Chapter 12: Of Ice and Men

The AV trip had been uneventful, Jericho and Hildegarde had passed the time by playing chess, the two of them equally matched and the game ending in a stalemate, Asher slept most of the trip and V just sat back and relaxed. They had briefly landed in Seattle on top of a massive high-rise apartment building and let their passengers out. That girl from before, Max Koffield, was the daughter of a regionally famous Media who reported daily on the Sea-73 Newsline. Jericho mentioned to them that they may call upon the famous Media one day if they had a need for him. They then headed northwards again, this time towards Alaska and Anchorage. Jericho had pulled some lever on the wall and retracted the GAU-8 cannons into the hull, Anchorage was not a free city and a heavily armed aerial transport would be highly suspicious, not that a heavily modified Manticore AV was any better.

"Guys? We're almost there...", Scotch announced from the cockpit.

V got up to see what awaited them and was in awe. Jericho had mentioned that various cataclysmic events had unfolded close to Anchorage in the years gone past that had caused the polar shelf to shift and submerge most of the city underneath several hundred feet of ice and permafrost. What was built on top of the remains of the Old City was a massive geodesic dome, slightly opaque and gleaming in the morning sun. It covered the entire downtown area of Anchorage and had several platforms extending from it for AV's to land upon and several ice roads leading across the new tundra towards the Canadian border.

"Once Asher locates the Black Market signal, we'll investigate. Stealth is key. Otherwise until we are ready, you may want to explore the town.", Jericho announced. "I do not suggest entering the lower city, as it's filled with gangs, scavengers and other unsavory beings."

"The lower city?", V asked.

"Yes. The remains of Old Anchorage that lie buried beneath the ice. The dome covers only the tallest buildings of the downtown area as well as their seat of government on the roof of the dome."

"Sounds like fun, maybe you should go on down there and ask people about their feelings.", Hildegarde half-mocked.

"Why are you so mean to me all the time?"

"You're new? Also, you annoy the living shit out of me, V.", Hildegarde noted before turning away from him and ignoring him completely.

"Don't worry, V. Hildegarde will warm up to you eventually!", Asher added cheerily. "It took me ages!"

"Yeah, I figured. So how long have you all been working together?", V asked.

"Oh, well... Jericho and Hildegarde have been doing this for like... 15 years? I've been with them for 7... and Scotch has been with them for 5... We had another guy before you, Vostok, but he didn't last more than a few months before- before he left."

"Vostok?"

"Vostok was just like you, V. A promising young merc with a head full of ideas. Too bad he didn't get it; didn't understand what we are doing. He decided it was better to try to sell us out. It didn't work. I hunted him down myself and I killed him.", Hildegarde sighed.

"Betrayal doesn't get you far. Or any second-chances. If you betray me, you've betrayed everyone. And if you betray one of us, you've betrayed us all. The only punishment is death.", Jericho added coldly, his piercing glowing eyes aimed towards V.

"What the hell did he do?"

"Saw a nice bounty on one of us, particularly me, and decided to feed information to the Mercs who were hunting me. He nearly got us all killed in Instanbul, but we survived and the gonk went and hid in Prague. He didn't hide nearly good enough since I was able to find him... and flatline him with my bare hands.", Hildegarde reminisced.

"The Mercs who are after you, you mean Starhawk?"

"Yes, V. Starhawk. He and I have some... history. Deals gone wrong, he didn't want to deal with me given my reputation after he'd learned of it and tried to kill me with sabotaged cyberware. Needless to say it didn't work, so I decided to end his entire family line."

"Woah."

"Yep. We had made a deal on the RTG's that Asher and Sctoch both use. This was before their time with us, by far. He had some and I agreed to buy them. Of course, his paranoid father had to background check me and without Asher's Veil, I was revealed. He reneged on out deal and tried to kill me. I survived, but ruined my favorite outfit and my left arm in the process...", Hildegarde noted as she pulled her gloves off revealing the same set of jet-black cyberware that Jericho used. The arm prosthesis only went to her elbows. "Then I went and found him at his shop, Starhawk Enterprises, and killed his father, his mother, his brother and castrated him. End of line."

"Remind me never to piss you off."

"You needn't worry, V. I hate you, but I don't hate you, besides you already piss me off more than enough. Starhawk swore to find me and kill me, which he's failed twice so far. Perhaps a third time's the charm? The only real downside to his little assassination attempt was having to walk back to Jericho's base with my clothing burnt to hell and my left tit hanging in the breeze. Irkutsk is not warm."

"At least you still had a left tit. That sounds awful, trapped cyberware?"

"An incendiary grenade, yes. It was... unpleasant, but I lived nonetheless. Jericho quickly outfitted me with his best chrome and I found this Trevali Nano-tech Armor in Naples. It's very special to me, V, which is why I wear it all the time. It hardens on impact and can even deflect bullets...", Hildegarde noted pointing to her plum-purple bodysuit.

"Huh, and I thought you just wore that because-", V stopped talking noticing an icy glare from the outlaw. "-you look nice in it."

"Oh I'm aware, V. It does look nice on me. But, for once, form and function come together..."

"Why doesn't Jericho use that stuff? That ratty old trenchcoat puts out a poor appearance..."

"Haven't you noticed yet, V? Jericho only wears pants and the jacket. His entire body is cybernetic and he has no need for trivial things such as a shirt, the jacket keeps the rain off of him.", Hildegarde noted, pointing to Jericho.

To be honest, V hadn't really taken a good look at Jericho but she was right. He only wore some old ripped combat pants that ended at the knee and that ratty black leather trenchcoat with ripped sleeves. His entire upper body was cybernetic and made of the same dull-black metal as his limbs. His face looked human, although just his face, the rest of his head was also made of the same alloy. He was full-borg just like Adam Smasher, but with a human-like aesthetic. V supposed that he was also still human underneath his pants since Hildegarde stuck with him for so long and their relationship had spanned over a decade.

"I know what you're thinking, V, and yes. He can.", Hildegarde noted, smirking at V.

"You know? I really didn't need to know that."

V just shut up, no doubt Johnny would appear and say something stupid again. He'd probably compare his own crotch equipment to the Mr. Stud enhancements and then go on a tirade about how Alt never needed that kind of touch. He just sighed as Scotch initiated the landing procedure and brought the AV down onto one of the landing pads outside of the domed city.

Anchorage Alaska was cold. The polar ice shelf shift had caused an irreparable climate change in this area. The concealing ice extended up to almost the middle of the mountainous peak in some areas. Jericho offhandedly mentioned that this is the reason why the Prescott Foundation's Weather Control Technology was used in Blackwell, the winters would bury the entire seaside town if it wasn't used. Seattle didn't use the same Weather Control tech, but had their own ways of surviving the arctic winters that blew down from Canada. The walk into the airlock that led into Anchorage's dome couldn't have been shorter, the icy wind chilled everyone to the bones except for Jericho, who walked towards the entrance unaffected.

The interior of the walkway away from the AV docks was a balmy 68 degrees, which felt like a nice summer's day compared to the outside and the temperature rose steadily into the high 70's as they got closer to the domed city itself. Jericho noted that Anchorage used geothermal heating as a power source, caused by one of the many cataclysmic events causing volcanic eruptions throughout Alaska. A series of hotsprings ran through the ruined undercity and were piped up into the new city and used for cooking, heating, and bathing.

Anchorage's own police paid them no mind and let the group enter into the dome itself, a digital blue sky was projected onto the dome with a digital sun showing the approximate location of the real one outside. The interior of the dome was unusually green and verdant, with trees and other plant life in various planters throughout the main thoroughfare. Concrete roads spread out in grid-like pattern around the few original buildings that were left exposed above the ice and the remainder of the 'floor' of the dome was some kind of reinforced alloy. A few newer structures were of the industrial kind and sat interspersed with the older ones making the city's sense of style and décor a mix of old and new. None of the vehicles that drove the streets appeared to run on CHOOH2, probably a good reason since the entire city was enclosed, and were all electric variants of the ones that raced through Night City. A sea of MaiMai's made up the majority of traffic.

Jericho briefly pointed to a nearby bar and hotel, the billboard above the bar denoting the establishment as the Iceberg. It appeared to have been some kind of office building before the ice floes came and buried the lower half of the building. A new entrance had been built into what remained of the upper floors. "In here. We'll be able to find room and board. Asher, use the Veil, all of us all the time. We need to find that Signal."

"Already on it, Jericho! We've been Veiled since we landed. I've got an approximation of the Signal, too. It's uh..."

"Asher?"

"It's in the undercity. Like, really deep down there!", Asher exclaimed exaggerating the distance with her hands.

"Figures. Well, the Iceberg is an older building, no doubt it has an elevator or staircase that leads down to the undercity's street level.", Jericho sighed. "I suggest you all rest up and buy some provisions and ammunition. The undercity is rather unfriendly."

Jericho wasted no time buying the absolute cheapest rooms in the bar and hotel as possible, the clerk giving him a set of keys for the -8th floor. This wasn't entirely bad since the lower they went, the closer to the undercity they got, which made sneaking into the hellhole a lot easier. The rooms were about as good as expected, a disused cubicle farm converted into a multiple rooms for the occupants. All of their 'rooms' occupied a single room on the -8th floor, which meant they at least had some privacy. A rickety, damp staircase led the group downwards towards their beds, farther downwards into the bowels of the building and back upwards into the dome.

"Ach, I'll be at the bar if you need me.", Scotch noted before walking off back to the bar of the Iceberg.

"Cool beans. Don't get too drunk, Scotch! I'll stay here with Jericho and see if I can't pinpoint the signal now that we're inside the dome. This place is messing with my location protocols!", Asher added, sitting down next to Jericho in one of the cubicles.

That just left V and Hildegarde to go and buy all the supplies. Hildegarde headed off on her own, not letting V get a word in before she was out of sight. V just walked back up to the main floor and headed out into the town.

"A city encased in ice, never thought I'd see one...", Johnny noted, popping up randomly again.

"And?", V asked, annoyed by the sudden intrusion.

"It's interesting, V. Night City had all kinds of these, just smaller. Made to entertain the tourists into thinking Night City was a nice place to be. I never thought I'd see people actually living in one like this.", Johnny mused.

"Again, and? This is SovOil territory, they've got the main contract with the city even though it's NUSA. Aren't you about smashing the corpos and freeing the people?"

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that, V. Thanks for reminding me.", Johnny added sarcastically. "Not gonna lie, they've really got this place prettied up. Couldn't tell you what it's like lower down, but it's a lot nicer than Night City."

"I think it would get boring after a while. Fake sun, fake sky, a shithole outside. It's nice up here, but I bet it's nothing but hell down below.", V noted.

"I was just thinking the same thing. Guess we'll just have to find out for ourselves...", Johnny concluded, disappearing again.

V sighed, Johnny had been appearing less and less. Was this a sign that the Unification was happening? He really didn't think so, but Johnny had been a little more than out of character recently. He still had his memories, he still knew the faces of his parents and friends, he was still the same V from last year. Right? Right. He just walked into the nearest gun shop and bought some more ammunition for the Malorian, the clerk taking interest in the custom weapon and taking entirely too long gawking over it. As he left the gun store, he went to the nearest junk shop and bought a few packets of instant noodles and beef jerky before heading back towards the Iceberg. Upon entering the bar, he spied Scotch already several drinks in and sat down next to the shorter man.

"Ah, hullo V!", Scotch exclaimed. "You likin' it so far?"

"Ehh. It's not bad. I've had worse, to be honest. Hildegarde is mean, Asher is weird, Jericho is cryptic... You're good though, we- we met before at the Nomad camp.", V noted.

"Yup! I've always been wit Jericho, though. If ye'd stayed longer the first time ye'd met the Aldecados this would've been over a lot quicker! But ye ran off back to the city..."

This what V had been thinking for a while. That his meeting with Jericho had been planned and planned far earlier than just a few weeks ago. If he'd gone and gotten the Relic removed back when he'd met Panam, then Saul wouldn't have died, he wouldn't have had to go and fight Araska and Johnny would either still be in his head or gone for good.

"Really? Why didn't you say anything?"

"Couldn't. Saul wouldn't have let ye go like that. I'd have had ta sneak ya out."

"But... I could've... Why?"

"Jericho heard of ye. Heard of yer Relic problem. Another piece of the puzzle, I'm afraid. If'n ye'd not sided with the Nomads in the end, he would've come and found ye himself. Offered you the same. Yer important, V. Moreso than ya think."

V just got up from the bar and headed back down to the room. He'd heard enough. Jericho had been looking for him, probably ever since he'd gotten the damned Relic. If he'd only known earlier or even asked more than one person about his problems, this would've been over and done and he'd go on living his life like nothing had ever happened. But then again, Jericho wasn't the one to just announce his arrival over the intercoms, he had a plan and secrecy was key. This was getting difficult, Jericho wanted a Revolution and V wasn't sure he could do that.

"Wake up, V."

V awoke, groggily and bleary-eyed. It was nearly 2 in the morning. He hadn't gotten to sleep very long at all. Jericho stood over him, fully kitted out for an espionage mission.

"It's time. Asher has the location. It's a small garage in the undercity. We're one step closer to our goal, V. Are you ready?"

"I'm ready. Let's do this."

V spearheaded the team downwards, why he was leading them was unknown, but he assumed it was because he was expendable at this point and he'd end up taking the first bullet when everything went tits-up at the last second. Hildegarde followed behind him followed by Scotch, Jericho and Asher. The lower they got to the undercity, the more the temperature dropped, occasionally a few hot spots came and went as the hot-springs ebbed and flowed around them. The light began to dim as well, making their descent difficult as the only lights were either from the few electric lamps hung in the ice tunnels below or from their own cyberware glowing in the darkness.

The lower floor of the building approached after several dozen flights of stairs. The landing ended into an old lobby of some kind of large accounting firm, the dilapidated furniture mostly untouched by the passage of time. Raggedy carpet squished underfoot from the excess moisture. V headed out of the building cautiously, taking note of the surroundings. The undercity had been carved out of the ice, the older buildings still standing in derelict condition, tunnels carved into the ice making streets, but thicker ice still hanging overhead. Pitons ran ropes and electrical lines that allowed for dim lighting to fill the surrounding area. Everyone who didn't belong in the upper dome was down here, homeless people, gangers, scavengers but not actual Scav gangers, Mercenaries, joytoys and other unsavory folks. It was like Night City all over again as antique neon signs lit up the street in a dim orange glow denoting various businesses and services.

"The signal is farther down the road. Continue until you see a sign for... Joytoys.", Asher noted. The location was deep in the Red-Light District. V kept walking on, ignoring the advances from the various joytoys that inhabited the streets. None of them were particularly attractive anyways and many of them were offering their services to the unsavory Mercs or homeless population. Empty drug hypos and stims littered the streets underfoot.

V slowly approached what he assumed was the 'small garage', as it wasn't small at all, but an old tire shop with several large 14ft bay doors. The few doors closest to the building were welded shut or barred from entry by a row of derelict cars in various states of repair. Slowly he approached the only unlocked bay door and reached down to throw it open, he couldn't see inside at all.

The garage door opened abruptly before V could even touch the door handle, the door flying upwards and leaving V staring at the metallic robotic feet of Adam Smasher. His eyes traced upwards in disbelief, Adam Smasher was dead, he'd made sure of that. But his eyes didn't lie, he was back, and his body was overbuilt with even more armoring over his previously exposed joints and linkages that comprised his cyborg body. A pair of red eyes looked down on him as he was abruptly picked up by his throat and hoisted into the air to eye-level with the deadly cyborg. This was going to hurt, a lot.

"Drop him! He's with us!", Hildegarde shouted, V's savior was unexpected as he'd half-believed the one-eyed outlaw would've just laughed as he was ripped in half by the cyborg.

"Hildegarde!? Mein gott!", the cyborg who was not Adam Smasher exclaimed as he dropped V roughly onto his ass. "You're alive?"

"See, Gunter, the trick is to keep breathing...", Hildegrade sighed recognizing the cyborg. "It's been a long time, you still carrying Navarre around with you?"

"Yes. Of course!", the cyborg now known as Gunter noted.

"Gunter, good to see you. No more mistaken identity, I assume?", Jericho noted as he walked up to the much larger man.

"Not sinze ze 'death' of Hildegarde. A shame, I zuppoze. I vas getting used to ze excitement.", Gunter added with a thick German accent.

"I'm getting close, you know. Close to your reputation. Only a few hundred more to kill before I'm as infamous as you...", a Russian-accented voice mentioned, a female slightly shorter than Hildegarde added as she seemingly phased into view. Her hair was cut short and slicked back, a red-eye cybernetic replacing her left eye.

V just picked himself up off the ground. Old friends? Old enemies? Frenemies? He just stared at the Adam Smasher look-alike, the larger man was also full-borg with a similar body, but with far more armoring and a small gattling cannon perched atop his head. The female was shorter than Hildegarde, but dressed similarly with a black body-suit and had two sub-machine guns holstered on her thighs. The woman just stood back leaned against the larger man with her arms crossed in amusement.

"Wha- What's going on here!?", V exclaimed, still dazed.

"Ah, we shall explain. Please, come in. I have tea on the kettle.", the woman noted.

"Navarre, it'd better be black, you know what I drink...", Hildegarde added.

"Of course, for my best friend and rival, only the best..."

In a few moments, V's team as well as the new friends were seated around a small table. Gunter was too large to sit in a chair and simply sat on the floor, his legs crossed awkwardly. Navarre sat on a loveseat across from Hildegarde and Jericho, Asher and Scotch sat in chairs adjacent from the table. All of them held teacups filled with piping hot black tea.

"...What did you scream again? 'I am not a machine!'? Gunter, you're more machine than man and that's why you were profiled.", Hildegarde mused.

"Yeah! And then Navarre just asked, like super calmly with a gun to her head, 'How did you know?' when you kicked her out of her Glass-Shield invisibility!", Asher added.

"I remember clearly. Like it was yesterday. To answer your question, Vee. We got our asses kicked.", Navarre answered towards V's obvious question of 'How the hell do you know each-other'.

"It vas miztaken idendity! Zhey vere looking for a borg and voman vith one eye! Ve matched ze description!", Gunter asserted. "Ve had to find zhem! Otherwize problems would arize!"

"Tch. Not many full-borgs around, I can count on my left hand how many I've met so far... But, Jericho looks human, not like you.", V noted.

"Didn't matter. We fit the description. And the Mercs came for us until we found Jericho and Hildegarde. Needless to say, our fight was... pathetic.", Navarre noted in between sips of tea. "I have never suffered a loss quite like that."

"Aye, It ended with Gunter missin' all o' his limbs and Navarre on her backside with a rail-gun in her throat.", Scotch added. "We dinnae kill them obviously, figured they were better as friends than enemies."

"I vonder, had ve taken you one-on-one..."

"You would've still lost...", Hildegarde sighed.

"Indeed. We have nothing but our baggy coats to frighten the gonks, you have sight that can see the unseen. We would've died if you hadn't spared us.", Navarre mused. "A bit uncharacteristic for someone like yourself?"

"Jericho decided that. Otherwise you'd be kibble.", Hildegarde noted.

"I would've done the same to you if our roles were reversed.", Navarre added.

"Enough small talk. You know why we're here. A Black Market signal. A certain Chipset you may have found?", Jerico stated.

"Ah yes, that. We'd found a very interesting lead, courtesy of the Jensen Brothers... You remember them, right? JC and Paul? They led us to an old Siberian black site. We took all we could in scrap and found the plans for your... Chipset.", Navarre explained. Jericho had more friends than previously assumed. How many more lay in waiting?

"And then you sold it to Arasaka. Tell me why we shouldn't just slag you right now?", Hildegarde threatened, the two other Mercs pulling back slightly.

"We did none such thing! They sent a man, Anders Hellman? He offered a significant amount for it, but we refused. We know you and we didn't want to incur your wrath. However, Araska has NetRunners and they took what they wanted.", Navarre brushed off, her eyes still aimed at Jericho for any sudden moves that would result in their sudden and extremely unpleasant deaths.

"How much did they get?", Jericho asked, his piercing glowing eyes seemingly staring through Navarre.

"Nothing significant. The Base chip and nothing else before we pulled the plug. You needn't worry, Jericho. The designs are safe... Here...", Navarre noted before climbing onto Gunter and pulling out a data-shard from the larger man's skull. "I've always kept your secrets in a safe place."

"Thank you. Navarre you've done us a great deal. How would you like to be rewarded?", Jericho noted pocketing the shard.

"We would like to continued to assist you in any way we can. Since Hildegarde is back and alive, no doubt those that hunt you will return. We both miss the... excitement of a good fight.", Navarre added.

"We would offer to take you along, however our AV is rather small... It may be a tight fit for you, Gunter.", Jericho added.

"I have no problems vith that. My limbs do not get crampz.", the cyborg noted.

"But you still have problems with vending machines...", Navarre mocked.

"It vasn't my fault! I vanted orrange! It gave my lemon-lime!", Gunter shouted.

Hildegarde just cackled at the two of them. These two were endless enjoyment. She wondered briefly if the others saw her and Jericho in the same light, but scrubbed those thoughts from her mind before composing herself again.

"You think the maintenance men have some kind of plot!?", Navarre accused.

"Of courze! Zhey know I like orrrange!", Gunter reiterated in rage.

"Alright, enough! Jeez...", Hildegarde noted.

"Yes. Your AV would do nicely, however we have our own and we still have some business to do here in town.", Navarre added.

"Business?", Asher asked. "What've you been up to lately?"

"Ve have been gun-running. Zelling to merzenaries all over ze globe. Only ze best of Deustch manufacture!", Gunter half-shouted.

"And we've been taking the usual jobs, assassinations, information brokering, theft, and the like. We've teamed up with JC and Paul, the Twin Guns as they're called now. They brought their younger sister, Alex into the fray as our NetRunner.", Navarre noted, refilling her teacup in the process.

"Why? They're useless... Paul is overly sefl-righteous and JC just runs in guns-blazing like he's some kind of action movie hero not to mention he wears his sunglasses all day long like some kind of perv. Alex is entirely too weak and poorly equipped to even come close to JC's appalling performace. She's only good as a bullet sponge.", Hildegarde complained. She's briefly worked with the so-called Twin Guns and it wasn't pleasant.

"Zhey do have their uses. Extra bodies to draw ze fire.", Gunter noted.

Hildegarde just cackled at the thought. JC and Paul both dressed like wannabe Morgan Blackhand clones with opposite personalities. Alex was a bit younger, a bit more naive and woefully under-equipped to be considered more than a street-samurai. Both Gunter and Navarre were experienced Solo's which meant their their 'team' consisted of nothing but Solo's. Team Solo which comprised of five team members. "What do you call yourselves?"

"We're Ex Machina. A fitting name, considering our backstories.", Navarre stated. "You're still using Ouroboros?"

"Yes. Everything ends where it begins. The beginning of the end is the beginning and the end is the beginning of the end.", Jericho cryptically noted seemingly thinking of something else. "I'll keep you in the loop, Navarre. There is a war coming, you'd best prepare for it."

Navarre just nodded. She knew what Jericho was referring to as he'd mentioned it when they had been working together and it was the reason they'd been allowed to live since they'd agreed upon and held similar ideals. "Where will you go next?"

"Where this all started. Back to my home.", Jericho noted.

"I see. I wish you well, we'll be waiting for your call.", Navarre concluded.

Jericho stood up first, motioning to the rest of his crew to follow him. He stoicly led them back through the undercity and up the long, long staircase into their hotel again. He entered their hotel room and sat down, pulling out his laptop-like computer and inserting the data-shard. He began to review the data on it before pausing for a moment.

"This will take me some time to decrypt. Now that we have all of the pieces to the puzzle, our final destination is closer than you'd imagine. I have never taken anyone back to where I call home, as it is where I remember waking up. We will fly at noon tomorrow towards Neo-Tokyo, perhaps taking a quick break there before heading farther south. Towards Korea. Towards the burial place of Sefirot.", Jericho stated, looking at everyone. He stood up and began to make a speech, although V had just joined their 'team', they were already close to finishing their own questionable journey.

"Aye, where be we headed?", Scotch asked.

"You know why I follow you, Jericho. I'm in no matter what!", Asher added.

"Good. It's time to end this.", Hildegarde sighed.

"The end of our long journey comes at last. For the darkest is the time just before the dawn of a new age. Those that feed on carrion shall feast upon the corpses of their fallen kings who have sworn allegiance to the false gods above and cast down the children of mankind left to rot in a dying world. And those that feed on carrion shall take over the world in swarms as those false gods are shown their own fallacies and drown themselves in blood.", Jericho announced once again rambling like a madman. V had no idea what this was about, but it didn't sound good.

"And the first to drown in blood hold seats in the City of Shadows...", Jericho continued, the rest of the crew nodding in agreement. V still had no idea what this was all about, but it sounded like some kind of cult. Worse than the Voodoo Boys kind of cult. "And V, your time to choose draws nearer. I truly hope you make the right choice in the end."

V just nodded and headed off by himself out and away from the group and their crappy hotel rooms. He needed some time to think about what was going to happen. He went down to the bar and sat down, ordering himself a beer. Johnny appeared next to him with a similar holographic beer.

"Guy's rambling like a lunatic. Those who feed on carrion? What kind of conspiracy bullshit is that?", Johnny asked, sipping his holographic beer.

"I- I really don't know, Johnny. He wants to start a revolution. He wants the people to revolt against corporations. He's tryin' to what you did, except on a wider scale.", V sighed taking a bigger gulp of his beer. It was not a good beer at all.

"There. You've got it, I think. The people, the corporations, the governments that allow those corporations to do what they do. What kind of revolution doesn't start with a government reform? No corpos, new goverments. The people rise up!", Johnny mused. "I'm just wondering how he plans on doin' that with only you and three other gonks."

"I don't know, Johnny! Look, we'll find his memories and then I'm out. I'm going back to Panam and I'm riding into the sunset with the Nomads. Fuck all this nonsensical conspiracy bullshit!", V exclaimed, people looking in his direction. He pulled out his phone to try to make it look like he was talking to someone on the other end.

"You sure the tin-man will let you go like that?"

"He promised. He said I could leave with the Chipset. He just couldn't guarantee which side of the war I'd be on if I left."

"And you're sure he won't decide ten minutes after you leave that you're on the wrong side and kill you, kill Panam, and kill all of the Aldecados?"

"I- I'm not sure about that at all. I just- I trust him. He's good to his friends, if I need his help I'm sure he'll be willing to accommodate!"

"You think! You don't know anything about the man, not even why he's done all of this! He's looking for cyberware designs, he's lookin' for his memories, he's starting a revolution, he's cryptic and mysterious, you don't know anything, V!"

"You don't think I know that? Look, just wait until we've found his memories. I'll tell him then and we both can gauge his reaction. If he doesn't like it, then I guess I'll just have to flatline him!"

"You flatline that? V, I've heard some dumb ideas come outta your mouth but that's gotta be the worst idea I've ever heard. Well, second worst I guess, Kerry wanted to name our band EuroHand and I thought it sounded too much like 'Urine Hand'..."

"If you've got any better ideas, I'd love to hear them! I can take him, I took down Adam Smasher!"

"You have no chance against a nuclear-powered cyberpsycho and his equally insane and trigger-happy output. You could probably take the drunken pilot at the quirky NetRunner, though."

"Fuck you, Johnny! Just you wait until we get his memories back!", V concluded, finishing the rest of his beer. He ordered another one before downing that in one gulp and stumbling back up the stairs into the sleeping area. He found a bed away from Asher's god-awful snoring and fell asleep. This was insane and he knew it. He was on a death-train to hell and that fuck-train had no brakes.

Chapter End.

A/N: I really hate trying to write out specific accents, but it's a learning experience. This is the second fanfic I've tried to do a Scottish accent in and I know, it's bad. Probably not as bad as the German one, though. Also, I need to continually add more OC's and Expies of existing characters since Cyberpunk 2077 doesn't really have enough that fit the bill, Cyberpunk 2077 is based off a TTRPG like D&D, so expect more references to other media, like Deus Ex and RWBY and who knows what else. If you can guess who the main 3 OC's are based off of, you win a prize.(Not a monetary prize. I will give you a hug IRL.)