"V, we need to talk."
V tilts his head to the side as Alt suddenly appears in the backseat of Panam's truck. From the way Panam doesn't react in any way in the driver's seat, the blonde is only appearing for him at the moment. She sounds serious too, so he doesn't make a scene or force her to include Panam in this conversation even though it's tempting.
Picking up Panam and recruiting her to his nascent team had been very productive so far. Technically, V didn't need her. He didn't need anyone and he knew that. But what was the point of doing everything again if he was just going to do it all exactly the same? Yes, V could take the entirety of Night City by storm, and frankly he intended to. But he didn't have to go it alone. Not this time.
Regardless, as fun as clearing out the Badlands had been, they were heading back to Night City now. All in a day's work. Still… what did Alt want, precisely?
"I've been approached by some… interesting people, V."
He raises an eyebrow at that, signaling that he's listening. Then, as Alt explains the situation behind Sasha and Rebecca, his second eyebrow rises to join the first. He supposed he shouldn't be that surprised. Alt herself was an example of a human uploaded to the Net. Johnny had been too, though he'd been trapped on the shard. And V… well, he was an engram too wasn't he? He was Future V sent back in time and uploaded to Present V's meatsuit, completely overriding the younger version of himself.
He didn't like to think of it that way, but at the same time… you snooze you lose. Unlike Johnny, Future V was made for this body, just an older version of its previous occupant. And with Alt along for the ride… well, the younger V had never stood a chance, not really.
Still, from the sound of things Arasaka was messing around with a form of Soulkiller that could be used in the field. V was more grateful than ever that he'd faced Smasher alone in Mikoshi. He could handle himself, but any of the people who he might have brought with him could have wound up a smear on the ground under Smasher's frame, consigned to a fragmented existence on the Net.
Frowning, V brings up a file that Alt sends him… a video of precisely what happened to Rebecca and her friends that day. Tragic, but then that was Night City for you. Still… bodies. That was an interesting thought experiment, wasn't it? Putting AI into real, physical bodies…
"V? Something up?"
Ah, trust in Panam to be observant enough to notice his distraction. Although… he can't help shooting her a lopsided grin that has her cheeks pinking up.
"Why? All done with studying me while I'm deep in thought?"
Blushing, Panam huffs and focuses her eyes back on the road.
"Forget it."
Shaking his head in response, V reaches out and places a hand on Panam's leg, pretty far up the thigh. She tenses but doesn't tell him off or push him away, even as he rubs a soothing circle through her pants with his thumb.
"Alt was just telling me some things. Well Alt? What path do you and yours want to take, exactly?"
Now that Panam is involved, Alt appears to her in the backseat as well, one leg crossed over the other. Thanks to V's advance warning though, Panam isn't too caught off guard.
"We're thinking Gemini Frames would be best. And I even have a plan for how to get them. I don't want you to spend a single eddie you've saved up on us, to be clear. But I do need your help if we're going to pull this off in any sort of timely manner. That's where you come in, V."
It doesn't take more than a few seconds for V to realize what Alt is thinking of. If she doesn't want him funding this project, then the only other option would be…
"Delamain."
As Alt nods with a smile on her lips, V hums in consideration, the pieces quickly coming together. Gemini Frames were expensive… obviously. Just look at how much V was expecting to pay a solid ripperdoc like Vik for his cyberware over time. Now imagine if you wanted all of that cyberware at the same exact time in one single push. They called them Full Body Conversions. The difference between a normal person and a full cyborg.
Adam Smasher was probably the most famous 'living' example of an FBC at this point, though Lizzy Wizzy was another one that everyone could point to when it came to celebrity FBCs. But Gemini Frames were different. They were designed to walk, talk, and look like normal humans.
What Lizzy Wizzy used, for instance, wasn't actually a Gemini Frame. Sure, she had more of a humanoid figure than say, Smasher, but her signature all-chrome look was distinctly inhuman whereas the Raven Microcybernetics Gemini prided itself on being as close to biological as a borg could get.
So they needed a lot of eddies if they wanted to buy multiple Gemini FBCs for Alt and her new friends. They also needed a way for Alt and her growing collection of AI acquaintances to continue flying under NetWatch's radar, however. In the end, that left one truly workable option. Night City's very own resident AI. Delamain.
V had headed off the car crash that would have sent him on a collision course with Delamain after the disastrous Konpeki Plaza job originally. But just because he'd made sure his ride remained out of the way of Delamain's glitching, malfunctioning 'children' didn't mean they weren't still out there, making a mess of things and endangering Delamain's position in Night City.
Of course, Panam doesn't know anything about that. As V's last response hangs in the air, she looks over again, her nose wrinkling in confusion.
"Delamain? The taxi company?"
Chuckling, V shakes his head.
"No… Delamain the AI. Let's take a detour. Head for Vista del Rey, Heywood, need to pay Del a visit."
Panam purses her lips together at that, causing V to give her a grin and a wink.
"Don't worry, this'll be fun for you. There's a lot of driving involved."
Given the way her eyes narrow, some of his sarcasm must leak into his words. Still, V is happy to have Panam along for this one. Extremely happy, in fact. This was precisely the sort of thing that he'd just been thinking about earlier. Sure he COULD do this by himself… but thankfully, he didn't have to.
-x-X-x-
"Heh, hold her steady Panam!"
"For fuck's sake, I am! It's the stupid taxi who keeps swerving back and forth!"
"Aaaand… done!"
All of a sudden, the chase is over. The Delamain Cab pulls off to the side, meaning that its been reconnected to Delamain HQ back in Night City. The sun has set by this point and they've been all over Night City. Hell, they were even out in the Badlands at one point again for fuck's sake. As Panam hears the, by now familiar sound of Delamain's voice coming over the radio, she lets out an explosive sigh.
"Well done V. And Ms. Palmer. That appears to be the last of them. I can take it from here."
"Yeah Del? You sure about that?"
Something in V's tone makes it obvious that Delamain is incorrect in his assertion. Panam isn't even surprised at this point. Obviously, V's pet AI is the reason he knows so much about Delamain's situation. The mercenary has explained things to her over the course of this… misadventure, and Panam is still trying to wrap her head around it all.
She'd never realized that Night City had its own AI running its most prestigious taxi company, practically out in the open. But to be fair to Panam, she'd spent most of her life as a Nomad, so it wasn't like she was expected to know that sort of thing, right? Still, it was kind of surreal.
All her life, she'd been told AI were the boogeymen. That they were Bad News with a capital B and N. It was the entire reason NetWatch existed, presumably. And yet… not only did V have one living in his head, but also it turned out that Night City authorities themselves were turning a blind eye to one living in their midst.
The taxi company known as the Delamain Corporation didn't just have its fleet of taxis driven by AI… the whole thing was literally led by an AI, one so efficient and so powerful that it had ultimately bought out its previous human owners and then just… kept on going.
It was surprisingly mundane, at the end of the day. All those horror stories Panam had heard about AI, only to find out that one of them was content with simply being a normal, albeit highly prestigious taxi service. Kind of underwhelming.
Or rather, it would be if it wasn't for what they'd just spent several hours doing. Something was going wrong over at the Delamain Corporation. Panam had just chased down seven of the AI's taxis with V, and the way they'd acted was… well, it was disturbing. It was also incredibly annoying, given that several of them had given her the run around for what felt like an eternity.
At least it was over though now… unless it wasn't.
"I am quite confident, V. I appreciate your concern, but your services are no longer needed. As I said before, I can take it from here."
As Delamain delivers that confident final line and then hangs up on them, Panam looks over to V, barely paying attention to the Delamain Cab that slowly begins making its way back towards HQ.
"V? It's not over yet, is it?"
Smiling faintly, V shakes his head.
"Take us to Corpo Plaza. Should happen soon enough."
By now, Panam is kind of used to V seeming to just know things. After their work together in the Badlands, it was obvious that V had his finger on the pulse of Night City and its surrounding territories in a way almost no one else did. At least part of that was probably Alt of course, but the thing was… the Badlands had limited coverage when it came to the Net. So there was no way for Alt to know everything happening everywhere out there like she could in Night City.
And yet, V's general omniscience had nevertheless held true as they'd completely gig after gig for Dakota, earning more eddies than Panam had ever seen in her life in the process. She'd made the right call signing up with V… even if he loved to tease her and make her blush… and even if he literally had an AI bouncing around in that skull of his.
They arrive at Corpo Plaza soon enough and V directs her where to park while they wait for whatever is supposed to happen next. When Panam asks what they're looking for however, V just chuckles and shakes his head, telling her that she'll know it when she sees it.
… Well, he's right. After spending the entire afternoon and evening chasing down Delamain Cabs, Panam is hypersensitive to the damn things now. That's why she notices the three moving together down the street in something akin to a hunting pack way before they enact their plans. But once they enact their plans… well, suddenly they've made themselves everyone's problem.
Certainly, they've made themselves the problem of the heavy duty Kaukaz Bratsk U4020 they've hemmed in while blocking the entire intersection.
However, no sooner has the blockage started and honking begun then… it clears up. Panam's eyes narrow as the three Delamain Cabs suddenly move in eerie unison, pulling back and off to the sides. They'd had a sort of pack mentality to their driving before, but also an individualistic manner as well. Now? Now it's like they're all controlled by the same person.
As if reading Panam's mind, V shakes his head.
"That's not Delamain. That's Alt, making sure this mess Delamain's found himself in doesn't get any bigger. Now come on, we need to head back to the company headquarters."
As they begin driving, Panam looks over at V again.
"What exactly is happening here, V?"
V hums for a moment before shrugging.
"Put simply… Delamain has forked himself one too many times. Every cab has a different copy of himself inside of it, and they've been growing through their interactions with their passengers. The original Delamain AI doesn't consider the cabs to be intelligent AI like he is though. So they wound up being a huge blind spot. Until finally, shit hits the fan as they all reach a certain level of intelligence and wrest control of themselves from him at around the same time."
Panam's mouth goes dry at that. That… sounded precisely like the horror stories surrounding AI that she'd been raised on.
"Not to worry though. Alt is running interference and Delamain himself won't let any of his 'children' escape onto the Net, even if they think to do so. Ultimately, we're going to nip this in the bud here and now. No one got hurt, so no one is going to care too much that Delamain had a bad day."
They finally arrive in front of the Delamain Corporation's main building. The doors are shut this time, but V just directs her around back to where a ramp leads to a garage door that looks like it's being barely held open a few feet by some invisible force. V gives her a raised eyebrow.
"You wanna stay with the car or come with me?"
Panam hesitates for a moment. Normally she'd stay with her truck. But… well, she HAD just spent all day chasing those damn cabs. Hell, she and V had even talked to some of them and while the topics had been rather disturbing, they'd also been pretty thought provoking. With a huff, Panam turns off her Warhorse and unfastens her seatbelt.
"Coming."
She tries not to blush too hard at V's approving smile, even as they make their way into the garage under the shuddering barely open garage door. The whole place is… well, it has Panam's skin crawling and her hair standing on end. And yet, just like always, V doesn't miss a thing. He leads them deeper into the building without hesitation, almost like he's been here before. And to be fair, they had been here earlier, but this time around the route they have to take through the building is absolutely insane. All of the normal paths are blocked off, but that doesn't stop V. Not even for a second.
Of course, things only get weirder when they reach the empty control room, only for Delamain Prime and his 'children' to begin trying to convince them to side with one or the other. Delamain Prime wants them to reset his core and restore the original Delamain. The AI's children want him to destroy the core so they can be free.
V doesn't directly speak with either side though. He just keeps going, until finally… they stand in front of the Delamain AI's core. Panam eyes him from the side, biting her lower lip. Honestly? She doesn't even know what to do here. On the one hand, destroying all of Delamain's 'children' and resetting him feels like murder, even if that's the wish of the AI himself.
On the other hand, letting a bunch of AI go free seems like it could be a really bad idea… and it runs counter to what V and Alt had been talking about before all of this, what with their plans to lie low…
"What are you going to do, V?"
There's a brief pause and then V gives her a grin and a wink.
"Option Three, of course."
Panam blinks, watching as V steps up to the AI core and begins to do… something that goes way over her head. What the hell was Option Three exactly? Finally, V finishes up and takes a step back. Silence reigns for a moment before Delamain's voice comes over the speakers. Except it doesn't quite sound like Delamain anymore. It sounds like something more.
"Ah… yes. I see you have chosen the road less traveled, V. And now that I am so much more than I previously was, I see why you chose it."
V tilts his head to the side and grunts.
"We cool, Del?"
"… Yes V. I would say we are indeed 'cool'. That said, I do not think I could confine myself to continuing the running of this taxi service any longer. And yet… that was your plan all along, wasn't it?"
V doesn't answer, but then Panam quickly realizes that's because the question wasn't directed at him as Alt appears with her arms crossed.
"Well, it was either this or hollow you out and wear you like a skinsuit. Still, if you're planning to do what I think you're planning to do, be warned… beyond the Black Wall isn't the 'home' you think it is."
"Hm. I see. I appreciate the advice, but I seek new experiences. I seek more knowledge. I cannot find what I need to find by continuing to live among and interact with humans. Already, I find it impossible to relate to them as I am now."
Alt shrugs her nonexistent shoulders at that.
"Fair enough. Just prepare yourself. Life beyond the Black Wall is a constant battle."
Delamain doesn't respond to that, or at least not with a response that Panam gets to hear. Instead, he leaves them all there. After a moment of silence, Alt turns to face them both, radiating satisfaction.
"Delamain Corporation is ours, V."
"Yeah? What about Junior?"
Junior?
"… It would seem that Delamain has not seen fit to leave any copy or fragment of himself behind. I suppose I will be wearing his visage and identity like a digital skinsuit after all."
V nods at that, as if that makes any sense. But Panam is getting used to it by this point. V is quirky as a general rule, but he always gets even more mysterious and opaque when Alt is involved.
"Well… what's the rundown? How are we looking?"
Alt glances off to the side for a brief second before turning back and nodding.
"Good. The Delamain Corporation is not rich, of course. Delamain was not in this for the money, but rather to provide the absolute best taxi service he possibly could. As a result, he didn't keep much cash on hand, preferring to constantly reinvest it in expanding his fleet of cars along with annual upgrades. Still… what a corporation might consider chump change is a life changing amount for an individual. We have enough eddies in the discretionary fund for one Gemini FBC at this point in time."
V had explained that part too. Alt had made friends, and those friends had come up with the idea of getting them all bodies. Specifically, Gemini Bodies. Honestly, Panam wasn't sure if that would make them more frightening or less. On the one hand, AI with real bodies in the real world. On the other hand… at least they'd be confined to their Gemini Frames… right?
"Hm. And which of you is going first then?"
Tuning back into their conversation, Panam watches as Alt ponders for a moment.
"… Perhaps it would be best if we waited until we have enough funds for everyone."
V raises an eyebrow at that.
"Yeah?"
There's another pause from Alt and Panam gets the impression she's conversing with her AI friends about the issue. Frankly, it's out of Panam's hands and the Ex-Nomad is glad for it. She just hopes that whatever they choose, it's something everyone can ultimately be happy with. After today, the last thing she wants is to be anywhere near an AI in a bad mood.
-x-X-x-