Chapter 36: ...And Party Everyday
The Samurai tour AV quietly landed on its landing pad at Monarch Tower, the Night City variant, not the original in London. The penthouse that had been reserved for Johnny Silverhand and his band sat several levels underneath the CEO's office and had a small landing pad that telescoped out from the building when needed. The modified and slightly lengthened Rayfield Excalibur deposited V, his friends and the band themselves onto the balcony before taking off again, presumably to land in a more appropriate site.
Beyond the balcony that they'd landed on, there lay a vast half-circular penthouse that took up one side of the entire Monarch Tower, the balcony itself had an infinity pool and a high crystal-dome 'glass' canopy that provided a view of the city and also prevented anyone from fall off the tower itself. The rest of the penthouse included a large living room with a sunk-in entertainment center with several holo-TV's and a wet bar. A kitchenette sat in a separate room across from the living room and included a small hallway to a large dining area before the penthouse suite continued into the sleeping quarters which had several large beds in ten separate rooms. The final room was the master bathroom with a large jacuzzi taking up most of the space in the room. The entire room itself was decorated in the usual Monarch royal blue and gold-trim in a somewhat modernized Victorian décor.
"Behold! The power of Monarch!", Johnny remarked somewhat mockingly as he held his hands aloft.
"It's really nice...", Denny noted as she quickly flopped down on one of the couches.
"Yeah, and watch this!", Kerry added. "Janus? Pour us some drinks! Tequila on the rocks!"
Janus complied, the wet-bar opening up and several tumblers rising out of the circular platform. Ice cubes froze inside the glasses before they filled from the bottom-upwards with a deep golden aged tequila. Kerry just grabbed a glass and sipped up. "It's like magic. Just ask and ye shall receive."
"Shit. This AI is way more useful that I thought...", Johnny sighed as he also grabbed a glass. As he sipped it he quickly realized that this was some top-shelf liquor, most likely an Anejo and aged for over a year. "Ooohhh yeah..."
"Hey, wait up! Don't start without me!", Nancy exclaimed also grabbing a glass.
"I'm a teetotaler, now. Been clean too long to fall back into... Fuck it. Denny, you've got my back right?", Henry chided.
"Don't worry about it, Henry. You're with friends. We've got you.", Denny reassured. Henry just grabbed a glass and sat down with the band in the entertainment center.
V also walked over and grabbed the last glass, as this one was taken, another set of glasses rose up from inside the bar and refilled with more tequila. Judy and Evelyn grabbed glasses for themselves along with Rogue, Vik, Misty and Jackie. They sat on the opposite side of the entertainment center with V. Rogue slid a bit closer to Johnny, though.
"Hey, Janus! You got anything other than booze on tap? Maybe a few stims or 'party favors'?", Johnny asked.
"Of course. As permitted there is a selection of controlled substances available for recreational use. May I interest you in some Blue Fuzz?"
"What's that?"
"Blue Fuzz is a choice recreational psychoactive derived from a biologically modified Cannabis Indica. It is very potent."
"Yeah, gimme that."
Janus just complied and raised up another section of the bar, this time a few blue and gold-trimmed vaporizers rose up. Johnny immediately grabbed one and inhaled a bit harder than he should've, the Blue Fuzz immediately hitting his system, despite it being cybernetic, and causing his vision to blur with small halos around everything. His limbs seemed to disappear and he seemingly floated in mid-air. This was strong.
"Hey... Kerry? Try this shit.", Johnny slurred.
Kerry took a look at the vaporizer and took a hit, the much smaller dose causing his vision to blur and a tickling sensation to flow through his body. "Hehehe... Oooh..."
"No... No. Just booze tonight. No drugs.", Henry chided. He just continued to drink and left Johnny and Kerry's party-time drugs alone.
"Hey, uhh... Janus? We got any party games?", Johnny asked.
Janus complied once again, this time a wall across from the entertainment center slid down and revealed a set of dartboards. From the floor, a beer-pong table rose up alongside a multi-purpose gambling table. This penthouse had everything!
"Beeeer pong?", Johnny slurred. Kerry got up and stumbled over to the table, the cups on the table already filled with a strong dark lager. Johnny followed him over and took his side of the table, grabbing at the pong balls and taking aim badly. V just watched in idle curiosity before getting up and grabbing another glass of tequila.
"Hey, V. I'm kinda surprised. I can actually feel this stuff. It's... uh... strong.", Jackie noted.
"Well, choom, if you're like me... Your body is artificial but still has organs and stuff that works like the real thing. You eat don't you?"
"Yeah and use the shitter too. Kinda surprising considering..."
"Yeah. We're artificial humans, Jackie. Still got our minds and souls, though."
"Ya know? That's true, I think. I've got a little bit of memory loss, but I feel like myself. I remember Mama and my father, all the stuff I've been through. Just don't remember the end, really. Last thing that comes to mind is passing out in that Delamain after the heist..."
"Yeah... Jackie... That's when you died..."
"I know. Don't remember a thing until I was downloaded as an Engram. Bits and pieces came back the longer I was aware. When I got this body and got to walk around and visit our old haunts, then the memories came back. There's a gap, everything you did up until we met again."
"But you're back now, choom. Back to kick ass and make it to the big leagues!"
"You got it, broder!"
For the most part, it seemed like Jackie was back. He had all of the late choomba's mannerisms and only a tiny bit of obvious memory loss. Whatever Monarch was playing at was a better 'Secure Your Soul' project than Arasaka had ever tried. Monarch was using artificially created human bodies instead of recently dead like Arasaka had planned. The dead were coming back as Engrams in biologically identical robotic forms. V thought idly for a moment, there had to be some bigger picture here. Maybe there wasn't, but he couldn't be sure. Jericho was cryptic and played all of his cards close to chest. Everything was going good though, so why worry? V just sighed, Engrams that thought they were real people because they looked like real people and lived like real people, what was the measure of human?
Meanwhile, far outside of Night City on a Hyper-Rail container train, a few Aldecaldos sat in a compartment in utter boredom. Their current mission was to protect the hyper-rail as it delivered Chipsets and other Cyberware from Monarch to a connecting hyper-rail in Oregon which would then head towards Alaska and Anchorage. The trip so far had been largely uneventful with only a few skirmishes with rival Nomad clans, Scavengers, and Wraiths. The train had been armed and was equipped with GAU-8 auto-targeting cannons, which Mitch had used to scare off any would-be robbers. Cassidy, Mitch and Carol sat at the rear-most car of the train, a caboose and the security station of the hyper-rail. It would be a few more hours before they'd reached their destination.
"See anything fun?", Carol asked as Mitch still scanned the horizon.
"Nope. Nothin'."
"Figures... Nothing would be able to keep up with us anyways, we're going at least 400 miles per hour.", Cassidy sighed. He really wanted to try out his new guns and chrome.
"Except an AV or drone...", Mitch mused, he still scanned the skies and landscape, nothing was around them as they careened towards Oregon.
"Yeah? Shoot it down, leave some scrap for Snake Nation.", Cassidy added. Snake Nation would like the extra AV scrap if they hadn't already been absorbed into one of Monarch's Corpo-Cities.
"You think there's anyone still out there roaming around? I mean, you'd think they'd wise up and work for Monarch considering what they're offerin'", Carol asked to nobody in particular.
"I'm sure there are still some naysayers and die-hards out there, still wanting to 'ride free', but so far these Corpos have paid us more than we'd make in a decade.", Cassidy mused, he wasn't wrong.
"Ehh, get some rest, you two. I've still got my eyes in the skies.", Mitch noted as he was still jacked into the Security System.
The two remaining nomads just relaxed comfortably in the train car, once they got to Oregon, they'd ride back down on a different Hyper-Rail train, that one was a passenger model and traversed the entire west coast in several hours. It would be a nice little time to relax on their way back to Night City and the rest of the Bright Clan.
Back in Monarch Tower, V and his friends were all several drinks into their 'party' with Samurai. Johnny had gone off with Rogue to one of the rooms and had left Kerry all by himself, the other Rockerboy deciding that the jacuzzi in the master bathroom was a better place for him to be. He shared the hot tub with Denny and Henry while Nancy was off talking to V's friends about their miraculous 'revival', perhaps looking for a new story to publish in the screamsheets.
"...So you remember the end, then. You said you passed out in a Delamain taxi...", Nancy noted.
"Yeah. Passed out, woke up as a little hologram then got this new cybernetic body about a year later... I know I'm not the real Jackie, but I feel like the real Jackie. I have all of his memories, and fears, and joys. All his bad times and all his good times. If I'm not Jackie, who am I?", Jackie noted.
"Aha... And you said all you remember is getting hacked at Clouds, stumbling around and passing out before you woke up at a Ripperdoc in Little China?", Nancy continued as she asked Evelyn about her own experiences.
"Yep. I was with a client at Clouds when my Doll Chip short-circuited. Had a hell of a headache and passed out before I woke up in a Ripper in Little China. Two years had gone past, apparently. No idea what happened during that time, but Judy says that I was raped, tortured, and committed suicide. Obviously she's wrong.", Evelyn Parker noted.
"Anything strange about this Ripperdoc?"
"Hrm... Other than he was creepy? Creepier than Fingers? Never met him before in my life, he was a tall lanky Asian guy, had these weird glowing blue eyes and spoke... strangely. All he said is that I had memory loss and not to worry, it would come back eventually and he'd had to jump through hoops to save my life."
"Glowing blue eyes, how odd...", Nancy sighed.
"Wait... Glowing blue eyes? Tall Asian guy? I think you're talking about Jericho and he's not a Ripperdoc, he's something else... He created the... Ouroboros Chipset Version Five.", V cut in, Jericho was doing shady shit again, he knew it. "Did he have more than ten fingers? Like hands but hands with way too many fingers?"
"Uhh... Yeah, V... Why?", Evelyn noted.
"Yeah, that's Jericho. The 'Mad Scientist' behind all of this. All of the crap that Monarch is selling. He's the man that saved my life from the Relic, not that you'd know what it did, but I had to install it and it started killing me. Thought I found a way to get rid of it, but that just left me dying for real. Jericho stopped that from happening, but he also did all of this. Caused a second NetKrash and Collapse."
"What? So what are you saying? I'm an Engram too?"
"No... I dunno... Do you feel like... you?"
"V. I feel great. I don't feel like a robot. I still eat, drink, breathe, and live. As far as I'm concerned, I went on a little vacation and came back into a fresh and new Night City. Hell, I even heard the Voodoo Boys got fried and aren't even around anymore."
"Yeah, well... Engram or Human... I guess it doesn't really matter anymore. I mean, I'm technically and Engram too..."
"Wait, really?", Nancy asked.
"Yeah. Only way to get Johnny and me separated for good. Johnny got his own body and I got a new one just like my old one.", V noted.
"How do you feel about it?"
"I don't feel any different. I'm still me. Got my own life ahead of me, still remember where I came from and how I got here."
"Interesting... I think I'll need top speak with this Jericho someday. Perhaps an exclusive interview!"
"Don't count on it. He's hard to find. He'll find you instead."
"Well? You know him? Maybe you can set us up together!"
"Yeah. I could do that. I guess... Need me to find any other hard to find people? Maybe you'd like to interview The Genocider as well?"
"Oh! Could you?"
V just sighed. This was not going to go well. "I guess...? We're kinda on good terms..."
"Preem! As soon as you get a confirmation, send me the deets."
"Okay."
V just slid away from Nancy for the moment, she was still oddly interested in Jackie and Evelyn and how they were feeling after being 'resurrected'. Evelyn didn't believe she'd been brought back to life at all, but Jackie was aware of it. He walked over to Judy, who was listing to the side slightly in a drunken stupor.
"Ohh... Hey, V. What's up?", Judy asked, sipping another tequila.
"Just seeing how you're doing. How are you doing?"
"Honestly? Don't even know how to feel, V. All we did to avenge what Woodman did to Evie didn't matter in the end. Maiko took over Clouds and nothing changed. It's still shitty. Then Evelyn comes back, just waltzing into Lizzie's like nothing happened. Like I didn't cradle her bloody corpse after she died. Just came back in dressed the same way she was when she met you, blue hair and all."
"Yeah... She's... I'm pretty sure she's an Engram just like Jackie."
"But what does that mean? She's an AI? An AI in a body?"
"Pretty much."
"Is... Isn't this what Arasaka was trying to do? That whole Secure Your Soul bullshit?"
"Sorta... Arasaka wanted to use actual human bodies. Monarch just did the same thing, but with artificial ones designed to look like the real thing. Not sure why, though. They're not advertising it like they usually do. Maybe it's an experiment? See how well the Engrams do as real people."
"V... This is some conspiracy level shit, you know that? Why? What's the point?"
"Have one, The Singularity. Jericho, the creator of the Chipsets, mentioned it to me. That it was planned from the beginning, started two years ago and will continue forever."
"But... What is it?"
"No clue. You'd have to talk to the man himself. A Human Revolution. Or so he says."
"Huh... V... I think I need to have a few more drinks... Sleep on this... You know..."
Judy just finished her drink before grabbing another glass from the wet bar. She sat back down on the couch between Jackie and Evelyn and occasionally stared at the two of them as they talked to Nancy about being human.
V just walked over to Vik before backing away, Vik was playing a VR-BD boxing game and was battling against various opponents. He narrowly missed being punched in the face by one of Vik's mean right hooks as the older man fought against Razor Hugh. V just walked away to find someone else to talk to but there wasn't anyone else. Misty was passed out in one of the wing-backed chairs, having had way too much to drink. Johnny was busy with Rogue, as the door to one of the bedrooms was locked tightly and V could hear things through the door that he didn't want to hear, a lot of moaning and grunting to be specific. He just continued around the hallway until he came upon the elevators. He could go and request an audience with Jericho and Hildegarde, he'd promised that at least. He just pressed the down-button and hopped into the awaiting elevator.
V just rode the elevator down into Jericho's lab. The doors opening and depositing him into the large room. He walked down the hallway peering into the two side rooms, which were both empty. He continued into the lab itself where Jericho sat in his usual spot tinkering away with whatever new project he had. Hildegarde sat on the couch next to him watching his precise movements with intrigue.
"Hey.", V noted.
"Hello, V. What brings you down to me? Any problems with your new body?", Jericho mused not looking up from his work.
"Oh, nothing like that. I'm just hanging out with Samurai in the penthouse. Nancy, their keyboardist is also a Media. She kinda wants to interview you."
"Really? What for?"
"Uhh... The whole thing with the Engrams. Me, Johnny, Jackie and Evelyn."
"Oh. Alright then, I suppose if that's all she wants to know about... You know, it did take quite a bit of work gathering enough brain-scans to compile an Engram of Evelyn Parker. Regardless, even without Soulkiller, I believe I did a good job."
"You did. Evelyn thinks she's the real deal."
"She is the real deal, V. A few bouts of memory loss, but she is as real as she once was. A miracle, wouldn't you agree?"
"Yeah, maybe. I mean, I'm an Engram too, aren't I? I'm still me as far as I can tell."
"That you are, V. When would this interview take place?"
"Soon, I guess. I just need to go back and tell her you're down for one. I guess it would be here at Monarch somewhere."
"Splendid. I shall await your call."
"Oh, one more thing... Nancy also wants to interview you, Hildegarde."
"V... Why?", Hildegarde sighed staring up at him.
"She's curious. You've got a reputation after all."
"Fine."
"Cool, thanks!"
V just hurried away from Hildegarde's icy glare and headed back up the elevator. Nancy would be pleased to know that her two interview were set up and she could ask them anything she wanted.
Despite the short amount of time that V had been gone, all hell had broken loose in the penthouse. Johnny was still busy with Rogue in the bedroom, but everyone else was either stumbling around in a drunken stupor, pissing off the balcony, fighting with each-other or in some way horribly inebriated. It was like walking into a sandstorm and opening your mouth. V just looked around in confusion. Evelyn was drunk and pawed at Judy who was also drunk and feebly resisting her advances. Kerry was buck-naked and was pursued by an equally naked Denny for some reason, golden baseball bat in hand. Henry just stood in the corner watching the two of them go at it. Jackie and Vik were involved in some kind of drinking game, the larger man pulling shots of liquor out of the wet-bar and downing them like a ferocious beast as the older man swayed and kept drinking anyways. Loud trance music played over the speakers as some colorful lights in the ceiling strobed. V just stared at the chaos that was unfolding around him.
"Uhh... Hey!", V shouted. Nobody paid any attention to him. He just went and found Nancy. "Hey, I got you that interview. Here are their holo-numbers. Give them both a call and they'll set up the gig for you."
"Oh, V!", Nancy exclaimed before she also, in inebriated stupor, planted a big wet kiss on his face before stumbling after the two naked people that were running around the hallway.
V just stumbled away from everyone and went out onto the balcony. Soon, Johnny also joined him, dressed only in a towel. Rogue also waddled over to them, walking somewhat like a cowboy due to whatever Johnny had been doing with her. She just wore a bra and panties. The image wasn't great since Rogue was old enough to be V's grandmother.
"Hey, kiddo! You have fun?", Johnny asked.
"Yeah. Tons."
"Hey, there's still tons of booze left over, get yourself a glass!"
V just went and grabbed several drinks from himself. He actually grabbed as many as he could carry, downing them and dropping the glasses on the floor before doubling back and grabbing some more. Janus just provided him with an actual bottle of the aged tequila that had been being served to everyone else. V just grabbed it, uncorked it and began to drink from it. Yes, his body was cybernetic, but the alcohol was having an effect on him. He quickly rejoined Johnny and Rogue on the balcony.
"...That's gotta be the best I've ever had. No offense to V, but goddamn it, Johnny...", Rogue sighed out of breath.
"Hey, I'm back. I told you that. The real fuckin' deal, impressive cock and all.", Johnny mused.
"Oh yeah you are..."
"Uhh... Johnny?", V asked.
"Hey, Rogue, just go have a drink or two, I'll be back in the bedroom after I smoke."
Rogue just kissed Johnny lightly on the cheek before heading back into the bedroom. V knew this was going to be a thing. A good and bad thing. Maybe.
"Yeah V?"
"What is up with you?"
"Whaddya mean? I'm back, V. Gotta new life to live and I'm catching up on all the years I missed."
"Yeah, I guess. I thought you'd do this differently, though."
"I am doing this differently, V! I'm not taking down the Corpos! I'm livin' with them and seein' how far I get. Monarch's done more than any other Corpo ever did. And the whole fuckin' world is better off! This is what Night City was supposed to be, a city of fuckin' dreams!"
"Yeah... Okay, man. I'm going to just-"
"Just go and sulk? You've been given a second fuckin' chance, V. For real. Get the fuck out and live a little!"
V just nodded and finished off the bottle of tequila, it was a good thing his liver was cybernetic and easily replaceable as he was most certainly doing damage to it right now. He stepped away from the balcony and left Johnny to smoke his cigarettes alone. He sat down on the couch at the entertainment center and idly put on the N54 News, now the Monarch54 news and watched what was going on. He felt his vision blur as he slid lower into inebriation as the tequila did its job. He sighed heavily. New life, new goals, old friends, and a conspiracy. He just sighed again and sat back staring at the ceiling as it began to swim in his vision. He briefly looked away as Kerry's naked form tripped over a discarded glass and Denny began to beat the man with her weapon. He just shook his head. Tomorrow was another day.
Chapter End.
A/N: A conclusion is coming. Might write a prequel, I dunno. Depends on how I feel.