Immortal: Hello everybody! I have come at you all with a CYBERPUNK 2077 after having played the game including its DLC and an idea came to me that interrupted my muse with my Fate story. Trust me, I know it seems like I might abandon that other one, but please believe that I have NOT in fact abandoned that story. As always, life gets in the way and I have been hitting a wall.

But by getting the creative juices flowing again with a different story, I am hoping that the other one will come to me. So in the meanwhile, I hope my readers enjoy this story and let me know whether or not you would like for me to continue this.

The story I am going off of is based on my playthrough, which was the (Don't Fear) The Reaper choice along with the final ending being, "Temperance". But after that, I just felt that there was so much more that could be done and after suddenly an idea struck me and I had to put it in writing.

Disclaimer: The story contained herein is fan-based writing. I own nothing involving Cyberpunk 2077 or its lore in any way, shape, form, thought or idea to include digital engrams, hypothetical codes, or daemon software. Please support the official release!

Cyberpunk: Arcanus

Prologue

The deserts of Arizona were devoid of any life as the sun beat its rays down on the vast Mojave Desert, where only the hardiest of plants and few remaining animals could even survive. Even humanity could survive, but in the year of 2077 the only real way to withstand the excess rays and heat of the sun here were to live in bio-domes that had sprung up sometime after the Collapse. It was in the biodome of Alpha City where Panam Palmer along with her Nomad clan, the Aldecaldos had been making runs after leaving California a month back.

Corps and the NUSA alike had attempted to settle the lands, but between a joint venture with Consolidated Agricultural Corporation (ConAG) and Biotechnia, their combined funds and expertise created their own Eden in the form of domed cities. Outwardly it was a giant dome expanding thousands of miles capable of covering an entire city, while inside the panels made it appear as if there were ordinary sunny days thanks to the screens that completely covered the whole sky, mimicking the sun and the moon.

Alpha City was made out to be an Eden, but really it was more like Babylonia where the Mayor was in name only and order was maintained through a strict, but unspoken rule.

"Don't eat where you shit."

Alpha City's main source of income aside from all the braindance studios, clubs, bars, entertainment districts, brothels, was the vast underground facilities containing the vast underground facilities that maintained the agricultural economy of nearly half the West Coasts. It was a country within a country of sorts where crops and other vital foodstuffs were made. Other corporations like Arasaka invested in this as well in order to have a private stock of real meat or real crops for their higher-ups as a status symbol that the public at large could not get.

Many ordinary people worked on these farms all the way down throughout their generations, living on the land and working for their corporate bosses. Although these people were allegedly free to quit or leave at any time, many had simply no better prospects and simply passed down their positions from one generation to the next. But the corporations were always looking to find a way to save money and cut corners in the name of profit. One of the corners that had been cut was importations and exportation.

It used to be that these were done by air travel, but it had been deemed too expensive, so Alpha City had dictated that all imports and exports would be made by land travel.

Nomads such as the Aldecaldos were happy to make raids on the importations or exportations to sustain themselves or be sought out by fixers for their own smuggling and driving capabilities. Sometimes even the corps themselves would smuggle things in that they did not want to have inspected by customs or have things smuggled out and delivered if they wanted things done quietly.

Saul Bright, with Panam acting as his go-to, had accepted a job for escorting a ConAG shipment of new animals for synthmeat. Panam had advised Saul to tell the fixer of Alpha City, "Geronimo", to tell ConAg to get bent and questioned why they were doing this when supposedly they were done with corps after the Biotechnia fell through.

Geronimo wasn't the fixer's real name, but he had adopted it as a pseudonym as a fixer as a call-back to a more famous Apache fighter. He had risen to the top through a combination of unrivaled netrunning skills and ruthless brutality that had cut down other gangs in Alpha City until his tribe was at the top of the food chain, yet still subservient to the corporations that ran Alpha City.

Despite her distrust of corporations and refusal to be enthralled to them, Saul had argued that the money being offered was too good to refuse of 200,000 Eurodollars. But more importantly, they were promised vehicle shards that would allow them to bypass the usual entrances to Alpha City and allow them to come and go as they please to be able to get what they needed along with being able to get more work.

Saul had pointed out that ever since they departed from Night City they had been low on many vital items that they could not make themselves. Even their self-sustainment was at an all-time low and even the small jobs they did of smuggling or transporting were just barely keeping them afloat.

Almost all their vehicles, including the Basilisk they stole from Miltech were held together by glue and prayers after they had barely managed to survive an attack from an entire Snake Nation raiding party. Several of their people had died in the attack, including Jake to the great distress of his friends after he had gotten his badly needed organ transplant to save his life. Among the fallen were Jeff, Taco, Ellie, Emily, and Mitch. Every one of them had been injured in some form or other. Cassidy ended up losing a leg in the battle, but he joked even now that the person who blew off his leg was an idiot because he left him with both his hands, which he used to fire his gun to blow his attacker's head off.

Saul and Panam both sported scars from the fight just to add to their collection, but the loss of even a single family member was horrible and to have lost so many. It was especially devastating because Mitch and the children who had been in the most heavily armored vehicle that was destroyed in a suicide attack. Ever since then, Panam just couldn't stop thinking about it because they had been so careful after leaving the Badlands of Night City and just couldn't understand how they had been attacked.

It had simply been bad luck and timing because the Snake Nation had only recently tried to plant its roots in Arizona and the Aldecaldos had simply not known what they didn't know.

But although they had been hopelessly outnumbered it was chiefly thanks to the Basilisk that they managed to pull through and wipe out the Snake Nation raiders of 50 strong. It was thanks to this battle that other rival Nomad clans had quickly gotten the message.

"DO NOT FUCK WITH THE ALDECALDOS."

After arguing about it, Panam eventually caved in to Saul because as much as she hated to admit it, he was right and that their personal feelings had to be put aside for the care of the family. So they had met with the ConAG agents at the border between Mexico and the NUSA before providing escort back to Alpha City. It was quickly discovered however that the, "animal" shipments that they were escorting was in fact a human smuggling operation, meant to bring people in who would live in Alpha City's underground facilities and work for far cheaper than the average citizen as a means to support their families.

Some things never changed it had seemed and Panam made no attempts to hide how pissed she was at this, especially since their fixer had never made mention of this. Carol, Cassidy, Bob, and Saul were all just as unhappy about this, but kept their silence because at the end of the day, these people were not their family and they just needed to do the job.

Eventually the job was completed and they watched with distaste as the people were herded out roughly of the cargo trucks and to the elevators where they would live the rest of their days out among the many people who worked in ConAG's agricultural farms as literal slaves. The ConAG agent who met them acted like a teacher speaking to children with saccharine sweetness so obviously fake that Panam had punched her flat to the ground with such force it broke the other woman's nose.

Panam promised her that if she found out that the workers were mistreated, she would come back and bury her up to the neck in the desert and leave her there.

The corporation guards had pointed their guns at Panam, the Aldecaldos pointed their guns back. As per usual they were outnumbered and the ConAG woman stood up, holding her bloody and broken nose, spitting out such vile swearing that even the veteran Aldecaldo's looked mildly impressed.

Finally, the stand-off concluded in favor of the Aldecaldos when Bob and Teddy who were piloting the Basilisk aimed its weapon barrels at the corpo forces. Slowly, the Aldecaldos had backed off after getting both their payment along with the shards that would allow them free passage in and out of Alpha City,

As they drove back again, Panam was once again glad to have the Basilisk with them despite how hard she was to maintain. But in doing so, she once again turned her thoughts to the merc from Night City who had helped her go back to the Aldecaldos and had been one of her dearest friends in the short time she knew her.

V, the former Corpo who had been dropped like hot shit from Arasaka, who had in the span of a few weeks had gone from a small-time nobody into a legend in her own right that even as far out as Arizona was talked about. She had been hired to steal a piece of experimental technology from Arasaka, "The Relic", but everything had gone completely sideways and after being shot in the head by Dexter DeShawn, who had hired her in the first place, the Relic had activated.

It had contained the digital engram of another Night City legend; the terrorist who blew up Arasaka Tower with a mini-nuke to corpos, the former rockerboy of the band, "Samurai" to others who stuck it to the man by his fans, boozing, horndog, fucking asshole to those who knew him personally, and friend to only a select few.

Johnny Silverhand.

His engram was forcibly taking over V's body and there was nothing that either could do to stop it. The pair did not get along at all from what little V told her. Johnny was stuck in the body of a corpo and a chick, while V had to deal with the seizures, migraines, and the terror that came with the inevitable decline.

But it seemed after a time, the two had come to an understanding of sorts and even began to develop a friendship. V even showed her a video of her rocking out with some of the members of Samurai including the most famous rockstar of the age, Kerry Eurodyne. Although she clarified that she had willingly allowed Johnny to take control of her body a few times, Panam was skeptical if V really did have any say in the matter or if Johnny was taking more control of her than she thought.

Yet even with her decline, V had still taken the time aside to help out people and charge full-speed to accomplishing her dream of being one of Night City's greatest legends. No matter what was going on, V had always taken the time to help Panam and the Aldecaldos for no reason other than the fact that she considered Panam a friend.

She had overheard Mitch telling her once that Panam was the kind of person who valued loyalty so highly that any kind of betrayal was one she took very much to heart. But after V had helped them fight off the Raffen Shiv's thanks to the Basilisk, she had departed for the last time even though Panam had promised that she and the Aldecaldo's would help her with her problem with the Relic.

V had remained completely incognito until she had appeared on the news as a cyberpsycho who had stormed Arasaka Tower and massacred many of the security forces, causing untold damage to property and persons. Even the head of Arasaka Security had been reported as being critically wounded with any recovery attempts an impossibility.

Panam had known the merc well enough to know that even as chromed out as she was, there was no reason to believe that she was consumed by cyberpsychosis. But perhaps the Relic had been responsible? Did Johnny Silverhand take over V and try to go on a crazy revenge kick to get another shot at Arasaka? The possibilities just ran over her mind over and over at just why the edgerunner would do something like that. It had been so unbelievable that Panam had gone to Rogue of all people to try to get a straight answer because if any fixer knew the truth, it would most likely be Rogue.

It was a long drive to the camp, which allowed Panam to think back on the events.

/~/

The Queen of the Afterlife had been surprisingly solemn despite Panam barging in and asking just what the hell had happened with V. Rogue had told her it was none of her business, but Panam refused to leave even when the huscle stepped in to remove her from the premise. But Rogue surprised her when she slid over a data shard containing live camera feeds of the whole thing. V's face was still scrambled and unseeable by camera's thanks to her Kiroshi optics, but Rogue knew it was her without a doubt.

The tattoos, the guns, the way she moved, her Projectile Launcher, and even perhaps her most prized possession, "Satori". The sword she klepped from Saburo Arasaka himself after his murder at the hands of his son, Yorinobu. The whole thing started out from her exit from a place called Embers and frantic drive to Misty's Esoterica. Panam watched as she and a blonde girl whom she assumed to be Misty arrive at the roof of her building and her blood ran cold as she heard V speaking aloud. She was both speaking to and answering herself, her voice taking on two distinct tones despite the fact showed there was nobody there.

She heard her talking aloud to somebody named, "Judy", catching that it was high time she faced death. V continued her conversation with Johnny and Panam heard Johnny trying to persuade her to let him take their body to get help from Rogue and get to Mikoshi in order to save their lives. V weakly had mentioned that Panam was an option as well, but Johnny asked if the edgerunner was certain because their lives would be on her conscience if anything were to go wrong.

Panam listened with horror as V mused the possibility of Hanako and Arasaka being an option and found herself agreeing with Johnny's incredulity at that, but V quickly changed her mind and admitted she was just thinking aloud. Panam found herself breathing a sigh of relief after that, but then her breath caught in her throat as she heard her friend consider putting everything to rest as she looked at the gun she carried in her hand. Despite knowing that V ultimately didn't go through with it, there was a horrifying moment in which she silently plead for V not to go through with it.

Then V set the gun down on the table next to her before she just sat there for a full five minutes before she heard her, or rather Johnny speak.

"Kinda tough deciding which of your friends get to die, isn't it? Good news is you got this one choom who's already dead."

The feed cut out for a bit in a flurry of static and Panam growled, "Stupid fucking CCTV crap…"

"-drag anyone down with me."

V's voice, despite sounding weary was slowly growing more and more resolute as she sat up and looked at her invisible friend before he spoke in his approving tone.

"Huh, you just discovered what it takes to become a legend. Grab your iron and let's mobilize."

The V held her arm out as if she really was grabbing a hand before standing up resolutely and left the rooftop before going to storm the castle that was Arasaka Tower.

The rest of the shard showed her fighting from the entrance of Arasaka all the way down through mechs, robots, Arasaka Security, and all the way down to the underground facility where Mikoshi awaited. Panam had watched in awe as V, despite coughing blood up and struggling on her last legs still fought her way through Arasaka's forces and even managed to stand up to Adam Smasher himself.

The chromed out boogeyman of Night City had given her a fight like none other. V was like a blur as she danced around Adam Smasher, slashing at him with her katana, emptying magazine after magazine into him, and doing everything she could to put him down.

But Adam Smasher had earned his name as the Boogeyman of Night City because despite how hard V was fighting, despite her being as chromed out as she could get, she still was hampered by the Relic's malfunctions and it only took one salvo of Adam Smasher's rocket salvo to catch her and leave her lying on the ground as she struggled to move.

Smasher was missing an arm and was badly wounded, but he still had enough strength to move like a veritable titan as he leapt over to V tried to smash her, only to miss as she just barely rolled out of the way. The concussive force was enough to knock her off the ground and this gave her opponent time to kicked her in the side hard enough that she flew into one of the computer banks and sparks flew in brief geysers as it nearly folded in two. T

The 'borged monster's voice snarled that as soon as he was done with V, he was going to hunt Rogue down next. V struggled to get to her feet, firing off round after round of her Malorian Arms pistol. The rounds didn't even slow Smasher down as V finally got to her feet before Adam Smasher roared his hate and plunged his hand into V's stomach all the way up to his wrist.

He lifted the impaled edgerunner up and howled with sadistic laughter before ripped her heart out. Even with her augmented frame, Adam Smasher's strength was beyond mortal as he held the still beating heart in his hand before squishing it with a disgusting, "SQUICK" sound.

Panam sobbed in horror, "NO!" as she saw V flop lifelessly on the ground, blood gushing out of her chest and mouth.

"Keep watching kiddo.", Rogue had said with a sardonic smirk, having had a more subdued reaction to the very same thing when she first saw the feed.

The camera video showed that despite having her very heart ripped from her chest, V suddenly pushed herself up and using her left arm which opened up, fired her Projectile Launcher over and over point blank into Adam Smasher with a feral scream.

The Boogeyman of Night City's shouts were muffled by the explosions of the small, but powerful missiles that ignited his rockets and blew off his remaining arm. He staggered, but still remained standing in clear shock before V drew out a pink and green carnage shotgun slung over her shoulder, aimed it at Adam Smasher's chest before she pulled the trigger and screamed, "FUCK YOU!.

The blast was so strong that if an ordinary human tried to fire it, their arms would be dislocated at best, if not torn off at worst from the kick of it. But V was running on adrenaline, rage, and whatever else kind of fury had temporarily taken hold of her as she fired over and over while screaming her lungs out.

BLAM! "FUCK YOU!" BLAM! "FUCK YOU!" BLAM! "FUCK YOU!" BLAM! "FUCK YOU!" BLAM! "FUCK! YOU!"

Panam's eyes were locked onto V as she fired every round she had into Adam Smasher until he was finally forced to his knees as burning wreck more machine than man. Panam felt the bile rise in her throat as she saw Adam Smasher on his knees, a thing so grotesque that only his partial brain that showed in the wreckage of his body could truly identify him as human.

V attempted to finish off the 'borged monster as she placed the barrel of Malorian against the fractured metal skull of Adam Smash, but it was clear she had spent all her ammunition in the fight and her katana was out of reach. Not only that, but her Projectile Launcher was also empty and the fight had been all but drained out of her.

Weakly, the merc had used her last Air Hypo, giving her just enough strength to turn away and stagger off as Adam Smasher fell forward with a loud CLANG on the metal floor as the lights in his remaining cybernetic eye slowly died away.

The edgerunner was still bleeding even as her cybernetic enhancements tried to stem it. How the merc wasn't paralyzed by the debilitating pain was astounding, not to mention surviving with a ripped out heart, but Rogue had suggested that it was a Pain Editor and Second Heart that was the only thing realistically keeping her going.

Panam was horrified at that thought because it meant that even if V couldn't feel it, her body was dying. Not only that, but the damage the Relic was doing to her was so destructive that if it weren't for the Pain Editor implant then V would not be able to move. It was a dangerous implant for mercs and soldiers alike because even if they couldn't feel the pain, their bodies would give out due to the sheer amount of strain and damage. This was the main reason why few mercs willingly took the Pain Editor, but V must've been suffering so much every day from the Relic that being implanted with such a device was the only recourse she had, but even then it didn't stop the seizures affecting her body.

The Second Heart was an implant that was very rare and would activate in the event the first one gave out, but to have the original heart torn out so violently... it was a miracle in and of itself that Adam Smasher hadn't ripped both out at the same time.

Then the last image before the feed stopped was of V coughing more blood up and limping to the steel doors to Mikoshi before it cut off completely.

She had sat dumbfounded after the video feed ended, astonished at how V was able to do something so insane while the Relic killed her. Even the Aldecaldos had heard of the monster Adam Smasher and what he had done to cement his legend. Ordinary people including legendary figures like David Martinez were as children to the nightmarish boogeyman of Nigh City, but V had beaten him and walked away.

When pressed at how Rogue was able to obtain such a thing, the Queen of the Afterlife told her that Johnny had asked for Alt Cunningham to provide the footage as proof of V's final battle.

Panam was confused before Rogue bluntly told her Johnny's engram had fully taken over and V as she knew her was gone. Alt Cunningham was an engram herself and her situation was a whole other story that Rogue did not care to get into before she re-emphasized that the edgerunner known as V was henceforth only a drink at the afterlife.

"The V"

2 Ounces Sake Utagawa

¾ elderflower liqueur

½ ounce Centzon Totochtin

¼ ounce lemon juice

3 shiso leaves

But Panam wasn't about to give up and asked just what happened, Rogue told Panam that the best thing she could do was simply forget about it, because the edgerunner was gone and only Johnny Silverhand remained. The rockerboy would probably be off to his usual shenanigans of sticking it to the man and flatly told Panam that if she ever saw him again, she would personally put a bullet between his eyes because she was well and fully sick of him. But for V... at the least the two of them could drink to the birth of the newest legend of Night City amongst the likes of Jackie Wells and David Martinez.

Panam ignored the drink offered by the Queen of the Afterlife before she stood to leave.

But before she left Rogue's private area, Panam told her once with full and utter seriousness that if Rogue hurt V before she found her and ripped Johnny's thieving soul out of her, all of Rogue's connections, wealth, and skills wouldn't stop Panam from coming after her. The Queen of the Afterlife merely wished her luck before Panam stormed out and left the Badlands with the Aldecaldos for good. She had tried over and over to reach out to V, but all that she ever got were voice mails and silence as thorough as an empty desert.

/~/

"V… what the hell happened to you?", she whispered, still feeling the raw ache in her heart.

"Say something Panam?", asked Cassidy as he drove his "Little Mule", Colby truck beside her Thorton Mackinaw, "Warhorse". a had been part of the reasons why the Aldecaldos survived thanks to her being a part of the operation that allowed them to hijack the Basilisk in the first place. But even this was bitter because her friend had all but dropped off the face of the earth after her one-woman assault on Arasaka Tower that Johnny Silverhand may as well have coerced her into. Not only that, but the worst wound of all was that V apparently didn't trust Panam nor the Aldecaldos enough to want to help her.

She didn't tell her feelings to Saul, Carol, Cassidy, nor anybody else in the Aldecaldos about just how bad it still hurt even now to think about it.

"Nothing… Everything's fine. Let's just go home.", said Panam before she shut her radio off.

/~/

The next day found Saul and Panam along a few other Aldecaldos inside Geronimo's casino, "Thunder Bluffs.".

He was a middle-aged American Indian fixer who claimed that his tribe had been on the lands for generations back when the first white man conquered his people by real horses instead of iron ones. He was not only the owner of the best casino in Alpha City, but he also had a vast network of informants who spoke in unique digital codes, cyphers, and passwords that only he could decipher along with his tribe whom he dubbed his, "Code Talkers". But to Panam's eyes, he didn't seem to care too much about his history since he was dressed finely in a tailored suit, sipping on whiskey, the fog of real tobacco wafting in the air.

To Panam, he was just another Corpo-Rat with his own personal nation within Alpha City.

Saul had insisted on being paid in physical cash instead of digitally. Nomad's didn't exactly have bank accounts that they took with them across the country and Aldecaldo's were no exception. Geronimo was amicable enough even when Panam not so subtly accused him of profiting off the slave labor that made Alpha City its riches.

"At least they came through me and ensured I got them here alive and safe.", he shrugged and tapped his rattlesnake boots on the carpeted floor, "Besides who else would take them in? You folks? From what I've heard, Snake Nation fucked you guys so far up your asses that it's a wonder you ain't coughing up desert sand."

He grinned and showed his teeth were all gold-plated.

"Cut the shit and just give us our payment if you got nothing else for us."

Panam was glad that Saul was the one speaking because if the smug bastard kept talking, Panam would pull out his gold teeth one at a time. Geronimo's eyes gleamed a bright blue and a hatch opened in the redwood coffee table nestled between himself and the Aldecaldo's to review a briefcase which he himself opened and presented to them.

It was full of Eurodollars, a crisp 50,000 specifically.

"Are you fucking serious?!", barked Panam as she started forward and pulled herself out of Carol's hand, "50,000 is all we get?!"

"Well it's after deductions from my fee and after one of you violently assaulted the head of ConAG's Personnel Management yesterday.", shrugged Geronimo with casual confidence, "But rest assured you will have the money you need and then some. There's another client who has been quite eager to gain your services for transportation and she is willing to make the payment upfront."

"Fuck you and fuck your client", is what Panam wanted to say, but ever since Saul had given her the responsibility of leading their family, she had found herself reigning in her temper more and more because now every decision and action she took was watched. Back when it was just her on the line, Panam would be as fierce and free as the wind, but now she had her struggling family to consider and that was what she used to slowly ebb her anger back enough to think for a second.

Saul wasn't speaking and had crossed his arms when she looked back at him, silently telling her to get on with it and that she wasn't going to squirm out of being a leader because she didn't personally like what was going on.

So with a reluctant sigh, Panam asked Geronimo what the situation was.

"Everyone searches for paradise. But not every knows where to look.", prefaced Geronimo as he took a drag off his pipe and blew the thick smoke out of his nostrils and standing up to look out the vast windows of his office down at his casino where all were welcome so long as they abided by his rules.

"This client in particular wishes to return to Night City after having fled from that Sodom. They wanted to leave the past behind and find a new life for themselves, claiming that they had become a wiser person and not wanting to waste their newfound freedom. But it seemed that we can be sure our sins will find us out-"

"Get to the damn point already!", said Carol impatiently, sick of the mystical bullshit Geronimo was trying to weave, but the fixer merely laughed.

"Okay, okay just chill out. I like to have fun and play the hey-ya, hey-ya chieftan once in a while, but if you insist. Bee, el, you, eff, bottom line, up front, client needs to get back to Night City pronto even though they are perhaps among the most wanted individuals in that city. It was only after they had heard what happened last night between you and ConAG that they immediately demanded that I arrange things between your Aldecaldo's and them."

A feeling began to churn in Panam's gut, but she didn't know why as she asked just who the client was.

"Well you won't have to look very far.", said Geronimo with a pleased look as he gestured with his pipe to the stage on his casino as the lights dimmed and blaring rock music began to play and Panam walked over curiously to see what he was gesturing at.

Red lights flashed as the music began to play and flames erupted in spouts from the ground as several holes in the stage opened up to reveal four musicians. A keyboard player, drummer, bassist, and a rhythm guitarist.

But the frontman was the last to arrive.

His ascendancy rose higher than all the rest like an archangel. He was wearing a white collared shirt rolled up to their elbows with black leather pants and a bandolier with golden bullets acting as a belt. A spotlight shone down on them and sparkler waterfall the crowd cheered as he jumped off the platform and when he landed, sparks erupted out of the ground and he began to play a furious and heart-pounding solo.

The lights faded and Panam's jaw dropped as she saw the familiar ruby red hair, the rose thorn, skull, diamond tattoos on her face and neck, and silver-shaded cat eyes. The hairstyle was different though even with the same color, being long on both sides of her head with a center-parted swept back cut.

The person singing, playing, and strutting on stage, who Geronimo pointed out was the client.

Saul and the others walked over and quickly were just as shocked and astonished as Panam was. Finally, Carol broke the silence in a breathless whisper.

"Holy fucking shit… that's…! That's fucking V!"

'No.', thought Panam as a new and colder fury began to turn her insides to ice and she clenched her fist so hard that the leather gloves creaked, 'That's not V. That's Johnny fucking Silverhand having the time of his life after he tricked V out of her body.'

"Well dang.", mused Cassidy as he scratched his head under his cowboy hat, "Never thought that I'd see the day when V would give up the merc life in favor of being a rockstar."

"V? Did you know her?", asked Geronimo curiously, "That a nickname or something? She's been going around telling us her name's, "Johnny". Bit odd for a chick to have that kinda name, but damn can she play! Asked her once if she's trying to imitate the frontman of that other band, uh… that shitty one called, "Samurai"! She came her not too long ago spouting all kinda chrome and was looking for a ripper to help her with an operation, but she didn't have the scratch for it and decided to take on any job as an merc that she could. But she lives here and plays sets now and again."

Geronimo looked back at Panam, either ignorant or uncaring of the cold fury on her face, "So what's the deal? Why'd you call Johnny, "V"? That short for something?"

"Yeah.", replied Panam as the first song ended and she saw V looking up, her face appearing on the giant tv screens to the cheers of the crowd, panting a little but giving a shit-eating sneer that seemed directed almost at Panam.

"V stands for "Very", as in I'm going to fuck that's asshole's world up "VERY" badly."

Immortal: Ah...! It feels so GOOD to finally write SOMETHING! In any case, I hope that I get some feedback from you dear readers with a review. Most importantly, I just want to know if you all think that I should continue this story or stop delaying and get back to my other one.

In any case, I sincerely thank you all for following me! Any kind of constructive criticism is welcome and if what I'm writing here is implausible even for the Cyberpunk universe, please let me know and I'll do my best to fix it. By the by, after watching the show, "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners", I included in my arsenal four key weapons during my playthrough to assault Arasaka Tower; Projectile Launcher, Guts, Malorian Arms 3516, and Satori.

Additionally, Johnny in my story is still inhabiting V's female body, but the hairstyle was changed to his own, yet he kept the color out of memory of V. If I post another chapter at the request of my readers, I'll get more into the weeds for it.