Chapter 6: CTRL-V

V awoke in a state of being he hadn't been expecting. His mouth was drier than the deserts he'd spent with the Aldecados. There was a distinct acrid odor of piss. He coughed a few times before violently hurling all over the place. His eyes slowly began to adjust to the light in the room he was occupying. This wasn't his apartment. He staggered to his feet and looked around, loud Goth-Punk was blaring. He was in the restroom of the Afterlife bar and club. He didn't even remember coming here.

"Sorry, V. Had to borrow your body.", Johnny added, appearing next to V.

V shot up and stumbled to the nearest sink. He hurled again, even more violently and stared into the mirror, half expecting Johnny's visage to look back at him. Instead, V's face stared back. He had a black eye.

"Johnny, what the hell did you do?"

"Like I said, I thought I could take control of your body again... And look! It turns out I can. It also turns out that Rogue doesn't like the prospect of me being back in your head. Sorry about the eye."

V hurled again. How much had he drank? His stomach hurt. His eyes watered. He was in absolute agony. He coughed again, retching up spittle. He felt his bowels begin to fail and rushed haphazardly into a nearby stall and evacuated everything that Johnny had forced him to eat during the late-night bender.

"Shit, V. You're not looking too hot."

"Aaaagh... Shit...", V warbled as liquids came out of both ends. His vision began to blur.

V just sat in the stall. He took his shirt off as the poop sweats began to pour out of his body. He felt like he was going to die. Johnny had poisoned him. This was what they called Alcohol Poisoning and he couldn't even blame his current feelings on the Relic. V looked up for a moment as the stall door opened and crashed into his knees, he'd failed to even lock the door. A random Afterlife mercenary took one look at him and backed away in disgust.

V staggered out of the stall after taking time to clean himself up. He continued over to the sink where he proceeded to wash his hands and face, taking the time to hold down any remaining vomit that burbled within him. After a while, he stumbled out of the restroom and back into the actual bar itself. Rogue stared at him from her booth. Crispin 'Squama' Weyland just shook his head.

"Johnny? Or is it V? Have you finally come to your senses?", Rogue noted.

"It's V. Auuugh... What did I- What did Johnny do this time?", V stammered, he slid into the booth and sat across from Rogue.

"What he always does. I thought you had some kind of plan to get rid of him, did you change your mind?"

"No... I did. The Relic is gone, but Johnny's back. A trade-off, I guess. I get to live free, but Johnny gets to live in my head again."

"Hm. V, you lead an interesting life." Rogue mused. "Now, what did you want to talk about again? Johnny said something about outlaws and cyborgs before he decided to get handsy."

"Oh! Well, I've got a new team, I guess. I wanted to ask you if you've ever heard of a guy named Jericho. He's a tall, bald, Asian guy. Not Arasaka, or Kang Tao, either."

"Hm... How tall?"

"Taller than me. Around 6ft 4in tall? He's also got some pretty intense cyberware, he's a full-borg, like Adam Smasher."

Rogue sat there for a moment and thought about all the mercs she'd worked with over the years, but nobody really came to mind matching that description. Smasher was one of the few that had invested heavily into borg-ware and she wasn't aware of anyone else who did willingly.

"Can't say that I have. Full-borg conversions aren't exactly everyone's ideal body, either. I'll keep an eye out, though. You did help greatly with the previous contracts, so I'll take care of this one for you."

"Preem. Thanks."

"Anything else?"

"Oh, also...", V leaned forwards a bit, trying to keep his voice low. "Have you ever heard of a woman named Hildegarde? About as tall as me, dark hair, eyepatch, really scary?"

Rogue's eyes widened for a second. She had heard of a Hildegarde that had run amok thoughrout Europe a few years back. She also knew that the same person had died in combat as well, rival mercs had zeroed her over the Mediterranean sea. Rogue sat back in the booth a bit. "I have... Why?"

"She's uh... back."

"She's back? From the dead?"

"Uh yeah. And she's also in Night City..."

"Well, this certainly isn't good for any of those poor gonks trying to become a street samurai. Are you absolutely certain? Hildegarde isn't exactly the nicest of company. I'd steer clear of her, V."

"Well... that's the thing... We're kinda... working together..."

"V, have you lost your mind? Hildegarde is a Solo, a brutal mercenary who takes all the dirty jobs nobody else wants. We're talking about assassinations, hit jobs, grand larceny, human trafficking, drug trade, terrorist attacks... I wouldn't even hire her, hell most fixers don't even dare to be involved with that.", Rogue scoffed. V was going in too deep. Hildegarde had done some questionable jobs that made Johnny's attack on Araska look like a well-thought plan.

"Yeah, I know. I just wanted to know if she was as bad as everyone's been saying. I haven't even heard of her before."

"Hildegarde operated exclusively in Europe, Russia, and Asia. She has never come to the NUSA. This is big, V."

V was about to say something when the bouncer came flying through the front doors. He was bodily hurled through the air coming to a crash landing and sliding across the floor knocking a few gonks out of their bar stools as he came to a stop. V looked in the direction of the sudden intrusion.

"Veeeeee! Where the bloody hell are you!? This had better be a real emergency!", a loud, angry and cold British-accented voice shouted from the front doors. V had a bad feeling about this.

"Uh oh. Did I- or Johnny do anything weird? Like maybe send a distress call?", V asked as the plum-purple clad outlaw entered the bar.

Rogue just ducked down underneath the table. Crispin 'Squama' Weyland pulled out his gun and walked towards the loud British intruder. "Hey! You can't be doin' stuff like tha-", Squama was cut off abruptly as Hildegarde just backhanded the bodyguard across the face with a closed fist, the impact knocking the larger man out cold and causing him to crash to the ground like a ton of bricks.

The bartender, Claire, pulled a rifle and aimed it towards the world's angriest outlaw. "Not in my bar!"

Hildegarde just stared at Claire for a moment, before scoffing and moving forwards anyways. "You might want to actually load your rifle before threatening someone with it. ", She'd noticed immediately that the clip was missing from the firearm. Claire just sulked and lowered the gun.

Hildegarde noticed V sitting in a booth across from a much older woman who was currently hiding under the table with a small sidearm. She just walked over and slammed both her hands onto the top of the table. Her piercing gaze aimed directly at V. "You look like shit."

"Hildegarde? What are you do-", V was cut off as he was slapped in the face by the plum-purple clad outlaw. Her hand felt like it was made of concrete.

"I've been looking for you, you sodding nob-gobbler! You sent a voice message to directly to me and Jericho wanted me to come and find you!", Hildegarde spat. V just looked sheepish, he really didn't know what had happened between falling asleep and waking up with his head neck-deep in a urinal.

"Oh, agh, I'm dying! The chipset is killing me!", she mocked. "And then there were nothing but sounds of fighting, presumably you getting punched in the face, an older woman's voice telling you she was going to gut you and the sounds of you getting your ass beaten seven ways to Sunday."

"Uh... Ha ha? It was just a drunk dial?", V got slapped again, harder.

"I can see that now, but Jericho doesn't take failures very well. He sent me to come and collect whatever was left of you so we could at least get the chipset back.", Hildegarde bent down for a moment before grabbing and hoisting Rogue up over the table. "And don't think I didn't notice the geriatric hag hiding under the table either!"

Rogue just pulled herself free and sat back down, glaring daggers at both V and Hildegarde, the latter she knew she had no real defense against. "Well then, I suppose you were right V. She really is back from the dead."

"Yes. Back from the dead. I got too big, too noisy and needed some time for the world to cool down. Now I'm back, and have a fresh new world to enjoy. The New United States have never seen the chaos that I brought down upon Europe. Murder and mayhem... await.", Hildegarde hissed, grinning with a sinister smile towards Rogue.

"But you're still only human.", Squama announced, now directly behind Hildegarde with a gun aimed at her head.

Squama squeezed off a killing shot, only for Hildegarde to spin around, instantly dodging the bullet. She grabbed Squama's arm and twisted it backwards, breaking the limb. She grabbed his firearm and simply crushed it in her hand. The fired bullet went straight into Rogue's shoulder, with the older woman crying out in pain.

"More than human. More than you. Better than you. Oh, we're going to have so much fun.", Hildegarde whispered. Squama just stared wide-eyed in fear as she held him down.

The surrounding Afterlife mercenaries had begun to back away, taking their drinks to locations far away from whatever was happening right now. They were Afterlife mercenaries, but had no intent on actually visiting the Afterlife at the moment.

"Stop! Just- Just leave... Leave us alone...", Rogue stammered, clutching her shoulder. The bullet that Squama had fired left a sucking wound.

Hildegarde just let go of Squama, the large man falling to his knees cradling his broken limb. He scooted away from the plum-purple clad outlaw and sat against the underside of the bar.

"Really? Giving up so soon? And here I thought that Night City was full of lawless scum and villainy. Pssh... I'm getting a drink. And V, don't ever waste my time again or you'll find out firsthand why they call me 'The Genocider'.", Hildegrade cursed. She left V and Rogue alone and headed for the bar. She sat on the very end near the front doors and called, rudely, towards Claire who hesitantly served her a drink. Her piercing stare still aimed towards V in disdain and exasperation.

"I- I'm really sorry. I didn't know...", V stuttered.

"You should probably just leave, V. It's for the best.", Rogue noted.

V just got up and left the booth. That could've gone better. He still wasn't sure how he'd gotten to the Afterlife to begin with and stepped aside towards one of the many pool tables to interrogate Johnny.

"What the hell did you do, Johnny?"

"Nothing I wouldn't normally do, V. I drank, I had some fun, I called your new best friend Hildegarde and left a funny message, I drank some more, I hit on Rogue, I got punched in the face and then I started a bar fight.", Johnny answered coolly.

"But how? You're not even in my brain anymore. You're inside that Chipset!"

"Yeah, but I found out I can take control. Cool, right? You just need willing or you need to be unconscious... or sleeping..."

"Really? Can you do it right now? I'm willing."

"Okay, V. Let's go have some fun."

V felt himself being pulled backwards, like someone had strapped a bungee cord to his pants and it was rebounding. He felt himself fall, but didn't. Suddenly he was looking through his own eyes, but had a pretty red HUD overlay on top of everything. He had no control over his body. It was like watching a movie and pleading with the protagonist to make better choices, even though everything was already scripted. It was horrible.

"AW fuck. Johnny! Johnny!"

"Yeah, V?"

"This is what you see, isn't it? Makes a lot more sense now."

"Yeah like I said, there's no control panel with a bunch of pretty buttons and flashing lights."

"Okay... I can deal with this. Cool. Please don't get us killed."

"Wasn't planning on it, but there are a few things I'd like to try..."

"Oh no..."

Johnny-V got up and walked towards Hildegarde who was at the end of the bar and halfway through her drink. The outlaw just stared at him, expecting him to go away.

"Yes, V? How would you like to bother me tonight?"

"Yeah, Just a quickie. You're obviously pretty well off, considering your reputation. Why do you wear an eyepatch? It's not like you don't have the chop for a bionic eye.", Johnny-V noted. Hildegarde's eye just narrowed.

"Do you have a death wish, V? You'll find out soon enough. Best not to reveal my best tricks quite yet."

"Oh, I like the sound of that! What do you use the empty eye socket for? Extra pleasure when you're sucking-", Johnny-V was just punched very hard in the middle of his face, the impact sending him onto his back on the dirty floor of the bar.

"V. Leave the bar and sober up. You're really getting on my nerves right now and I am trying very hard not to kill you right now."

Johnny-V just got up, laughed, and walked out of the Afterlife. He continued out of the bar and walked over to his Porsche, jumping in and starting the engine. As the original owner of said vehicle, he backed out and left the area like a professional.

"Great. We just pissed off Hildegarde. If you wanted us to die painfully, you could've just grabbed her tits and said you loved her.", V mocked.

"I thought of that, but then considered that if you die, I die too. And I like being alive again."

"Can you just, stop? Can I take control again?"

"Sure, V! But not while we're driving. You've already fucked up my car beyond repair. This baby is over 100 years old, do you think parts are easy to find? Jericho's memories are easier to find than replacement parts for this classic ride!"

"Fine. Just don't do anything stupid."

"You got it, V. Just a few more hours of fun and we'll both go home and you can 'take control' again."

"No no no no, wait!"

V couldn't do anything. The only thing he could do was watch as Johnny sped through traffic, weaving around slower cars and forcing the Porsche up to its top speed. He wanted to grab onto something for support, but there was nothing, he couldn't control his limbs. He was just a backseat driver. Realistically, the only thing he could do was yell about it.

The Porsche came screeching to a halt in the parking lot of Lizzie's Bar. Johnny-V getting out, gently closing the door, taking in all the looks and stares from passersby and headed into the club itself. The bouncer outside recognized him, or at least the body in control at the moment and let him in. Johnny-V paid the entrance fee and walked in, using more of V's money to pay for a private booth where the Rockerboy proceeded to don the Braindance gear and do absolutely unspeakable things with V's body. After a few moments of despicable acts, he found himself being forcibly ejected from the club. Johnny-V gave two middle-fingers to the bouncer before heading back off in the Porsche towards the Coyote Cojo.

The Porsche screeched to a halt in the back parking lot of the Coyote Cojo. Johnny-V stepped out, once again gently closing the door and heading for the rear entrance of the bar. As he stepped inside, Mama Welles greeted him.

"Oh, V, You're back. I'm so glad you've reconsidered riding off with those nomads. As I've said before, you are welcome here anytime. Make yourself at home, drinks are on the house."

Johnny-V didn't hesitate. He immediately went up to Pepe and ordered the legendary Jackie Welles named drink. V was still drunk, he knew it after the bender at the Afterlife, but there was nothing he could do. Johnny-V drank. He ordered more. He drank even more. Pepe began to cut him off, but he flashed a $1000 cred chip and kept on drinking. V could sense Johnny's and his own vision blurring. He could feel Johnny stumbling out front door. He saw himself vomit. He saw his vision begin to narrow before it finally went black.

Chapter End.

Character Bios:

V:

Our hero, a Nomad from the Bakker clan. Previously he'd run a raid on Arasaka, broken into Mikoshi and thought that everything was all set. After leaving Night City with the Aldecado Nomads, he headed for Arizona to meet an mysterious man who who could fix all his problems. If only he knew.

Height: 5ft 8in

Weight: 180lbs

Age: 28

Role: ?

Jericho:

A mysterious man with a plan. Not much is known about him. As a Med-techie, he was the one responsible for V's impromptu surgery and savior.

Height: 6ft 4in

Weight: 275lbs

Age: ?

Role: Techie, Med-Techie, ?

Hildegarde:

A solo who has cut her way across Europe, Russia and Asia. She originates from London, England as evidenced from her accent and demeanor. In her home country, she is both feared and revered, but here in Night City, only rumors and legends follow her around.

Height: 5ft 10in

Weight: 132lbs

Age: Mid 30's

Role: Solo

Asher:

A NetRunner. She's overly chipper and tends to talk about whatever pops into her head. She's good with hacking and cyber-defense despite her silliness. Despite being horrible at gunplay, she's learned that a big gun goes a long way.

Height: 5ft 2in

Weight: 103lbs

Age: Late 20's

Role: CrystalJock, Netrunner

Scotch:

A drunken wobbling imbecile. He smells of cheap booze and discount cologne at all times of the day. He moonlights as a bartender and works full-time as a mechanic. Although drunken, he's a considerably better driver than Jericho and is put in charge of driving the Crew to their destinations. There are no vehicles that he doesn't know how to drive.

Height: 5ft 4in

Weight: 150lbs

Age: Late 30's

Role: Panzerboy

Roles taken from the TTRPG Cyberpunk RED and Homebrew elements based on D&D 5e. .