We stood in front of the open storage container, staring at a car covered in a dingy yellow tarp. Johnny glitched inside, leaning his ass on the front and patting it like a good dog.
"Go on, take off the cover. Check 'er out." Johnny grinned from ear-to-ear, beaming at me over the rims of his glasses.
Eyeing him suspiciously, I grabbed one corner of the tarp and in one swift motion, yanked it off. An old gray Porsche with red and white stripes near the rare stared back at me, its large bulbous headlights like wide eyeballs.
"A Porsche. Thing's old as dirt," I grumbled, folding my arms.
Johnny pressed a hand to his chest, mouth agape as if I'd offended him somehow. "Not just any Porsche. My Porsche 911 turbo, princess." He turned on his heel, displaying the car like a prized commodity. "Any idea how hard this was to find?"
"Nope. But gotta feelin' you're gonna tell me." I bit back my lip to keep from laughing at how adorable he looked right now—all excited about his lost toy.
"Made in 1977." Johnny flared a finger up, crossing one booted foot over the over as he paraded the vehicle. "Unique for its wider fenders and 'whale tail' design. Plus, I made this sweet gal into a Samurai custom model." He crossed his arms, mimicking my pose, and still grinning with chin held high.
"Well, 'course it'd have to be a Samurai model. No other way 'bout it." Sarcasm oozed my every word.
Johnny's grin faded, but only slightly and he slipped the Aviators from his nose. "Fuck. Should'ah known a tyke your age wouldn't understand pristine craftsmanship when they saw it. Lemme guess, you prefer the sleeker variety?"
"Nah. Wouldn't go that far. I mean—" Stepping into the storage container, I trailed a finger over the Porsche's frame. "—I fuck you, don't I?"
The wide smile returned and Johnny grabbed my wrist, yanking me to him, our chests colliding. "C'mere."
Circling my arms around his neck, I beamed up at him, my eyes searching his face. "What if we do find your body, Johnny?"
"We get Misty and whats-his-fucking-face to take me outta that gorgeous head 'o yours and back into my body." His face went blank and stared behind me. "Can't believe I'm even fuckin' sayin' that."
"Yeah," I whispered, frowning.
Coolness from his chrome hand fluttered my chin as he lifted it. "Is V gonna miss this rockerboy chillin' in her mind?" A shit-eating grin slithered over his lips.
"Pfft. Hell no. Sayonara, choom."
I didn't mean it. Not entirely. A small part of me would miss him in my head but a larger part of me remained insecure of him sticking around with me because he didn't me any longer to exist.
"Fuckin' liar," Johnny teased, dipping his mouth to mine and kissing me—hard. My ass shoved against the Porsche's door, Johnny pressing his hard as granite cock against my stomach. "Think how this'd feel if I were here, Val."
Fucking. Amazing. And I did want it. We'd both have second chances and a chance to be together. If we found his body. If it was still frozen. And the biggest if at all—taking him out of my head and putting him back into his own actually worked without a hitch. Lotta ifs.
"We better delta then, rockerboy," I muttered against his lips, my tone gravelly and sultry.
He pressed a hand to the car behind my head, leaning even closer, blissfully suffocating me. "Let's go in style and take the Porsche."
"You're going to make me drive that hunk'ah metal?" I jabbed my thumb behind me.
"Trust me. Once you ride this, ain't no goin' back, princess." His dark eyes flittered to my lips, grazing over my chest and stomach.
And there really was no going back. Johnny Silverhand had ruined me in all of the best ways. And I didn't give a flying fuck.
I lifted my hand between us, letting the keys sway. "Let's go deal with a borg."
We'd hopped into Johnny's Porsche and any time I peeked at him, he'd be staring at me, grinning and pretending to jack himself off in the passenger seat at the sight of me not only driving his car, but driving it well and enjoying it. The fucking dick was right. It drove like a damn dream. But I didn't give him the satisfaction of saying that out loud. He knew it. Rogue came to rescue again giving us coordinates of the borg's whereabouts from a name alone. When we pulled up to the address, it made Angel's ramshackle trailer look like a condo.
We stared at an old run-down building with green rusted and wide industrial doors, a mile-high pile of garbage bags resting in one corner of the expansive alley, the other corner an equal sized pile of garbage, but on fire.
"Christ, if this is where my body is bein' stored ain't no way in hell it's still in one piece," Johnny said, grimacing out the window.
Killing the engine, I kicked open the car door. "Would ya've preferred a corpo high-rise to store yer body?"
"Ha fucking ha."
After winking at Johnny, I exited the Porsche, slamming the door shut and listening to the echo of it bouncing off the metal doors. Save for the usual Night City ambient noise, the only other sound came from the crackling garbage fire. Quiet. Too quiet.
"Careful, V. Place like this bound to be trip—" Johnny started, cutting his words short when my shin pressed against an invisible tripwire.
"Fuck!" I yanked the Malorian from my pants and sprinted to the closest dumpster, leaping behind it just as a spray of gunfire rained through the alley from two mounted automated turrets.
"Since when are you so sloppy?" Johnny glitched beside me, crouching.
Glaring at him, I flicked him off. "Not. Now. You're—distracting."
"Can't wait till you ain't got that as an excuse no more," Johnny bobbed his brows, a wicked grin tugging at the corner of his lips.
I rolled my eyes, and peeked around the corner of the dumpster, wincing as sparks from un-ending bullets bounced off the metal. "This is bad."
"Yeah, no shit. Know you said ya only got basic hacks installed but would one'ah them 'least do enough to stop these damn turrets?" Johnny rested his forearms on his leather clad knees.
"I—yeah, I think I can manage." Pressing my back to the dumpster to concentrate, I accessed my hacks, and focused on "Friendly Mode." Peering my eyes over the top just enough to not get another bullet in my skull, I forced the hack into one turret followed by another. Within an instant, they both purred to lifeless mode, their alert lights turning green.
Johnny smirked and nudged my arm with his elbow. "Check you out, Netrunner."
"Forgot Vic even installed that. Told me 'For a rainy day' and it was on the house."
"Well, ain't he preem." Johnny replied sarcastically and pushed to his feet, holding his hand out to help me stand like a goddamned gentleman.
Slipping my palm into his with a quirked brow, I nudged my head at the doors. "Let's go. Considerin' the high-end security this nut job has, we gotta be extra wary."
"Agreed. Maybe you should crawl on your stomach in case there's any more wires."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "You can't be serious."
"No, but would'ah been fun to see if you'd have actually done it." Johnny grinned and glitched to the door, pulling his shades down his nose to examine the corners and edges. "Doesn't look like it's rigged with anything."
"That's a start," I answered once I'd made it to the door. "How the hell we get in, though?"
"There." Johnny pointed in the corner where the door remained ajar, half hidden by shadow.
"The fuck? Got two automated turrets but leave the damn door open? Makes no sense." Pressing my shoulder to the door, I slowly pushed against it, immediately pointing the pistol through the opening.
"My guess? Thought no one would get past the turrets and if they did, wanted to meet 'em face-to-face." Johnny glitched past me, checking hallways ahead. "Looks clear, Val."
Meet face-to-face to flatline my ass, I'm sure.
"Oh, they'll definitely want to kill ya when you try to steal their prized hopefully frozen possession." Johnny glitched from one doorway to the next, erratic and antsy. "If you were a cryo pod where would you be?"
Rounding a corner, I stopped dead in my tracks, grip loosening on the pistol as I stared into the room. "Here," I whispered.
"What?" Johnny asked, glitching in front of me his back turned to the enormous blue pod in the center of the room, a body—his body floating suspended in bubbling water, tubes attached to his neck and down the length of his spine.
I couldn't form words and pointed a limp finger behind him.
There was no explaining the how of it, but Johnny's face managed to turn white and he slowly turned, dropping to his knees once he saw himself.
"Johnny," I lurched forward, wrapping a hand over his shoulder. "You alright?"
"I—I can't believe it's still here and fucking intact." Johnny dragged his hands down his face. "Val, I don't know what to say right now, what to think. I honest for fuck's sake didn't think we'd find it."
Crouching beside him, I rested my head on his shoulder. "Well, we did. And there you are. By the way, 'bout that cock—" I trailed off.
"Don't even fuckin' say it. I'm dead and have been in freezing cold water for almost fifty goddamned years." He pointed a stern finger in my face.
I playfully pretended to bite it until a cyberpsycho burst through the wall and plowed into me, sending me flying halfway across the room, the Malorian skirting across the metal grating in the opposite direction.
"Val!" Johnny roared, glitching to my side.
Groaning, I shook my head, vision blurry from hitting my skull on something. The psycho appeared in front of me in a blink, a large wrench in its grasp, immediately swinging it at me. I backpedaled on my heels at the last instant, scrambling to stand.
"Fuckin' borg turned psycho. How am I not surprised?" Jolting from the room as to not be caught in a small space with a raging murderous machine, I headed down the hallway, leaping into the first open door I found. "I do not have hacks to handle this one, Johnny."
"Rogue. Fucking call her now," Johnny growled, glitching in and out of the room, keeping watch on the psycho. "He's too dumb to find you, but s'only matter of time. Try to keep quiet."
Rogue's voice soon filled my ears. "V? Everything good?"
"No," I whispered. "We found Johnny's body, but it's being guarded by a psycho."
"Fuck. Where are you?"
My body involuntarily jumped as the psycho punched the wall across from me, almost creating a full-blown hole. "There's no time, Rogue. Patch through my hardware and cyber hack that son of a bitch. Don't care what you use. Fry his ass."
Johnny appeared beside me, grabbing my arms and yanking me to my feet. "He found you. Move. Now!"
The door flew away from its hinges, the psycho stalking into the room, its shoulder taking out part of the frame on the way.
"Shit, V. You alright? I'm workin' as fast I can," Rogue said, the back of my head tingling as she worked her magic.
Johnny forced his way through. "Faster would be damn well better, Rogue. She's 'bout to get her arm ripped from their sockets."
Scurrying through the room, I crawled over storage containers and shelving units to keep distance from the borg. It followed me, unrelenting, turning over any objects that got in its way. Tripping on a spread cable on the floor, I fell to my knees, gasping and turning in time to see the borg looming over me.
"Goddamit," Johnny roared, his arms glitching in and out as he tried to grab the psycho but only met air.
"Got it," Rogue yelled and a second later the psycho's eyes sparked and its head sizzled and smoked before it fell lifeless to the ground in front of me.
Johnny sprinted to my side, crouching by me and resting a hand on the knee I'd bashed into the metal floor. "Christ, that was too close."
"Sorry that took so long V, but your cyberware, for lack of a better term is well—shit," Rogue said, bemusement in her tone.
Grimacing, I stood with Johnny's hand secured under my arms to help. "As I keep tellin' everyone, I'm a merc not a fucking netrunner. Spend my scratch elsewhere."
"Did I hear you say you find Johnny's body?"
Johnny gave me a sidelong glance and a subtle nod.
"Yeah. May actually get to see him in the flesh again." It was my turn to give Johnny the side-eye.
Rogue went silent.
"Rogue?"
"Yeah, I'm here. A lot to process with that possibility."
Cracking my neck, I moved to the hallway, heading back to the room with the cryopod. "Yeah. I get it. We'll check in soon."
After the audio feed was severed, Johnny and I stood in the doorway staring yet again at the swirling blue waters keeping his body from decaying—keeping life in his skin.
"Johnny, if this works, I'll understand if ya wanna go solo. Mean—been stuck with me day in and day out and—"
He appeared in front of me, hands grabbing each side of my face. "The past life I led and now havin' gone through all this shit with you? Fuck alone. It's overrated."
My sinuses stung and I gulped it back, clearing my throat to mask it. "Alright then. Let's call Vic and Misty. See if we can't figure out how to get your pasty ass back to Vic's place."
And just like our age-old dynamic, Johnny smirked and gave me the middle finger.
It took some creativity and maneuvering but between the three of us and a borrowed van, we were able to get Johnny's body, pod and all, to Vic's. We'd spent the better part of an hour staring at the body and I had to listen to their concerns and disapprovals. They hadn't spent the time I had with Johnny, hadn't gotten to know him like I did. Yeah, they're my friends, but fuck if I care about their opinions if I had the chance to be with him.
I sat on one of two surgical tables, Johnny's body on the other, still hooked to a dozen tubes until his psyche was back intact. "How long this gonna take you figure, Vic?"
"Got no damn idea. But I will need to put you under. Safer that way." Vic slid over on his stool, syringe in hand and a mournful expression.
Johnny leaned forward in Vic's face, glaring at him over his Aviators. "Think it'd be a dick move if I punched him in the jaw as soon as I came to?"
Considering he's the one bringing you back to life, Johnny? Yeah. Real dick move. But seeing his expression would be pretty damn funny.
"Fine," Johnny grumbled, taking a step back. "I'll let 'im off the hook—for now."
"Lay back for me, V," Vic instructed, coaxing me.
With a shaky breath, I lay on the table, interlacing my fingers and resting them on my stomach. A small prick pinched the inside of my arm and wooziness almost instantly started to overtake me.
Johnny?
"Right here, Val." He glitched beside the table, placing his hand over mine.
What if this doesn't work? What if I never see—
"It will work. And when ya wake up, I'll be here. Cock and all." Grinning, he dipped his chin to give my forehead giving it a feathered kiss.
Smiling as much as my body would allow, I blinked my eyes. "I'm holding you to—" And the world went black.
