-to-black market magical gear guy always needed more product to move.

But that was then, tonight was Friday, and our adventures of Monday night were long behind us as we mounted the stage at Apex. It was a good crowd tonight. Full of energy and eager to rock. Apex held a crowd of about a thousand people standing on the floor, with another two hundred in seats on the balcony, and a VIP lounge that did not have a direct view of the stage, but was set up for people paid extra to enjoy drinks before and after the show, allowing them to skip lines and such. According to Lucas Wells, our manager with the label, we had a full house tonight.

The crowd was already hyped, thanks to the opening group, Makeup. Like Kittenz, they had a gimmick to help them stand out from the crowd. Namely, their stage costumes were legally distinct versions of Sailor Moon characters, complete with skin tight leotards and skirts that were too short to be practical in normal circumstances. Honestly, I didn’t mind the aesthetic, and the music wasn’t bad.

But now it was our time to shine! This was going to be our first performance since rerolling into these characters. Obviously, we’d practiced, done studio recordings, and stuff like that. But practicing in a studio was not the same as performing live on stage. There were no do-overs or second takes. You had to make every second count, or your whole show could come screeching to a halt, and your career with it. In some ways, I found shootouts less stressful.

TechKat’s Artisan teamwork test: 13d6 = 6 Hits, 0 Miss

Tigress’s Artisan teamwork test: 11d6 = 6 Hits, 1 Miss

Cougar’s Artisan teamwork test: 11d6 = 2 Hits, 3 Miss

KittyKat’s Artisan teamwork test: 11d6 = 5 Hits, 2 Miss

Lioness’s Artisan teamwork test: 11d6 = 5 Hits, 0 Miss

Pussycat’s modified Artisan (Singing) test: 39d6 = 16 Hits, 4 Miss (Success)

TechKat on lead guitar started the first few notes of the first single from our first album, and the crowd went wild. Of course, the game’s AI had made the song, and everyone’s memories of it, which meant it was a fairly generic thing, but it was light and fun and fit our brand.

The song was called ‘Scratch Back’, and it was about a girl getting bullied in school, but then the bullies discovered that the girl wasn’t just going to take it. The chorus hit with ‘This kitten’s got claws, don’t you forget it now’, and when I sang it, the whole venue was singing along. Everyone loved a good story about bullies getting what they deserved, after all.

The great thing about being in a band, with this game, is that since we all had the Artisan skill, which was what governed performances, we could do it as a teamwork test, which basically meant everyone rolled the skill, and their hits added on to my dice pool. Suffice to say, that ballooned our dice to levels that no normal person could get to, and ensured that we were giving the crowd everything they could ask for, and more. Which was exactly what we needed to keep our group in the limelight. And, maybe, we could push things higher.

‘Scratch Back’ moved easily into our second song, ‘Come On, Just Tonight’, which was a song about a girl convincing a friend to leave his drama queen girlfriend and sleep with her, if only for just one night. Not exactly the most original theme, obviously, but when I sang the chorus with my profile to the audience, bent over, back arched, cat tail moving to the beat? The men in the audience went wild.

Then, we went straight into ‘Caught in Your Fire’, which was about a girl trying to seduce her female best friend, and become lovers. As part of the performance, I pressed up behind TechKat, hands roaming over the catsuit she wore on stage. Never touching anything that was more than PG-13, but it was enough that the audience was definitely getting excited. Just like the old line said, sex sells, especially when you’re leaving it to the imagination of a bunch of horny rock fans.

As the last bars of the song faded out, I stepped to the front of the stage, full of energy. “HELLO ATLANTA! HOW ARE YOU DOING TONIGHT?” The crowd roared back, and I couldn’t help but smile. “ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?” Another roar. “I CAN’T HEAR YOU! I SAID, ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?” The roar got louder, if it was possible. Playing the crowd was part of a performance, after all, just as much as any instrument.

“LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE MOON GIRLS OF MAKEUP, AND THEIR KILLER OPENING ACT!” The crowd roared. Not all headliners credited the opening act. They were usually names who were too big to fail, honestly. For mid-range acts like us, well, hyping up the opener made everyone happy. Made it look less like competition, and more like a more established group giving newcomers a hand up the ladder. Which also encouraged the opener to do even better. To use some of the day trading parlance from my real life, it was a synergy thing, helping to get parallel verticals going, instead of a zero-sum game.

I settled in behind the microphone, and said, “Now, all you naughty tomcats and pretty kitties gotta know, there’s no rock band in the world who can get by without guitars. So let me introduce you to the sexy Aliyah Calhoun, our very own lead guitarist!” When I pointed her way, TechKat strummed out a brief guitar solo, and everyone cheered.

“But you know I’m a greedy little kitty, and if one guitar is good, why not have two? After all, why do I have two hands if not to pet a pretty pussycat with each? Which is why I want you to give it up for our second guitarist, Mia West!” I pointed to Tigress, who immediately played a bow-chicka-bow-wow tune as she turned her back to the audience and swayed her hips, showing off just how nicely her leather pants hugged her curves. The crowd approved.

“Now, your normal guitars are all well and good, but sometimes you need that feeling that goes deep, touching parts inside you that some people never measure up to. That’s why we got the ever-lovely Saara al-Sharifi on bass guitar!” Lioness thrummed a short solo on her base guitar that resonated low and powerful. The crowd cheered, as expected.

“But while we all love a good guitar solo, and we bite our lips when the base drops low, you know a band needs someone on the keyboard, for all those tunes that strings just can’t handle on their own. Let me hear it for the one and only Zoe Hopkins on keyboards!” There were wolf whistles and cheers as KittyKat played a quick solo.

“Still, there’s one thing every band has to have, and that’s someone on the drums! And we are proud to have the lady on the ones and twos who’s as deadly as she is delightful, Anastasia Blum!” Cougar lit into a drum solo, and the crowd roared in approval. I think I even heard a couple people screaming they loved her.

“And of course, I am your lead singer, the prettiest pussycat you’ll ever get to pet, Casey Rhodes!” More cheers, and some woman’s bra got thrown on stage. When I looked that way, I saw the woman with her top off, and a very nice and perky pair of tits bouncing as she howled. “Damn, lady! You’re going to put someone’s eye out with those! One of you gentlemen give the girl a hand holding on to them so everyone is nice and safe.” A round of laughs, which told me the joke landed well.

“Now, back to the band, unless one of you gents is going to throw your jeans up here so us ladies can get a show…? No takers? You fucking cowards!” I laughed, but quickly turned back to what we were supposed to be doing. “Like I said, the band. Together, we are Kittenz, and we’re here to make sure you pet us, give us treats, and let us meow in your ear all night long. And if you’re really lucky, y’all might get to touch our tails.”

I let the crowd whistle and howl at the innuendo for a moment, and then said, “But you didn’t come here just to listen to gawk at pretty ladies! You came to listen to those pretty ladies rock out! So, some of you might not know, but we’ve got an album set to drop next month, and the suits over at Extreme Entertainment Group finally gave us the permission to share a track from the upcoming album. So, y’all wanna to hear our newest track, performed live for the first time ever?”

The crowd was hyped before, but now they were practically frothing at the mouth. The roar was like a wave of sound. I grinned, and said, “Well all right then! I know some guys want a girl all to themselves, but sometimes a pussycat needs more than one man can manage. So, here’s our new song about a girl getting all that she can handle, ‘Midnight Splash’!”

As I set in on the song about a girl skinny dipping with her three male lovers, I could tell that the crowd was going to love it. More importantly, there was a good chance that Midnight Splash would become a hit based on sex appeal alone. Especially when we let the music video drop next week.

Being in a rock band was the best choice ever! Especially since we got to enter on the upswing, rather than working from scratch, and our gigs as shadowmen helped cover the bills. Which, of course, made it very different from real life.

Still rocked, though!