Chapter Text
Author’s Notes :
Happy Cyberpunk Day! I was gonna start posting these a little later on, but today just feels right.
Welp, here we are. I throw my hat back into the SongV ring, but not for what you’re probably thinking.
No, this is not the continuation to my previous SongV fic. Was I probably supposed to do that? Yes. Yes, I was. This was started on a whim, almost exactly one year ago. This was supposed to be a one-shot. That’s it, just a one-shot.
…Then, it became fifty pages.
…Then, one-hundred.
…Now, it stands at three-hundred-five.
This is basically my SongV novel. I decided to make this essentially be “Phantom Liberty if So Mi was a romance option.” My other fics took place after PL, or pretty much at the climax of it with “Call Me By Your Name.” This time, it starts from the very beginning. There is some skipping here and there, but only for the stuff that wouldn’t change at all.
A lot of this will become obvious in the fic, but this is a V that has gone through quite a lot of the CP77 story, and more or less has the max relationship with Johnny.
While you can imagine this V to look like your own (if you went with Fem V), I did supply images of my personal V, if you just want the full experience as I made it.
Also, I’ve made my V a legitimate netrunner. One of my few complaints with this game is some of the role-playing just isn’t fleshed out. I’m usually a netrunner, but so many times in the game, V acts like they know jack-shit about it. Netrunning isn’t the only victim of that, obviously. But, V being a netrunner actually is important multiple times, and is commented on by many.
I do take some liberties with the technology in this story. Even a big one later on. But, as I’m sure many of you know, technology in worlds like this are…Uh, what’s the word? Oh yeah. Fucking Magic.
I write these stories for fun, and I too can be a slave to “The Rule of Cool”. I try to make things make as much sense as I can, but if someone who knows the real in-depth inner workings of the technology in the Cyberpunk lore says I’m wrong?
…Yeah, it’s too late. Can’t change it now.
Now, one last thing…
This is essentially the closest I’ve ever gotten to writing an “Overpowered” fic. V one-thousand percent has “Playable Character Syndrome”. It’s just unavoidable. V is canon in the Cyberpunk lore, and I’m no power-scaler, but you don’t have to be one to understand that V is basically a demi-god in the Cyberpunk world.
That doesn’t mean she believes herself to be invincible, but her skill-level will be mentioned and brought into play many times. Oh, and she does have both a Cyberdeck OS, and a Sandevistan. You can have both, but the game just didn't let you for game balancing reasons.
Anyway, that’s it. I loved writing this. It might be my second favorite thing I’ve ever written, with AMP obviously being in a tier of its own. I really hope everyone who’s read my SongV fics in the past enjoys this.
I’ll be leaving more notes throughout the chapters, discussing this story as it goes. Thank you!
______Cyberpunk: 2077______
[Dogtown Border Checkpoint]
‘You see anyone that looks like a ‘Songbird’?’
Johnny furrowed his brow, an incredulous smile on his face, “The fuck’s that supposed to mean?”
V shrugged as she pocketed her hands into her denim jacket, ‘I dunno! What else am I supposed to look for?’
“Feathers and a beak?”
She turned to him, deadpan expression on her face, ‘...’
“Hey, you asked.”
V sighed to herself, grimacing at her surroundings. Barghest made half the gangs in NC look like fucking geniuses. Half of these fuckers looked like they ate rocks. Almost a decade since its creation, and she had never actually been inside of Dogtown, and it certainly wasn’t advertising itself very well. Just the outside alone looked like shit, with all the rubble and trash everywhere. The cavemen they called a militia was just the icing on the shit cake. Why the hell did all these people want to go inside?
No taxes? She didn’t like paying taxes herself, but this didn’t exactly look like a fair trade. She’d double her taxes if it meant not living in D-Town.
This had to be a fucking prank, right?
Or, more appropriately, a hit.
It had to be the Voodoo Boys or something. Some voice appears out of the blue, claims to have a cure, and wants her to go into Dogtown of all places? Only a fellow netrunner could communicate to her like that, and the Voodoo Boys were among the few that knew about her…condition.
Granted, it wasn’t like Maman Brigitte had a lot of time to send out a message about the merc that appeared at their door, but what other explanation was there?
What remained of the Voodoo Boys was inside of Dogtown. They had to be luring her in. She wasn’t exactly afraid of them. Netrunning was their main skill set, but V was confident enough in her own skills to take them there. Combat? Yeah, it was very safe to say she had the clear edge in that regard.
But, confidence in her abilities didn’t mean she was stupid. She wanted to take the risk to cure herself of the Relic so badly, but walking any further into this was a terrible idea.
‘Ugh, c’mon. Let’s delta, Johnny. This is a waste of tim-’
Everything suddenly turned foggy, black and red pixels dancing in V’s vision before everything went completely dark.
When the world flickered back to life, pain shot through her entire body. V’s body spasmed, her implants failing her as she fell to her knees, gritting her teeth as she held back the screams of pain. Nobody even paid her any mind, seeing V as just another skezzed out junkie having a freakout. “Urrggg-! The…fuck’s…happening…?”
Johnny was clutching his head next to her, grunting out, “Dunno. Gra- It’s like my head’s in a fuckin’ vise!”
V crawled over to a broken concrete pillar, resting her back against the chain link fence as she tried to gain some sort of control back over her muscles. She couldn’t tell if this was a Relic Attack, or the Voodoo Boys had already gotten her.
Oh, for fuck’s sake, she better not die in some trashy corner of Dogtown.
Who the fuck was she kidding? This was probably what she deserved. At least it was better than a landfill…kinda.
However, someone then stepped in front of her, a pair of black sneakers entering her vision.
“V? You’re gonna be okay…”
V struggled to even look up, but once she did, she was met with an Asian woman, decked out in a denim jacket and netrunner suit, gear strapped around her waist.
…Well, if she was gonna die here, at least she had a beautiful view.
V grunted as she tried to reach for her Malorian, barely able to grip it, attempting to raise it up to the mystery woman’s face. “The fuck are you doin’ to me?”
The woman didn’t even bat an eye as she stared down the barrel of V’s pistol, tilting her head to look past it, “Your nervous system took a hit, broke down. Just take deep breaths, count to ten, recite a mantra. Whatever calms you down. It’ll pass, I promise.”
“I fuckin’ hope so…” V’s arm slumped to the ground, not able to keep up the weight of the gun in her hand. V clambered up onto the broken pillar, leaning on it as her legs kept giving out. V took deep, ragged breaths as she looked over to the woman, “For the love of God, please tell me you’re Songbird.”
She chuckled, leaning on the pillar with V, “That’d be me.”
“Nah, fuck this, V,” Johnny appeared next to Songbird, glaring a hole through her head. “Something about this ain’t right. We sh-...”
Johnny cut himself off, taken aback as Songbird turned her gaze to stare directly at him. V’s eyes widened, watching as Songbird put her hand on Johnny’s shoulder, “What the…?”
“Fuck…” Johnny finished for her, just staring at the hand laid upon him.
Songbird smiled as Johnny’s construct began to shake and fade out, “Sorry, Johnny. Having us both on the Relic simultaneously can give V shocks. Just gonna put you in a little timeout.”
“Oh fuck n-”
Johnny suddenly vanished completely, leaving the women to themselves. V couldn’t help but sigh in relief, her body and mind already feeling much better at a rapid pace. Songbird pretended to dust off her hands, turning back to V, “There we go. He should be able to hear you just fine, but he can’t talk. Outside of the shocks, I also figured you’d want some peace and quiet for once.”
V chuckled, finally able to stand on her feet, “Fuckin’ tell me about it. Pretty easy to piece together that you’re a netrunner, if the suit didn’t give it away.”
“Guilty as charged,” Song shrugged, pointing down at V’s attire. “You too?”
V looked down at her own clothes, in a bright blue and gold denim jacket, black, lace-up combat boots, and her favorite black leather pants over a black netrunner suit. Not to mention her own cyberdeck attached to her belt and the bullet necklace charm Misty had made for her dangling around her neck. “Yeah, but…You’re definitely not a normal ‘runner. This is some special shit.”
“I hopped onto the Relic’s cognitive protocol,” Songbird smirked, just a little smugly.
“Yeah, I can see that,” V groaned as she waved a hand through Songbird’s arm, then rubbed her temples as the last of the headaches began to fade away. “Couldn’t just make a phone call?”
“Sorry, not this time. I can only imagine what adding a third person to your brain must feel like, much less the uninvited guest you already have. But, it was necessary. Right now, I’m on board Space Force One, sitting across from Rosalind Myers.”
“Rosalind Myers? As in, Prez of the NUS? Uh-huh, sure…”
“...”
“...Fuck me, you’re not kidding.”
“Trust me, I wish I was. The plane’s been hacked, trajectory set straight for NC; more specifically Dogtown. Our comms are down, which means the Relic was my only option.” Songbird reached across to put her hand over V’s, and V felt the faint tingle of her brain tricking her into thinking it was really there. She felt warmth on her skin, the sensation of something pressing against the top of her hand. V’s eyes shifted at the ‘touch’, but she didn’t pull away. She wasn’t against it, just didn’t expect it. “You’re our only contact on the ground, or at all really.”
“You’re a runner. You can’t unhack it?”
“With twenty-four hours, the right set-up, and a bottomless pot of coffee? Of course, but I don’t exactly have any of that right now.”
“Shit. ETA on your landing?”
“Twenty-five to thirty minutes, at max.”
“Don’t exactly have time to weigh my options here. Then again, I haven’t had that for weeks…Oh, fuck it. God-damn it, okay. How do I help?”
Songbird smiled, leaning forward further, “First off, you bring your gun?”
“Gun? Singular?”
“Perfect,” Songbird chuckled. “Second, we need to actually get you into Dogtown. I don’t have the time or the resources to make you a fake entry pass, so we’ll have to improvise.”
“It’s what I do best. You need my iron because you’re expecting company?”
“Kurt Hansen and his Bubbly Band of Barghest Buffoons. He’s got a million reasons to take Myers as a hostage. But, living in this dump, there’s no way he could’ve made this hack on his own, so there’s a mole from Washington. We’ll have to deal with that later, but the point being there’s probably gonna be plenty of his people waiting for us. You think you can handle them?”
“Wouldn’t have hired me if you didn’t think I could.”
“True, but admittedly I was kinda desperate.”
“Then allow me to prove myself worthy of my rep.”
“I shake in anticipation then. C’mon, let’s go-”
“Wait, hold on.” V stood up straight, looking Songbird dead in the eye, “You said you could help me. You really mean that, or was that BS you fed me to guarantee I’d show up? Tell me now, because I’ll still help you if it was fake.”
Songbird seemed to falter, just for a split second. Her brows furrowed, peering at V, “...You would?”
“Oh, I’d be fucking pissed, but I’m not just gonna let you guys die, or sit by and watch another war spark in my shithole of a home. So, yeah…Is that confirmation that you were fucking with me?”
“I…No, I…Sorry, I guess you just caught me off guard. Wasn’t expecting that from…well…”
“A merc? Trust me, I get it.”
“Well, you’ve seen only a taste of what I’m capable of. I can cure you.”
It was V’s turn to peer at her, biting the inside of her cheek as she thought, “I really want to believe you…”
“Here, how about a…Let’s call it a down payment.”
V’s vision flashed red again, fearing that it was another attack. But, instead she was met with the Relic logo on her screen, data files opening up and scrolling past. “The hell…Is this combat soft?”
“The Relic was filled with a bunch of corrupted data that needed to be cleared out, and I had some old files collecting dust. Someone of your talents could put them to good use.”
“Huh, this is actually some pretty preem soft. Not bad at all.”
“So, we got a deal?”
V sighed, but nodded, “Let’s go save the President.”
“Preem.” So Mi began walking towards the old dumpster near the restricted area, and it took So Mi walking away for V to realize that their hands had been together that entire time.
‘Jesus Christ, out of the gutter, V,’ The merc mentally slapped herself, following Songbird.
So Mi nodded towards the dumpster, “In here.”
“...Off to a great start.” V climbed in, thankful that it was mostly empty inside, “Where are we going, anyway?”
“The old parking garage, then you’ll take the maintenance tunnels to the market. There are some guards up ahead. You’ll need to distract them or something.”
V climbed out of the dumpster, looking across the lot and seeing the garage door she was aiming for, maybe thirty or forty feet away. There was a barrel lodging it open, and only three guards between it and her.
“No need.” V activated her optical camo, vanishing from site.
Her sandevistan slowed the world to a stop, allowing her to run over the crates and leap across to the garage door. She slid under, kicking out the barrel as she reached the other side. The gate slammed shut, leaving her in the dark.
“Huh…” So Mi reappeared next to her, a smirk on her lips, “Nice. Okay, let’s get to the garage. We need to get down a level, so try and find an opening.”
“Gotcha.”
So Mi watched V head towards the doorway to the other garage, looking for a way down.
Well, this was certainly enlightening…
It had only been ten minutes and V was a very peculiar person. Not in a bad way, not in the slightest, but peculiar all the same.
She expected a merc to be…She didn’t know, gruffer? Meaner?
The last thing she expected was to be told she’d still receive help if she just admitted to lying. To be completely fair, she wasn’t fully lying. If things worked out, she ‘could’ cure her. She’d try her best…
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to, it was just…complicated.
Once she actually got her hands on all the Cynosure data and the Neural Matrix, she’d look into it. Maybe there was something she had missed. There were advancements in technology everyday, so there had to be knowledge or resources she had that the old lab techs didn’t. She’d try everything she could to find a mutually beneficial solution. Maybe she could work her magic, figure something out, but she wouldn’t know until she had everything laid out before her.
But, if things came down to the wire…
So Mi banished her thoughts away, punching down the clenching feeling in her chest that she tried to convince herself wasn’t guilt. She had her priorities, end of discussion.
V had gone down another level, reactivating a generator to start the lift. So Mi appeared on the lift, nodding towards the massive gate as it creaked and groaned, revealing an absolutely giant abandoned parking garage on the other side.
“Hop on. I’ll get you to the garage, but you’re gonna have to do some climbing.”
V leaped over from the utility room window, the red lights from below glowing as the platform began to move forward. “Not a problem. I gotta say, first you jump onto the Relic from miles up in the air, you muzzle Johnny, and now you bring decades-old tech back to life like it’s nothing? That’s some serious trickery. Nobody I know in NC can do that, at least not that I know of.”
“I’m an NUS Intelligence Analyst, V. Trained under the best peeps in the biz. I got an old deck when I was thirteen, and I almost never left the net after that. Got noticed by the good ol’ N-U-S-of-A, and the rest is history.”
The elevator reached its destination with an echoing clang of metal, and V hopped off, “Maybe it’s the Johnny in me, but governments and corps are basically the same shit, and I got plenty of experience dealing with the latter. So, I got a feeling your story is incomplete. Longer, darker, twisted…”
“Might be…” So Mi shrugged, disappearing again.
“Sorry. Prying?”
“Maybe just a little,” So Mi’s voice rang out in her mind. “But, who knows? A little more time, and I might tell you the full story. I’ll trade you for the full story of Konpeki Plaza.”
V scoffed, taking off into a run as she hopped over old cars and down to the next floor, “Unfortunately not much of a story. Two gonks did something stupid, got caught up in royal patricide, damaged the biochip’s storage container, so I put it in my head. Two gonks entered, one gonk made it out, until that same gonk got shot in the head by their backstabbing, washed-up, piece-of-shit, deadbeat fixer and woke up in a landfill with a dead terrorist in their brain.”
“...That’s what you consider not much of a story?”
“Not when you’re living it,” V sighed, leaping across a wide gap to another section of the parking garage, hoisting herself up to the next level.
“Apologies up front for the query, but why did you even do it in the first place? That's a high risk for anybody, much less two people.”
“Believe me, high risk is putting it kindly. It was stupid, I knew that from the start.” V climbed up onto a car, looking for another place to jump to, “My best friend, Jackie. It was important to him to take that gig, and…”
“...I’m assuming he was the one that didn’t make it out?”
“...He did not.” V jumped onto what seemed to be a fallen down wall, walking up and over abandoned cars and broken scaffolding to another level. She could see the catwalk balcony to the maintenance tunnels just a little further up. “But, I suppose I got a new friend out of it…kinda.”
“I was gonna say, I can’t imagine walking around with a faded terrorist rockerboy in your head.”
“Aw, you don’t like Johnny?”
“Eh, Samurai was basically done after their second album. But, the real question is, do you like him?”
“Oh, it was fucking rough at first. I hated his guts, but Johnny and I came to an understanding. I helped him try and right some of his past wrongs with his old friends. Don’t get me wrong, Johnny is still very, very, very, irritating at times…or all the time, but we get along. That being said, would you mind teaching me how you shut him up?”
“Aw, you don’t like Johnny?” So Mi mimicked back.
“Sometimes,” V chuckled, making it to the top level. “I always wondered if I could go diving into the Relic myself, but I was terrified of frying my own brain by accident. I definitely couldn’t do whatever you did.”
“I mentioned it earlier, but you’re a fellow ‘runner, huh?”
“After meeting you? My definition of being a runner has changed.”
“Hmhm, flatterer. But, seriously.”
“Yeah, I am,” V nodded, jumping over to another car lift. “Since I was a kid, it was always fascinating to me. The Net almost felt like traveling to another dimension.”
“I absolutely get what you mean. You do anything serious? Any data fortresses?”
“Nah, never had a contract for that. I’m more of an ‘in the field’ runner. Combat was my main strong suit, so that’s mainly what I get work for. My apartment only has a shower anyway. Not too bothered about that though, I always fucking hated the ice baths.”
So Mi laughed, appearing on the balcony above, “Couldn’t afford a chair?”
V leaped up high, her fortified ankles getting her high enough to get over the railing. She chuckled as she turned to So Mi, “Nah. I could now, I’ve thought about it. But, I’ve definitely got bigger priorities at the moment.”
“Fair enough,” So Mi waved her hand, the nearby doorway opening up to a dim hallway. V followed her through, making their way through the maintenance halls. “Back at my old place, I just set up my chair in the middle of the living room. Dead center, nobody really had anywhere to sit besides the old couch I squeezed in next to it, but I loved it. Got up to some real coups in that old thing.”
They reached the end of the dilapidated hallway, with V hopping up on another catwalk, “Anything I would’ve seen on the BBS gossip feeds?”
“Hmm…” So Mi puckered her lips in though, leaning back against the railing. “Biotechnica in sixty-three or four. Fermentation facility in Oregon, off the grid hack.”
V faltered, double-taking as she stared slack-jawed at her, “That was you? You’re fucking kidding me, right?”
“Dead serious. But, c’mon, not that big of a deal.”
“Are you kidding me? That’s Spider or Bartmoss level.”
“That paranoid clown?” So Mi scoffed. “I better not end up packed in a fridge in God knows where like him.”
“I know, actually,” V chuckled, opening up the door at the end of the catwalk. “Found his corpse melted out in a broken cooler in the Badlands landfill.”
“You’re shitting me,” Songbird reappeared next to V, making their way through what looked like old offices towards the elevator at the end of the room.
“Nope. I’ve got his cyberdeck too. A friend of mine tried to crack it, almost killed him. I had to crack into it myself to save him.”
They reached the elevator, the panel lighting up red as So Mi reactivated it and opened the doors, “You cracked it?”
“Yeah. I-I know his tech is fuckin’ ancient in comparison to mine, but-”
“V, are you kidding me? I might’ve called him a clown, but he’s still one of the best runners ever. That’s fucking impressive.”
V smiled back as she entered the elevator, grateful that the lack of lights hid the blush growing on her cheeks. Jesus, she needed to focus. The NUS President’s life was on the line, and she was just chatting up this Super Sexy Netrunner Secret Agent.
…Did she add sexy to that description?
Fuck.
V shook her head, clearing herself of those thoughts as the elevator doors shut. She had much bigger things to focus on. “So, Kurt Hansen, anything I should know before I run into his goons?”
“He was a Militech officer tasked with taking NC back in the Unification War. He got to the southeast pocket, but couldn’t make any further ground. But, instead of surrendering, he founded Dogtown instead.”
“Now Dogtown is basically one giant, ticking time bomb.”
“Hot or cold, no better way to make a quick buck than war.”
“Fair enough, I guess.”
The elevator doors opened up, letting V out at an old storage unit of junk, bots, and other broken scrap on workbenches in dim lighting. “Head on up the stairs. There should be an opening to the Black Market.”
“On it. How’s the prez doing?”
“Just sittin’ with her glass of gin, postponing meetings like nothing’s happening. She wishes you luck.”
“Huh,” V scoffed, making it to the upper floor and weaving through old cybernetic arms hanging from racks. “Guess you gotta be pretty unshakeable to run a country.”
“And other things...”
V reached the other side, moving the curtain of clear plastic out of the way to reveal the Dogtown Black Market. She looked around, a little impressed. She had never seen a bustling market that looked like she was the target audience for. Kiosk after kiosk of weapons, cybernetics, cyberdecks, and armor. “You know, not too bad, this.”
“Psh, you haven’t seen outside. C’mon, there should be some stairs a little further away.”
V made it down the steps, hitting the ground floor. She couldn’t help but window shop as she moved through the market, already catching some items she might come back for. It was dirty, loud, smelled like dust and dumpster juice, but she had a feeling that was something she was gonna have to get used to in Dogtown.
She found the steps, leading to a terrace area. As she reached the steps, she saw a couple of Barghest soldiers harassing some poor guy. He took a knee to the stomach, falling to the ground as they continued to yell and kick at him.
V’s eyes flashed blue, but So Mi reappeared, a hand on her arm, “Don’t. We can’t attract too much attention to ourselves.”
V bit the inside of her cheek, sighing as she continued to climb the steps. But, just as she reached the top, she turned back. Her eyes flickered blue again, and the communicator on the left soldier's helmet sparked, a small flame on the side of his head.
He began to freak out, trying to pat it out as his friend tried to help him get his helmet off. She caught the eyes of the victim, nodding her head down the market. He took the signal, nodding a silent thanks as he limped away in the chaos, vanishing in the crowd.
V turned back around, finding So Mi standing there with her arms crossed. “Sorry, couldn’t help myself.”
“...”
“It’s fine,” V said dismissively. “Those morons couldn’t track where that came from even if they knew how.”
So Mi sighed, turning to walk with V, “I just think the president is a little more important than some guy.”
“Yeah, well, when you’re knocking on Death’s door, you start to think a little differently about the people around you. The innocent one’s, at least.”
So Mi looked down, her pace slowing, “...I suppose so.”
V stopped, turning back to her, “You okay?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. Just, uh…Just wondering…” So Mi appeared over by the balcony looking out into the concrete junkyard that was Dogtown. “How bad is it, for you? With the Relic, I mean.”
V shook her head as she reached So Mi, leaning on the concrete with her, “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna croak before I help you.”
So Mi’s brows rose, leaning in closer to V, “No! No, that’s not what I-”
“I know,” V cut her off, her hands wringing together as she stared blankly out into Dogtown. “I’m sorry, just…Hard to talk about sometimes. It’s already on my mind twenty-four/seven, no matter how much I try to distract myself.”
So Mi reached forward, putting her hand over V’s again, “I understand…”
More than V knew…
V looked down at their hands, having that same feeling from before. She knew it wasn’t real, but her brain was doing everything to convince her there was really a hand on her touching hers; tricking her senses to feel the warmth of another press against her skin. “...I don’t got much time left. How much exactly? I don’t know. Days, weeks, a month, more? I’ve got no clue, and nobody seems to be able to tell me or help me. I've been doing better than expected. When this first happened, my ripper told me I would be dead within two weeks. It’s been over a month since then, so who knows? I just know it's gonna be sooner rather than later. Trust me, I’ve looked fucking everywhere. Every lead I have is a dead-end, or I don’t believe in it in the slightest. It’s why I showed up here in the first place. What the fuck do I have to lose at this point?”
…Welp, if there was anything to make So Mi feel like absolute shit, it was that.
Why couldn’t V just be some asshole? Why did she actually have to be kind of a cool person?
“Hey, we’re in this together. I’ll do everything I possibly can for you.”
V smiled back at her, but there was still melancholy in her eyes. So Mi wasn’t sure what she hated more. That fact that she knew it was probably a lie, or just how much she somehow still truly meant it.
“There is that,” V nodded, getting up from the railing. “Alright, let’s go. ETA?”
“Ten minutes max.”
“Right, better hurry.” V began to speed walk through the market, heading down into a secluded hallway away from the market with unfinished construction at the end. “By the way, I’m assuming Songbird is a codename, right? Or, is this some kinda ‘if I tell you my name, I’ll have to kill you’ sitch?”
“Hmhmhm, no. You’ve seen too many movies.”
“Was just wondering. I mean, you’re an intelligence analyst, so I’ll take a guess and say you already know my full name and information.”
“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about, Valerie Stasia born on October 12th, 2050 to parents-”
“I get it,” V deadpanned as she reached the construction zone, climbing out into the open area of unfinished broken floors and stairs as the sun began to set over the horizon. “Very funny, Ms. Song.”
“Oh, wow, you figured out my codename was based on a fairly popular Korean surname. You must be a genius.”
“Hey, I’ll take what I can get.”
As they reached the old elevator to the top of the stadium, red pixels appeared in V’s vision over the elevator. Songbird chuckled, “It’s So Mi. Now get on the elevator before you make me share more about myself. Then, I really will have to kill you.”
They both laughed, but were cut off as the elevator groaned loudly, the generator sparking and bringing the whole thing to a halt.
So Mi growled, staring up at the broken lift, “God-damn piece of….”
“Chill, So Mi. This shit is old as hell, can’t handle your level of hacking.” V walked over to the power box, flipping open the lid and began rewiring. “Lucky for you, I’m a tech wizard.”
“Sorry,” So Mi sighed, hands on her hips. “I just hate wrinkles in plans.”
“You’re under a lot of stress right now. Not to mention I doubt the FIA is too keen on mistakes. And, hey, you found the perfect partner then. I thrive in wrinkles. You perfect the plan, I’ll iron out any mistakes that come our way.” With one last wire plugged into place, the generator hummed back to life, the elevator moving once more. “There we go. Time?”
“About a minute.”
“Right on time then.” V hopped on the elevator, riding to its top. She ran up the fallen floors, hopping over concrete pile after concrete pile. Hansen really needed to invest in cleaning up, everywhere it looked like a bomb just went off.
Reaching as high as she could, V made it to a landing high above Dogtown. So Mi appeared at the ledge, looking up into the sky. “There we are.”
V followed So Mi’s hand as she pointed up at a jetstream up above, seeing the black jet get closer. “Ok, what should I do once you land?”
“Get to Myers and I, and then…Wait a sec.”
“What?”
“What the fuck? No…”
“So Mi! What?!” A loud whooshing noise came from out of nowhere, with strong winds blowing past the merc. V looked up, seeing another trail in the sky heading straight for Space Force One. “Oh…”
So Mi turned back to V, eyes wide, “V, get to the crash si-”
But, she vanished just as the missile hit the jet, sending flames and metal spitting into the air. V watched as the jet careened off course, with what looked like an escape pod shooting out the side of it.
“So Mi? So Mi?! So-...” V cut herself off, realizing that the jet's new trajectory was coming straight for her. “...Oh, fucking fuck.”
V swiveled around, running back towards where she came from, the roar of the Space Force One getting dangerously close. She jumped down to the level below just as the plane flew right over her. She was caught in the rushing winds, tumbling forward with piles of rubbles and flaming pieces of the plane.
She coughed as dust and smoke surrounded her, slowly raising her head up to see the trail of destruction the plane left behind. It had flown all the way down the street to the other end of Dogtown. Chunks of buildings were broken off, windows shattered, and pieces of plane were littered across the roads.
“Oh, fuck…” V stood back up, seeing an old debris chute from the construction site. Unfortunately, it was her quickest way down. “Ok, save the President of the New United States of America…I can do that…Probably.”
V broke into a sprint, jumping into the debris chute. She slid all the way down, flying out and landing directly on a trash pile back down on the side of the street.
A static noise went through her head, clearing up to hear So Mi’s voice again, “V? V, are you alive?”
V groaned as she got up, dusting herself off, “That’s a very layered question for me.”
“Oh, thank God. You need to get to Myers.”
“What about you? Are you okay?”
“Don’t worry about me, I got in an escape pod. Just get to Myers, and I’ll meet you at Elizabeth Kress street. There should be an abandoned building that’s relatively safe.”
“Relatively?”
“V…”
“Shutting up. I’ll meet you there. If you run into any trouble, ping me. I’ll come find you.”
“I’ll stay connected as long as I can. Godspeed, V.”
V took a deep breath, watching as armored trucks began piling onto the streets, all heading straight for the crash. She activated her sandevistan, getting ready to run.
What the fuck has she gotten herself into?
______Cyberpunk: 2077______
[Ten Minutes Later: Dogtown: Space Force One Crash Site]
It looked like V was dead serious when she said she was going to prove herself worthy of her rep.
So Mi watched as V blasted through dozens of Barghest like it was nothing. Bullets flying and cybernetics frying, all blink-of-the-eye speeds. Her monowire burned brighter than the flames and clashed with the dark night sky above them, dancing like ribbons as it cut and slashed through everyone it came in contact with.
It was very rare to see anyone use monowire. It required a level of skill and finesse that most could never dream of having. People trained to use monowire, especially with the precision and flow that V had with it, had to be some of the best of the best. People without any knowledge of real combat wouldn’t think anything of V’s choice of weapon, but it spoke volumes to So Mi.
Her hand-to-hand was nothing to scoff at either. V cracked bones, flipped two-hundred pound men into walls like they were throw pillows, knew every weak point on the body as if she were a trained surgeon, all while collapsing systems and flipping her Malorian around in flashy, impractical reloads purely because she fucking could, and nobody could stop her.
Where the flamethrower on that pistol was, So Mi would never know.
She could feel V switching back and forth between her netdrive overclocking and her sandevistan running on full power, managing her cyberware usage flawlessly. Not a single bullet could catch her.
V’s ripper must’ve been a magician, because her body almost looked completely organic. She wasn't some borg or anything, but So Mi could read her BIOS, and she was a walking-talking war machine of a woman, yet her monowire was the only visible cyberware she could see. She was admittedly jealous.
Seeing all of this, So Mi knew she should be scared fucking shitless. This was clearly the last person on Earth anyone wanted as their enemy. Hansen already fucked her over with that damn missile, so how long until things went so badly that V figured out she was the mole from D.C? Surely she could explain things to her and V would understand, right?
This wasn’t including the other thing she really didn’t want V to know right at this moment.
Yet, as she watched V take down the final soldier, cinders dancing around her person, her glowing blue eyes returning to their natural green color as wind rushed through her shadow-black choppy locks, there was only one thought running through So Mi’s head…
…It was really sexy.
Skill was admittedly a big turn-on for her. She was practically hypnotized as she watched V move. Maybe it was the years of loneliness, self-loathing, and spending most of her time in the net, but she hadn’t felt this kind of attraction in forever.
…Admitting that to herself just made things a whole lot more complicated.
Welp, she was just gonna ignore that then.
“V, get to the hatch!” V nodded, jumping from the broken building and landing inside the Space Force One. It was a grim sight to say the least. Flames and rubble were accented by the corpses strewn about the aircraft. So Mi reappeared next to V, looking around the plane in horror, “Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! Please don’t tell me we’re too late.”
“Hey, just chill, Song. Let’s look around first, alright? Look, that hatch back there seems intact. Even if they did get her, you saw what I can do. I’ll get Myers back, I promise.”
So Mi watched as V strode forward, heading straight for the presidential room in the back of the plane. In reality, she knew V didn’t fully grasp how serious it would be if Myers wasn’t back there.
But, somehow she completely believed her.
Although, she should probably warn her that if Myers is back there, she’s about to get a rifle to the face— Too late.
Just as V opened the hatch to the back room, Myers’ personal rifle bashed her in the nose.
“Ow-! What the-?!” V grabbed the gun before it made contact again, pushing it back into the Myers. “Just hold o-!”
Myers kicked V’s feet out from under her, her rifle barrel aimed directly between V’ eyes, “Who the fuck are you?!”
V slowly put her hands up, “President Myers? Meet the solution to your problems. The names V.”
So Mi rolled her eyes, but smirked just a little. Yep, way too many movies.
Rosalind sighed in relief, lowering her weapon and reaching her hand down to V, “Corny as it sounds, that’s now my favorite letter of the alphabet.”
V took her hand, being pulled to her feet as she wiped a little blood away from her nose, “Doesn’t feel like it.”
“Sorry about that. Had to make sure it was you. I heard the chaos outside, and yet you stand before me unscathed. I think I can assume So Mi picked the right woman for the job.”
Their conversation was cut short as more commotion echoed from outside, Barghest soldiers yelling to get to the plane.
V pulled out her gun, walking out of the room, “Come see for yourself.”
So Mi reappeared at the hole in the plane, simply leaning against the broken hull as she watched V get back to work. Myers stayed behind cover, carefully timing her shots to make sure they were always on target.
V, in very sharp contrast, jumped out of the plane and right into battle. She took two pieces of a tech precision rifle from the back of her belt, attaching them together and firing away.
Yeah, she definitely picked the right woman for the job.
______Cyberpunk: 2077______
[Twenty Minutes Later: Founding Our Future Expo]
They had made their escape from the crash site, making their getaway through the old hotel nearby. After taking one of Barghest’s vehicles, V took Myers to the underground parking garage that So Mi led her to.
Their journey to Kress Street was proving to be far more difficult than originally anticipated, and So Mi already figured it would be hard.
None of this would’ve happened if fucking Hansen kept up his end of the deal, but apparently he decided that firing missiles at them was the ideal option.
His men had already found her, taking her to the Black Sapphire in one of their armored trucks. She was silent the whole ride, both from her bubbling rage and from trying to focus on helping V and Myers. He decided to fuck everything up, so he wasn’t gonna get Myers, she’d make sure of it.
With V’s help, it was almost a guarantee.
If there was any consolation to any of this, she hit the jackpot with this merc.
Once Myers was safe, V would come for her. She had a strong feeling that she wouldn’t even have to ask, V would do it anyway. Both because V needed her, but also because it just seemed like she would want to save her regardless of that.
She watched as the lights to the old Militech expo flickered on, showing off all of the displays of broken promises and failed investments. Yet, for some reason, her gaze was fixated on the merc.
Her plan was hijacked, her stress levels were reaching an insane level, she was basically a prisoner now, but…
Why was this weirdly the most fun she’s had on a mission in years?
Or, maybe it was V that was fun.
After spending years surrounded by politicians, practically lobotomized government workers, and agents with sticks shoved so far up their asses that they looked like walking trees, V was the perfect breath of fresh air she had no idea just how desperately she needed.
V seemed laid back, talking to her like they had been chooms for years while on a mission that was considered a national emergency. Despite her profession, So Mi could see she had a good heart. Sure, she was a merc, but she had plenty of experience to know that people weren’t so black and white.
She was friendly, but you shouldn’t dare fuck with her. V was tough, but she had already seen her be vulnerable, just for a split second.
She was kind of sweet, too. Her concern, at least as far as So Mi could tell, was completely genuine. There was no way she was this way with all her clients, right? It felt very personal, which was the plan, but it also felt like she and V would’ve been great friends back in NY. She…
…She oddly reminded her of home.
V reached the ground floor, looking up at the statue looming over them. She looked back down, catching So Mi’s gaze. V smiled at her, just a simple, friendly smile. So Mi couldn’t help but smile right back, her body back in the truck was starting to feel warm.
…Uh-oh.
She needed to stop that right in its tracks. She needed to personally disconnect immediately.
So Mi cleared her throat, nodding over to the exhibits, “You should ask her about some of these. Curious as to what she’ll say.”
V raised a brow, but shrugged as she turned towards the first exhibit of plain white, blocky buildings, “Said you know this place, Myers. Know what any of this is?”
Rosalind turned to the building, waving it off dismissively, “It was an urban renewal effort designed to curb Arasaka’s growing influence. Militech backed most of these projects.”
“Dogtown was a Militech project?”
“It wasn’t called that back then, but yes.”
So Mi frowned, leaning against the holotable, “On paper, urban renewal. Under that cover? Military infrastructure development. But, just go ahead and abandon all hope of hearing the truth.”
V glanced at So Mi quizzically. Abandon all hope of hearing the truth, huh? Sounded like Johnny. They continued up the stairs, with V pointing at the exhibit of a pyramid-shaped building. “And that?”
“A bright future,” Rosalind said, mockingly. “With the right financing. But, wars scare off investors, so you know how that ended.”
“Wars don’t happen out of the blue,” So Mi countered, even though Myers couldn’t hear it. “This? No exception. Orders were issued. There’s the Rosalind Myers I know. Never a shadow of accountability.”
…Okay, this was getting weird.
V hesitantly pointed to the last exhibit; a short, cylindrical building with a disk-like structure on top. “Lemme guess, something masked as something good that never came to fruition.”
Rosalind hummed as she nodded, “A gilded monument to someone’s bloated ego.”
“Heh…Takes one to know one.”
Okay, that was it. V finally turned to So Mi as Myers continued up the steps. ‘Hey, you okay?’
So Mi ‘s was shaken from her thoughts, turning to see V’s attention on her, “Hm? Yeah, why?”
‘You’re acting kinda…bitter. Myers do something to piss you off?”
There it was; that concern.
“It’s nothin’. Don’t worry about it. But…Thank you, though.”
‘Sure. But, hey, there’s quite literally nobody on Earth that can hear you besides me. So, if you got somethin’ to get off your chest, I’m right here.’
So Mi just couldn’t help but smile, “You a merc and a therapist?”
‘Hmhm, nah. But, I might be dead soon, so I’m the perfect empty void to throw your garbage into.’
So Mi frowned, about to say that she wouldn’t let that happen, but her brain gut punched her with guilt for the lie. So, she settled for, “Don’t say that.”
V put her hands up in defense, chuckling as she walked by, ‘Sorry. Too dark?’
“...Yeah, guess so.”
V and Myers got through the door at the top of the stairs, breaking into the old exhibit. So Mi’s body back in the truck heard Barghest talking on the radio, mentioning they had a geolocation on the car V and Myers had used to escape.
She frowned, but it was soon replaced with a smile when she realized what was under the large tarp in the middle of the room.
…Looks like she had her own surprise for Hansen.
______Cyberpunk: 2077______
[Ten Minutes Later: Post-Chimera Battle: Founding Our Future Expo Storage/Tramway]
V kicked away a piece of the now defeated Chimera, turning back to Myers. “You okay?”
Myers nodded, cracking her neck with a groan, “I’m alright. Nice work, V.”
“You too, seriously. Maybe you should record yourself doing shit like this. I’m sure you’d get plenty of voters after seeing how much of a badass you are.”
Myers chuckled, throwing the strap of her rifle over her shoulder, “My PR team would heavily disagree, but I think you’re onto something. Alright, you see a way out of here?”
“Not unless you wanna jump on my back and I climb us out.”
“Mhmhm, let’s look around first. But, table that.”
After scrounging around for some ammo, V noticed one of the steel crates lead directly into an opening in the wall. They made their way through, finding old and destroyed subway tunnels. Either that, or just incomplete. V couldn’t tell. Once they were inside a broken down train cart, Rosalind set her rifle down, leaning against the wall, “Hold up a second, let’s take a breath. Have you heard from So Mi?”
V shook her head with a sigh, “Not since the freakout.”
“Did she say anything? Anything that could hint at what happened to her?”
“Not really, no. She hacked into an old Militech super-bot, it was bound to be filled with a ton of security and ICE. Even the greatest ‘runners can slip for just a moment and get caught in an ICE wall. But, in the short time that I’ve known her, she absolutely isn’t a normal runner.”
“She sure as shit isn’t normal,” Johnny finally came back, reappearing on the train seats next to Myers.
‘Welcome back, Johnny. Doin’ okay?”
“Don’t worry about me. Worry about your girl.”
V raised a brow at that, but Myers took back her attention. “V?”
“Hm? Oh, uh, sorry. Just thinking, is all. So Mi’s hacking seems so familiar…”
Myers raised a brow, crossing her arms as she questioned V, “Familiar how?”
“...Long story,” V shook her head. “C’mon, we should get to Elizabeth Kress street. Hopefully we’ll meet So Mi there.”
Myers seemed to not like that vague answer, but there were much more important things to worry about. She picked up her rifle, nodding in agreement, “Let’s get out of this hellhole.”
As Myers began walking towards the other end of the train compartment, V turned back to Johnny, ‘Alright, start spillin’.’
“Don’t need me to. You said it yourself, felt familiar. I’m no fucking ‘runner, but some stuff has bled through since being in your head. So, my hunch is the same as yours.”
V nodded, crossing her arms, ‘Felt like the Blackwall.’
“Uh-huh,” Johnny nodded, lighting a cigarette. “That same burn, like sinking into a boiling hot tar pit. That’s what I felt when she went haywire.”
‘Same feeling from when we went to see Alt. Like walking through lava, yet oddly not painful.’
“And Myers seemed very interested when you said it felt familiar. Don’t give yourself away, V. These fucks will throw you away in the blink of an eye, especially if you learn their dirty secrets.”
‘Let’s just hope we’re wrong. Playin’ around with the Blackwall? That’s some deadly serious shit. Like, international law-breaking shit.’
“Hey, you did it.”
‘Cause I’m dying and desperate.’
“Fair, I guess. Who knows? Maybe she was faking it so she could get away from the horndog merc she hired.”
‘Hornd-? The hell are you talking about?’
“V, I’m in your head. You literally can’t lie to me, so don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about.”
‘I-...Look, she seems like a cool person, alright? Super spy, unmatched netrunner, really chill, good sense of humor…’
“And?”
‘...And hot.’
“There it is.”
‘Like, really hot.’
“I get it.”
‘So unbelievably fucking hot.’
“Jesus, okay! I get it!”
‘But, that doesn’t mean anything. Met her like, an hour ago. We hit it off, big fucking whoop. Don’t mean I’m gonna go head over heels for her.’
“Uh-huh, sure. By the way, your boner is showing.”
‘Wh-?’ V looked down, but then deadpanned at him as she mentally slapped herself. ‘Why did I fall for that? I don’t have a dick.’
“Look, V, just don’t get stupid about this. Well, stupider. This whole thing stinks worse than a mosh pit after the fourth encore. You can’t trust any of these government puppet masters, no matter how much you wanna fuck ‘em.”
‘Don’t wanna fuck her.’
“I repeat: I’m in your head, fuckstick. Lying is pointless. Also, one final piece of advice, if Songbird is alive then watch where your eyes roam if you ever see her again.”
‘What do you mean?’
“V, she took my place, remember? She could see, hear, feel what you do, just like me. Hell, she probably could hear your thoughts the whole time, too. Just like I’m doin’ now.”
‘What are you saying, Johnny?’
Johnny flicked his aviators down, smirking at her, “You know exactly what I’m sayin’…”
“...”
“...”
‘Fuck, I was staring at her ass.’
“Hahahahahaha!”
‘Shut the fuck up! I’m not immune to this shit! She was in a skintight jumpsuit, an-! I-!’ V just threw her hands up, walking away from Johnny to follow Myers.
She had absolutely no defense.
______Cyberpunk: 2077______
[Dogtown: The Black Sapphire]
So Mi’s eyes flickered open, her head groggy and aching. She woke up to bright lights above her head against a dark gray ceiling, her systems rebooting after warning her of a critical failure.
She heard the scraping of metal, rolling her head over to see Kurt Hansen in the flesh as he sat in a rolling chair, sharpening his knife. “Good evening.”
So Mi’s head suddenly cleared, her glare accented by her eyes glowing red, “Motherfucker…”
“I wouldn’t do anything if I were you,” Kurt smirked, sheathing his knife as he stood up, hands behind his back. “We can’t kill each other. You fry my brains out right now, it just means you never get the Neural Matrix.”
So Mi sat up with a groan, fully taking in where she was. It seemed like a small examination room one would see at a doctor’s office. Maybe a little bigger, saying as this whole building was repurposed as a fortress.
“Are you fucking insane?!” So Mi growled at him, getting up from the examination table. “You fired God-damn rockets at me!”
“And you hired a merc. A damn good one at that, saying that eighty-two of my men are dead, with another fifty or more in the medical wing.”
“My back-up plan. Just in case you did something stupid like firing missiles at the president.”
“Then it seems we both had our secrets,” Kurt shrugged. The smug grin on his face made So Mi so happy that V zeroed that many of his idiot army. “Your plan lacked…impact, let’s say. I realized I didn’t need the president. I just needed you.”
So Mi lowered her glare, her grip threatening to break the table, “...So, now I’m your prisoner?”
“If you can call someone who will be given a nice room, food, all-access streaming and supplies a prisoner, then why not? I’d much prefer to call us business partners. That is, as long as you play nice. Do that, and we’ll both get what we want.” Kurt reached his hand out, waiting for So Mi to return the gesture. “Can we push forward with our plan?”
This was bad.
This was very, very bad.
Nothing went to plan at all. He just put So Mi into a corner with no way out. There was no way that this ended without Hansen killing her. If he got the data he was looking for, she would be the last loose thread he needed to tie up.
So Mi tried to reconnect to V, but their connection was severed. Even if she had the means to use the Blackwall at that moment, her body was too weak after the Chimera. Her only hope was that V was successful in getting Myers out of Dogtown. After seeing what V was capable of, she could at least be confident in that.
V…
She had to be coming for her, right? The promise of the cure had to keep V involved, it just had to. V said she would come find her if she ran into trouble. Besides, V seemed to like her, too.
Admittedly, the feeling was mutual.
V would show, she would. So Mi just had to buy herself some time.
So Mi finally reached out, shaking Kurt’s hand as the thought of V putting a bullet in his brain ran through her mind.
“Deal.”
______Cyberpunk: 2077______
[Kress Street: Abandoned Apartment]
V managed to escort Myers to the abandoned building, only to find no Songbird in sight. As much as she was hoping to find So Mi there, she wasn’t exactly surprised.
There was no way to find her either, with their connection severed.
She was grumbling to herself, trying to fix the generator while Myers changed in the bathroom. She didn’t know how, there was no way she’d ever go barefoot in a place like this. V crouched down, the side panel pulled off of the bottom of the generator as she worked on some rewiring.
“This shit stinks.”
V didn’t look over as Johnny appeared on a stool next to the workbench, ‘I know. So Mi couldn’t pick a better hideout?’
“Not that. This whole fucking thing. Songbird, Myers, Hansen, all of it. Ain’t it all just too coincidental? Songbird, chick somehow knows about our situation. Calls on us, promise of a cure, right at the exact time when Hansen takes a shot at the Prez. She vanishes, seemingly the only one on board that jet to get into an escape pod. It ain’t fucking right, this shit.”
V sighed, twisting two wires together, ‘...I know, some serious fuckery going on. But, what do I have to lose at this point, Johnny? Hanako is a coin flip at best. Alt is my best shot, but she raises quite literally every red flag too. I love Panam to death, but c’mon. The Aldecaldos aren’t exactly experts on secret immortality tech and brain surgery. I’ll follow this lead, be as careful as I can, but what else do I got? Odds are I’m dead either way.’
“...Fuckin’ morbid.”
‘Great input. Thank you.’
“Alright, I get it. Seriously, be careful. All my anti-government shit aside, this is starting to look even bigger than expected. We could get dragged into a God-damn war.”
‘Not afraid of Barghest, Johnny.’ V stood up, inserting the replacement battery. She yanked on the pull cord, the engine roaring to life and the lights flickering on. She turned around, going back to find Myers. ‘Or Hansen, for that matter.’
Johnny shook his head, puffing out an exhale of smoke, “...Never said they were the ones you should be scared of.”
______Cyberpunk: 2077______
Author’s Notes:
And so it begins. As many of you have probably noticed with all of my Cyberpunk stories, I tend to write V as kind of a “Heart of Gold” type, or as much as she can be in this city and her profession.
This V never loses an ounce of her “Empathy” stat, no matter how much cyberware she has, or hardships she endures. I’ll talk about that later on.
She’s kind of a dork, in her own way…but, unless she really likes you, I wouldn’t call her that.
But, like with Siren Song, I wanted to really show V’s underlying mental state in this story. As you can probably tell, she’s VERY worn out by this point. She’s been at this for over a month, and the sheer amount of 24/7 stress, fear, anxiety, and desperation really takes a toll. But, her charisma masks it, for the most part.
When it comes to So Mi, I know it’s a little up for debate on when exactly she fully knew she couldn’t cure V, but I decided to just have it all from the very start. Even when given a free pass, she still doubles-down on her lie.
Her guilt just becomes so much worse when she realizes how much she already really likes V.
I was a little concerned with the pacing of the romance in this story when I first started out, but then I realized something…
Every single romance option in the game? You don’t even spend a collective 48 hours with any of them before hopping in the sheets. You have multiple missions with them, but how long do those actually last?
So, honestly I’d say the pace I went fits pretty damn well. Just gotta have the moments and dialogue between our two lovebirds to back it all up.
And, you know how much I Iove my dialogue…